Fall is coming and adventures continue for your French girls !
At the beginning of October the weather was still very nice in France, the opportunity to enjoy walks not far from Rennes for Marine. The first week-end, one of her bestfriend, Line, came to see her. They went to the ecomuseum of Rennes, where you can find the local species of Brittany. In the picture you can see: "le mouton d'Ouessant", "le coucou de Rennes" and "le porc blanc de l'Ouest" ;)
Not far from Rennes is also the legendary forest of Brocéliande. It was the first time they went there and they enjoyed a nice walk of 20 km in the footsteps of Merlin the magician !
For Manon, October was a very busy month, she was working on
different projects during the week (deer scat sampling, beaver monitoring, camera
management,…) and she went hiking with her friends at the week-ends.
But she was (and is still) mostly collecting deer scat for
the national park, and became quite an expert at recognizing the freshness !
But she likes it because most of the time, deer go in quite beautiful places,
and you are then allowed to leave the trails.
Despite of scat sampling, Manon also go hiking on the
week-ends, on places whit typical German names such as Racheldienshütte or Falkenstein. Thus, she can practice her German, which is improving (she is now able to have conversation with her roomates, even if she still does not understand the bayerish accent, which is really strong!)
The hikes in the Bavarian forests and mountains are really nice, and the autumn season very colorful. At the moment, it is still not snowing, which is really weird for the season, but it is now
getting colder.
The class of Marine had a 3-week project to study animal diversity (in breeding) in Brittany. For that they spent a week in the field and stayed in southern Finistère, in the city of Beg-Meil. Marine knows this city well because her aunt has a holiday home there, and she spent many of her summers there when she was a child.
This week was exhausting but very rewarding thanks to all the people they met that are related to breeding !
After these busy weeks of work, Marine had 1 week of vacation. She was eager because she booked a 4-day trip to Lisbon (Portugal) !!
She spent the first weekend at home, where she celebrated her birthday with her family and Florent. And then she took the plane :)
It was her first time in Lisbon and she really enjoyed it ! The old quarter of Alfama is particularly cute with its narrow, colorful streets !! And you can find earthenware everywhere (that's characteristic of Portugal) :D
The last day Marine visited the beautiful city of Sintra (40 minutes from Lisbon). This city is well known for its pine forest and its amazing palaces in the moutains. "Quinta da Regaleira" was the favorite of Marine thanks to the beauty of its gardens and its original architecture :)
At the end of October, Manon’s boyfriend also came to visit,
and they spent the week visiting the surroundings, hiking and chilling. She was
very glad to see him.
