Hello again! I am composing this post on Sunday, October 31st—so happy Halloween! Celebrating Halloween has been weird in France as the holiday is only just starting to gain traction in the country. However, I did see a handful of families with kids dressed up for Halloween, and last night there was a large group of students at a bar for a Halloween gathering. This week is my one week off from classes this semester, and I am in the Provence region of France with friends. Nantes is incredible, but southern France is really something special. I have only been here for a day but have already fallen in love.
An ancient roman theater in Orange, France. One of the best preserved in the world. I visited it today during my break.
For this post, I am going to do a quick recap of a “day in my life” as an American study abroad student in Nantes. Every day of the school week is different for me, but for this post I am going to go through a typical Thursday as this is the day I have the most classes. Here goes nothing:
8h30 – Wake up. Eat breakfast, then I often try to do to some quick yoga or meditation in the morning before taking a shower. (My host mom is a professional dancer, so we have lots of dance/yoga equipment available!)
9h30 – Catch the bus from my house to Nantes. About a 2-minute walk from my house to the bus stop, a 10-minute bus ride into the city, then a 7-minute walk to the IES center. I will often go by a grocery store or boulangerie to grab something for breakfast on my way to IES. (My go-to is a croissant aux amandes.)
10h30-12h – Art History class. We are studying the artistic movements and prominent artists from 17th century French art.
12h-13h – Lunch. There are a couple boulangeries in town that have vegetarian sandwich options, or I’ll go to “cocci market” which has pre-made grab-and-go lunch options, like goat cheese salad or tabbouleh. If the weather is nice out, I will eat lunch on the steps of the opera in Place Graslin, or in the beautiful park near the IES center. If it’s raining, I’ll eat in the IES center kitchen (it’s small, and can get very crowded during lunch, but it has all the necessities.)
Place Graslin in the centre ville of Nantes
13h-14h – Take a breather, then do some homework/studying in the IES center library or one of the other rooms.
14h-15h30 – Sociology class. This class is a broad review of French society and sociological issues, with a good amount of history lessons mixed in to give us context. So far we have studied French youth since the 1960s, the French education system since the middle ages, and the role of women in French society.
15h30-17h – Hang out at the IES center, do some more homework, or go walk around town.
17h – Get ready to head over to the Beaux-Arts university. I need to make sure I have all my art supplies—pencils, charcoal, eraser, pens. Then, start walking to the university around 17h15. My class is at 18h, but I will often swing by a boulangerie on the way for a snack, so I like to leave early. There are two other IES students in my art class who walk over with me. On the way to the class, we cross the bridge over the Loire River.
View of the Loire River on my way back home after my art class
18h-20h – Dessin (drawing) class at the École des Beaux-Arts de Nantes. This class is open to the entire community, so many of the other students are adults who are taking the class for their own personal growth. This makes the class very unique and a wonderful breather from regular college courses.
20h-21h30 – Dinner. Sometimes after our drawing class, my friends and I will go out for dinner to celebrate the end of the week. There’s a delicious galette/crêpe shop that we went to one time.
21h30-22h00 – Head home. My regular bus only runs until 21h every day, so I have to take the tram which drops me off a bit further from my host family’s house. I walk about 10 minutes from the stop until I arrive home.
22h-23h – Get home, take a shower, say goodnight to my host family. Get prepped for the next school day and go over my to-do list.
23h or later – Time for bed! Bonne Nuit.
I hope that gives you a good idea of what student life is like on the IES Nantes program.
Stay safe and healthy,
Ella