You NEVER get too old for sleep-overs

If you follow Melissa's blog, you've met Mallory before. For the rest of you, here's a very brief and highly inadequate introduction to Mallory Kellum.

Mallory is in grade 7 and she and I have much in common: we are both missionary kids, our parents are on staff with Cru--Agapé in France and Campus pour Christ in Niger, we love Melissa, we love musicals, etc. We fulfill the stereotype that third culture kids can connect together on the spot despite age differences. Born and raised in France, Mallory is getting ready to re-locate "permanently" back to the States. Transition is not fun for anyone.

Friday night Mallory came over for a long-anticipated sleep-over. 

For supper we had: chips, guacamole, quesadillas, fruit smoothies, and later on some chocolate with baguette. One of the avocados we bought for the guacamole was a little hard and poor Mallory spent a long time mashing it as best she could. 

We spent a lot of time doing what girls do best at sleep-overs: talking. Mallory brought over her nail-polish and she not only painted her nails, but mine as well. Thank-you, Mallory! 

We tried watching The Sound of Music, but the DVD was badly scratched so we watched The Parent Trap instead. (The "new" version with Lindsay Lohan--when she's still so cute and young.) Erika, Mallory can testify that I am still capable of quoting the entire film. Remember how Mariam used to laugh until she cried at the part where Meredith has the lizard in her mouth? 

After a good night's sleep, we enjoyed a French breakfast on the balcony.

I enjoyed the company more than the breakfast.

I'm so glad we had a chance to hang out, Mallorz! 

Mallory re-arranged the letters before she left. I think this pretty much sums up her feelings for a lot of things/people in her life right now.

an incredible 50,000 !!!

Wednesday, June 26, was a big day in the city of Rennes. All day long was La Braderie, which is an annual event and the second biggest braderie in all of France. What is it exactly? It's where all of the businesses downtown bring the merchandise that's in their shop outside with significantly lower prices. In other words, it is a mega sidewalk sale. The crowd was insane. In some of the narrow streets, you couldn't even see what was being sold on either side as you were swept along in one massive flowing herd of people. Swept along makes it sound fast--really, you were inched along. At times I felt like I was at the Grand Marché in Ouaga--only the people bumping into me weren't vendors trying to catch my attention, but other buyers. Still it was fun to see all of the different products and people that were out.

You can't even see the stone street in this first picture. 

I so badly wanted to buy some American attire for Melissa and I to wear on the 4th. 

I even found matching earrings!

There were belts and hats,

make-up,

 shoes, 

 glasses,

perfume,

sausages,  

 jewelry,

 books,

 and more and more people!

Then I saw this guy, way up high, kinda just hanging out! 

I know, I know, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't resist snapping a picture.

There were dozens of places to sit and eat, or have a drink, or grab food on the go. 

But that's not unusual.

I love the streets here.

That same evening, I went back downtown for a FREE concert! I was super pumped. I met up with my friend Stephanie and we grabbed some supper on the way. I know you must be dying to hear what I had for supper, so here you go: I enjoyed my first ever galette saucisse!  It's a specialty for the Bretagne region. Basically, it's a sausage wrapped in a savory crêpe. I was a bit skeptical, but it was delicious! For dessert: a sweet crêpe. 

Not bad for fastfood, huh?!

The concert was set up in a huge open area downtown. You want to know how many people were there? An incredible 50,000!!! I'm not kidding. I looked it up on the news this morning to double-check! 50,000!!! The concert was from 20:00-23:00 and we stood the entire time. It was fun, though, because I knew several of the artists and got introduced to a few others. There were so many people, though, we could barely see the huge screens that were set up next to the stage. I used zoom. A lot of zoom. 

 Anyone recognize this lady? 

She's actually, British, not French. 

Alex Hepburn.

Other artists performing were: Saule, Génération Goldman, Magic System, Emmanuel Moire, BB Brunes, Tal, Amel Bent, Boulevard des Airs, Robin des Bois with M Pokora. Big names in French music...apparently!

I wish I had an aerial-view picture of the crowd. 

 At 22:00, when we were getting ready to leave, there were more people than when we arrived. The streets were packed. So! Many! People! And they're all French!!! 

What an experience!

A Walk in the Park

Yesterday, I ventured off to the Parc du Thabor with one purpose in mind: to find the rose garden. The park is in downtown Rennes and is quite large. 

For those of you who get bored walking in parks, Thabor provides other forms of entertainment. Anyone up for a game or two?

I saw a ping-pong table, too.

Since there was no one around to challenge my mad skills at foosball, I kept on walking.

Giant leaves! 

Part of the fun of walking around the park was being able to people-watch ; one of my favorite past-times! Among the most common that I saw: ladies walking their dogs, men walking their dogs, couples walking their dogs, etc. The sun was shining bright and there were lots of people reading on park benches, soaking up the warmth. 

I decided I'd have to come back with my book another time, because I still had not found the rose garden. 

And then, suddenly, there it was!

WARNING: many pictures of roses ahead. Those of you who take no delight in excessive photos of flowers may fast-forward to the end!

The roses came in all shapes, colors, and sizes.

Each one was individually labeled with names such as 

and

Some of my other favorites included: Sexy Rexy (which had no blooms), Scentimental (very creative, huh?!), Léonard de Vinci, Mona Lisa, Victor Hugo, Brownie, Deep Secret, Betty Boop, The Dark Lady, and La Traviata (the name of the opera I saw!). 

I think there were several hundred different types of roses.

I found this one ironic.

Do you see what it's called? 

First Kiss. 

Looks like it didn't go so well.

These are called Pacific Bloom.

Purple roses always seem a bit sketchy to me.

"Hmm...which rose is my favorite?"

Mom, the yellow roses always reminded me of you.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet."