Joyeux Anniversaire Caroline et La Danse Bretonne!

Thursday we celebrated Caroline Bedwell's birthday.  The cooks at the cafeteria where we have lunch made a lovely mille feuille (What's a mille feuille?) cake filled with apricots and peaches.  It was decorated with candied fruit and various flavors of macarons (What's a macaron?). All of the stagiaires sang and rapidly devoured the cake.

As you can see there wasn't much left once everyone had had their fill of dessert.

Thursday night was La Danse Bretonne.  The city of Brest is located in the region of Brittany.  One of the strongest cultural influences in this region is that of the Bretons who are a Celtic group, with a language and history separate from those of France.  The language is maintained in the region as well as other cultural practices, most notably, the traditional dancing.  Thanks to our coordinator, Jean-Paul, and a host mother, Fabienne, all of the stagiaires had the opportunity to learn and dance traditional Breton dances.

We all danced for about two hours Thursday night and worked up quite a sweat. Everyone had a lot of fun, stagiaires and instructors alike. Here are a few photos from the night, but there is also some video at the link below.

More photos!