20 February - Vitre, my first castle (Day 33)

I was awaken by an sms at 755am and it was from hui telling me that he would be going skiing later and for safety reason, he thought he should inform someone. Since it was an important msg, I wasn’t angry. Normally I would be quite annoyed to receive msg early in the morning. I am not sure if I were to be in Grenoble, would I try skiing or not because when the weather is so cold, I just don’t feel like doing anything. I left the room at 1055am so that I could catch the 1107am bus. At the bus stop, I met a French girl whom I had been seeing for the past few days. She was carrying a lot of luggage and seemed like she was moving out of INSA. She was a brunette but I think her hair color is fake. It looked dyed and she looked “lian”. Anyway the bus was late and she was pretty anxious. I alighted a stop before her and walked to the train station. She probably alighted at the next stop to take the metro to the train station.

At the station, I bought my ticket to Vitre at 3.10 euros, which was a 50% reduction because I had the 12-25 card. While waiting for the platform number to be displayed, I saw the same girl again. Don’t know where she was heading to. I was to look out for the city LAVAL on the board because Vitre is just a small little city in between Rennes and Laval. While waiting, I saw people punching their tickets at the machine and followed as such but don’t know what was the use of that. The ticket had all the time, details clearly printed already. The train I took wasn’t TGV train but another smaller one called TER which linked most of the cities in the region Bretagne.

In the car, a beautiful French girl sat opposite of me and I thought she looked like the actress in Spiderman and Wimbledon (forgot her name, don’t know what kurst Christy or something like that). She wore a black suit and had a tie and she had long red hair. A while later 2 ladies boarded the train and were speaking English constantly and loudly. Apparently they were Australians as I overheard something about Sydney, Melbourg, etc. But they spoke French too when the train controller came to check our tickets. I was eating my sandwich then and he said “bon appetite”. On the way to Vitre, I actually could see the tall tower located at INSA and knew we were traveling eastward as INSA is at the east of Rennes. Soon the train came to a stop and I thought that was fast. But in fact between Rennes and Vitre, there are a number of small stops. These stops were located at the countryside and farmlands.

After half an hour, I reached Vitre and the 2 Australians and Spiderwoman alighted with me. The first thing I did was to go to the Office of Tourism. Damn! It was closed! Fortunately I downloaded a simple map of the area and using that, I began to look for the places of interest in the city. After some exploration, I realized that Vitre is more like a town than a city because it is so small and quiet. All the streets were empty and all shops were closed. My first task was to find the Chateau of Vitre. Although I found it easily, I was at the back of it and couldn’t have a good view to take a good picture. Moreover, there was a scaffolding beside one of the towers and it really looked ugly. So I decided to move on. As I walked further, I realized I was climbing a slope and I thought maybe at a high ground I would be able to take a good picture of the castle. As I climbed higher and higher, I reached a crossroad and there was a sign VITRE with a stroke over it. I was out of the town! So I turned back and went on another route.

I found another place of interest which was the church of Notre-Dame. In every French city there would be one (heard from French teacher last time). I stepped in and there was a tour group inside with a man explaining the paintings and statues in French. I was the only one that was taking picture and not reading the descriptions. As compared to the Cathedral of St-Pierre in Rennes, this church lost a bit of “holiness” probably because there was no music at the background. However, this church has windows that are more beautiful. Each window has a picture and tells its own story. I took pictures of all of them. After 20 min or so, I left the church and sat at its doorstep eating my sandwich. I really felt like a traveler, sitting down and eating wherever I liked, navigating around the streets with my map. Having rested, I moved on to explore more. I found a small road leading to nowhere and decided to investigate. Then I came across a field with sheep inside. They were so cute! I took a few pictures of them and moved on.

Suddenly, I came to the entrance of the castle and was delighted that I had found it. This was what I set out for in the beginning. The main reason I came to Vitre is to view the castle. This would be my first and there would definitely be many more to come. The castle was built between 11th and 13th centuries by the Barons of Vitre and was transformed into a residence for the Counts of Laval during the 15th and 16th centuries. Basically, I had no idea what is the difference between counts and barons. Anyway I entered and went to the counter. I was told to view the museum, I had to pay 4 euros but if I am a student, I only need to pay 2.50 euros. So I showed her my international student card (ISC) and she asked what course am I studying. I said Computer Eng and she let me buy the ticket. With this single ticket, I can visit not just this castle museum, but also 3 other museums in Vitre. And I don’t have to visit them all at one time. I can come back again to visit another museum anytime I wanted to. But the ticket is valid for only 1 visit per museum.

