OBSERVATIONS OF NANTES, FRANCE

Since April of 2015 to now, January 2016, I have been in a different country at some point in time every month. I’ve travelled for a long time, but the amount of traveling I’ve gotten up to in the last 10 months is incredible even by my standards. For a non religious person I dare say I have to use the word, blessed. I’ve been blessed to see what I have in the last months. I was able to revisit some old places and visit a few new places. One of those new places was Nantes, France.

Now, I actually lived in France for awhile over 10 years ago. Time is literally on a rocket ship because it feels like it was yesterday. I lived close to Toulouse and Lyon. Loved both cities dearly. If I hadn’t been so intimidated by the French language, I could easily have seen myself living in France much longer than I did. I was totally unprepared by how much I enjoyed France and all it had to offer. So, when I found out I was being surprised with a birthday trip to Nantes I obviously was excited! First thing I had to do was Google it because I had no idea where it was. Second thing is I had to learn how to pronounce the city correctly because my American tongue kept wanting to call it NAN-tez. How else could it be pronounced any other way?? Germans say it like, Naud which totally confused me as I couldn’t figure out where they got the ‘d’. In French it’s like, ‘Naunt’. Yeah, so my first observation was the city name is difficult for my American tongue to pronounce properly.

As I knew nothing of nothing about this city before arriving I quickly realized it’s a young city. For me, I would compare the vibe to Boston. There are over 150,000 college students in the greater Boston area and all of that youthful energy leaves its mark. I felt that same vitality in Nantes. I loved attending university in Boston because of this feeling so I really enjoyed that about Nantes. Going out in the evening there were throngs of young people out in the streets wandering around and hanging out with friends. What I also noticed is, they mostly congregated in the center of the city. This was cool because a tourist didn’t have to travel to distant parts of an unknown city and everything is in walking distance. Often when there are a lot of young people gathered with alcohol present young guys often let their testosterone get the better of them. Not in Nantes. Saw many groups of young men and never felt like I was being sized up or saw them making women feel uncomfortable. Hats off to the young men of Nantes, France!

Another thing I liked about Nantes, and very aware only medium-sized cities could get away with this, they have painted a line that runs through the entire city to take tourists past important landmarks, sites and shopping areas. How smart is that!?! It was like having a deaf and mute tour guide. Wait, I hope that’s not offensive.. then again, I’m not forcing anyone to read this. Not like I could ask questions about things I saw, but I could walk as slow or fast as I wanted, take as many coffee breaks as I wanted, skip parts, retrace my steps. I loved it! I travel a lot and this is one of the few cities I felt like I saw almost everything there was to see while I was there. Now I didn’t experience everything I possibly could, but as far as the major sites I saw it all.

Photo not taken by me

Another observation I had with Nantes, and I noticed it at the exact same time I noticed the youthful energy, I kept picking up a strange vibe from the place. I couldn’t quite put my figure on it. In theory, Nantes had everything in a city I should love, history, good food, nice local population, no overt sense of racism and reasonably priced. But I just kept on thinking, eh, something is off. Then walking along the harbor I came across it. There is a huge memorial dedicated to the abolition of slavery. It’s a very powerful and well done memorial. I lingered there for at least an hour reading everything and taking it all in. One question I had walking through the memorial was answered at the end. “Why would a European city have a memorial dedicated to slavery?” kept going through my head. I understand Germany having museums dedicated to terror and tyranny. Additionally, the monuments dedicated to the holocaust makes perfect sense. But Nantes, France? Abolition of slavery monument? Strange.. The city has another tribute to slavery that answered the question in such a striking manner that as cliché as it sounds, left me at a loss for words. The tribute is, all the slave ships that left Nantes, their names and date of departure and are laid out on a pathway represented with small bronze bricks. Nantes, France was the epicenter of the European slave trade during the 15th and 19^th centuries. My history teachers definitely left that out of our history lessons. The number of bricks was literally sickening. What I thought was a small path turned into a boardwalk along the harbor. Every single step on a brick represented hundreds of innocent human beings being bundled and packed into horrible conditions like farm animals being shipped off to the slaughter house. For a super logical Virgo it was emotionally overwhelming for me. If I had known the history of the city would I have visited? I can’t answer that. But it was good that the city had decided to create these monuments to own up to it’s history. Unless I’m mistaken, the United States, a very willing participant in the Mid-Atlantic Slave Trade, has no slave memorial of any type at all.

