Ten months in Tours: Rebecca and Nick come to visit

Last week was a relatively quiet one. Predictably the first couple of days were a bit zombie-like as I was so tired trying to recover from the previous weekend's adventures. I got a couple of good exam results back, which was reassuring, and other than the Erasmus night out on Thursday I was mostly just trying to get any uni work done before Rebecca and Nick arrived at the weekend.

I've been looking forward to their visit since it was all booked at Christmas so it was great to finally get to show them around Tours. They arrived around midday on Saturday after a few days in Paris and we spent the afternoon seeing the main sights (Cathedral, Basilique, Tour Charlemagne, the Loire, Rue Nationale, Place Jean Jaures, and the old buildings around Place Plumereau in the older part of Tours). When we went to the Cathedral the cloisters were open to the public, which I've never seen before, so we were able to see them and also see the Cathedral from new angles which was nice. I'm glad that after almost exactly 7 months here there are still new things to see! We made sure we had the necessary patisserie as we walked around and then after dinner we went out for drinks with Chloe and Marie at one of the Irish pubs.

On Sunday we went to an event called 'Salon du chocolat' in the congress centre in the middle of Tours, which was heaven. You had to pay to get in but once you're in you get to try free samples of all different kinds of chocolates from the various stands. There were also technical colleges showcasing their work and extravagant chocolate sculptures for the Concours. We bought a couple of bits and pieces, including some delicious rich hot chocolate, and sampled lots of others, including quite a lot of different aperitifs (pretending it wasn't still the morning!). I also tried my first ever macaron, which I know is shocking given how long I've been here for. After a quick lunch in the park by the station we headed off to the Jardin Botanique to see the animals. It's a deceptively big park with a large range of plants and also a seemingly random selection of animals. We saw goats, a donkey, a pot-bellied pig, and lots of birds but also wallabies, emus, porcupines and tortoises!

In the evening we went out for crêpes, as is tradition, and then it was time to say goodbye all too quickly. I'll be back in England for a week at Easter as I'm going to bring some of my stuff back, so it's not too long until I'll be home anyway but it was still over too quickly! I hope they enjoyed their trip to France, and I'm glad I got to show them my town.