So I went inside the castle and looked at the displays in the museum. It was rather boring because I knew nothing about the history and everything was written in French. I was more interested in the towers, the parapet, the spiral staircase especially. One of the staircases was so narrow and steep that I almost fell when walking down. At the parapet, I had a bird’s eye view of town and took some nice pictures. With nothing much to see, I left the place. But before that, I went back to the counter and asked the lady (who spoke very good English) about the location of another museum, Chateau des Rocher S-Sevigne. It is a residence of the late Madame de Sevigne who was some kind of baroness and was famous for her letter writing. The lady gave me a detail map of Vitre and asked me to look for St Martin Church. From there I should turn right and continue on for about 4km. I thanked her and ran out of the castle because it was already close to 4pm. I had to be back by 630pm to catch my train.

I was angry not to have come here earlier because now with the map, it was so much easier to find places. But still, I cocked up. I found St Martin eventually and make a right turn. However, I came from a different route, not the one that the lady pointed out. Hence, when I made a right turn, I was actually turning in the wrong direction. After a while, I gathered that I had gone the wrong way and knew that for sure I won’t be able to make it in time. I made 4 mistakes so far. I shouldn’t come on Sunday when the office of tourism is closed. I should find the entrance to the castle first so that I can get the map. I shouldn’t waste time climbing that slope to find a good view. And lastly, I should have use my map constantly when finding St Martin Church.

Since it was still early to go back to the train station but too late to look for the museum, I decided to wander around. That’s when I came across the McDonald’s but I didn’t go in because it would be quite expensive. Then I found a Park much like the Park of Tharbor in Rennes but smaller. There was a pond and there were ducks and swans inside. Children were at the side feeding them with bread while their parents sat at the benches and chatted. I too sat at the bench and looked at the children played. It was really relaxing and the atmosphere was serene. The greenery, the lake, the laughter of the children, the sunset, I feel like settling down in this small town. With about an hour left, I made my way back to the train station. Outside, there was a man on one of the benches and he was singing loudly, like those opera singers (Domingo for example). Everyone looked at him as if he was nuts.

I bought the ticket at the counter but the lady couldn’t speak English. It was easy for her to identify keywords like ‘ticket’ and ‘Rennes’ but she couldn’t make out what time I wanted. So I spoke French although I could have just written it down. Since I got the time, I decided to practice a bit. In the end all went well and I had about half an hour before the train arrived. At the station here and also back in Rennes, I would see people sending friends off and there were sentimental parting moments. Couples would kiss, family members would hug, handshakes, etc. And all the while I was alone. With nothing much to do except to wait, I went back to the counter and asked the assistant this time another person, which platform should I go to. He said platform B. Since he understood English and spoke pretty well, I decided to ask another question. I asked him how do I collect the ticket after I had made a reservation online. Do I go to the counter or I can collect from one of the machines. He completely didn’t understand what I was saying. I keep repeating the word “collect” but it wasn’t in his English dictionary. Finally another customer who speaks English came and acted as my translator and I got my answer. I would receive a reference number from the net and I should collect from the counter, not from the machine.

It was about time and after punching my card, I went to the platform but had to go through an underpass. In the middle of the underpass, a French girl was walking down from another staircase and I realized she was Spiderwoman!!! Wow! What a coincidence that we were taking the same train back again. She seemed to recognize me but still just ignored me. At the platform, I heard loud voices in English and gosh the 2 Australians were walking towards me. They were super noisy and their topic was still the same as the one they had while coming here in the train. Some gossips about BGR. At the platform, the sky was overcast and then suddenly it snowed. Tiny snow balls like cotton buds fell from the sky and I quickly took picture of them. It was really very light snow but I was still quite fascinated. When the train arrived, a train assistant would stand at the platform and when everyone had boarded, he would blow the whistle. I was on my way back to Rennes. I had spent 5 hrs in Vitre and although it was tiring, it was enjoyable. Perhaps I would return again as I have some unfinished businesses here (finding that stupid museum) but in the meantime, I would move on to other towns. Next Saturday would be exciting. It would be a trip to the famous St Malo. The week after next would probably be Fougere, then Mont St Michel, then Brest, then Dinan, then Lorient, then… I would conquer Bretagne by the end of my attachment but hopefully my wallet wouldn’t go bust. But after some calculations, I found that I had just spent 12.8 euros today. Moreover, I paid for both the bus rides to and from the train station. Normally I would only pay one of them and cheat the other. But seeing other people paying honestly, even though they only travel a few stops, I decided to have some integrity.

Additional: the bus driver on my return ride was rather rude. When I said “Bonsoir” to him, he didn’t say “bonsoir” back! And many times he forgot to open the door for passengers to alight. To alight, the passengers have to press a button to open the door but it will only work if the driver switches it on. But I was impressed when a lady in wheelchair was alighting, there was a slope extended out from the door. I find that France is more handicapped-friendly than Singapore.