Did my previous vibe about the city have something to do with it’s history? I don’t know, but once I knew about the history of the city that weird energy I felt before didn’t go away, but it made more sense. And as I said, the city wasn’t shying away from it’s history. I felt like that until I went to the Museum of History of Nantes. It’s located at the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany. It has about 7 chambers that go into detail about the history of Nantes. I LOVE history so a museum set in an actual castle?? Awesome! Not only do they have historical artifacts, but they have touch screens throughout the museum that give stories connecting the use of certain artifacts or eras through the eyes of the people who lived during those times. A great use of technology! It bought the history to life! I was feeling it! Then I got to the hall on slavery. It had a lot of artifacts and stories about Nantes during that time. They showed the wealth the city made during that time, architecture constructed as a result of the wealth, certain artifacts associated with the slave industry and other things. Can’t say anything connected to the misery of millions of people to make it more human, but it was informative. The one thing though that totally threw me off and completely changed my view of Nantes was the story they decided to use in the slavery chamber. They chose the story of a young white resident of Nantes who was the son of a powerful merchant. To learn the trade of the family, which was the purchase and sales of African slaves, he set out on a slave ship to get an education from the bottom up. This young boy kept a journal so the story is based on his actual words. It spoke in great detail about his trip, all the actual quantifiable facts; what date they set out from Nantes, how they were delayed by weather, negotiating for the slaves, loading them in the ship’s hold, the trip across the Atlantic Ocean, the unloading in the Caribbean of a portion of the “cargo”, what goods they received in return, then continuing to the New World to sell the rest then the return trip, etc, etc. That’s it. That’s all the story included. The story ended with the young man deciding never to go on one of those trips again. Because he had a change of heart and realized human beings shouldn’t be treated like bales of cotton or material? No. He felt he had learned enough, went into the family business of slave trading, made even more money than his father did in the business and became a much respected member of the Nantes elite society. Wait.. What??!! Of all the stories a museum could dedicate to it’s history of slave trading you choose one with a happy ending for the slave trading merchant?? WTF city of Nantes!? In a modern city, with a disgusting history that laid the foundation for it’s wealth, no one understood how it might come across having a story about a titan in the slave trading industry be the story you present in the slave trading chamber?? And the story had a happy ending for the man you use as well?? Disgusted. That’s how I felt when I finished that chamber. Totally and completely disgusted. The amount of pain and anguish and death associated with Nantes to this day is still present in the very fabric of the city. Even my uber logical analytical self picked up on it immediately upon arriving. So given the opportunity to use a story from the perspective of those affected by your actions which could add a very real sense of humanity to this period of your history, you choose the perspective of the slave merchant. Yeah, I’d called that a big fat fail.

Typically, I don’t write observations like this. But it’s obvious the museum left a very bad taste in my mouth. Bad enough that I wrote to the museum.. but I didn’t receive a reply. I will blame it on the fact I wrote in English to a French museum which is entirely possible. Hey, Nantes is a really nice city. There are some amazing things to see, the people are super friendly, and their memorials to slavery are powerful and a must see. Personally, I’d never go back to the place. Ever. I won’t ever have the inkling to rediscover its streets or explore uncharted areas of the city. It’s the first city I would say that about. And it is sad since it is such a beautiful city and region of France.

OBSERVATIONS OF SARDINIA and CORISCA

Many moons ago I used worked in Sardinia. I loved it so much I tried to get a job there so I could live there on a permanent basis. Alas it didn’t work out. But I was excited to be able to go back and explore the parts of the island I didn’t get a chance to see when I lived there. Corsica had always been on my list and I decided it was now or never. These are my observations of these two incredible islands that even though very close together are worlds apart due to their food, culture and landscapes. 

SARDINIA

When I worked in Sardinia I was always at the very south, Cagliari. On this trip I decided to explore the North around Olbia. Here are the things I noticed about North Sardinia. Well, the first thing I noticed was on the plane from Berlin and it wasn’t a very nice observation for me. There were A LOT of young kids on the plane ride over, young meaning 5 and under. “What’s his problem with young kids?”. Nothing, I have absolutely no problem with young children. I hope to have at least one of my own one day in the near future. But I can’t STAND loud screaming obnoxious  spoiled kicking my seat like it’s a football rotten kids. Luckily the flight was only about 2 hours. Any longer and I might’ve hurt a parent for allowing their little monsters to run around the plane like that. Another passenger told me that a lot of German families hit Costa Smeralda for their vacations. Costa Smeralda is close to the major city of Olbia and very close to the airport. Needless to say I knew I wasn’t going to be spending too much time there. I did however spend most of my time in a small town called San Teodoro. It’s about 30 minutes south of Olbia and in my opinion the best place to use as a base to discover the Northern part of Sardinia. 

As I used to live and work in Italy I learned enough Italian to get by without any problems which is always helpful in Italy. If you don’t speak any Italian you’ll be able to get by, but you are going to have to work for it. Most menus are in multiple languages, but whether or not the waiter will be able to understand your questions about the menu is a totally different thing. But hey, vacation stories are always better with one funny story about misunderstanding something on the menu. I lucked out through and my roommate spent many summers in San Teodoro and told his friends to expect me. The town was READY when I got there. At the restaurant he told me his friends owned they had a table reserved when I got there, WHA WHA!! Seriously, what is in the water that makes island people so dang nice!? I have yet to visit an island where the people weren’t super friendly and welcoming. Somebody needs to breakdown the chemical components so I can bring it here to Berlin and sell it! Friends of my roommate dropped by to talk and give advice on the best places to go and compare schedules to see if they had time to give private tours. Lovely lovely people all of them. I went at the end of May beginning of June so the island was preparing for the tourist season. When I’d worked in Cagliari it was always the end of August beginning of September. This leads me to my second observation of Sardinia.

End of May/early part of June take a sweater or light jacket. It gets a bit nippy in the evenings. On the very tip of Sardinia where you can see Corsica in the distance it was even dare I say, cold in the evenings. That wind is no joke! I’m not a bodybuilder, but I’m not small either. The wind was strong enough to push me along a few times. Bring something warm or you’ll be adding to the local economy buying warm clothes for the evening. I came from Berlin so I had a jacket and sweater but there were a lot of tourists who were surprised.

Me at Santa Terese di Gallura

The beaches in Sardinia are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Period. I haven’t visited Southeast Asia yet or the Philippines. Hence me using “I’ve ever seen.” You could go to a beach, be amazed, then go to another beach just 2 minutes away from that first beach and it would look totally completely different! Felt like you were moving from country to country and not just beach to beach. Another great thing about Sardinian beaches is the color of the water. Whoa! I’ve seen photoshopped images of water that color before but in real life? The greenest greens and the bluest blues I’d ever seen. And CLEAR! Went on a boat tour and you end up at a secluded beach you can only reach by boat. One poor kid thought since the boat was close to shore he could just jump out and walk the rest of the way. It looked like knee deep water and I almost did the same thing he did. Luckily I move slower in my older age and the kid jumped out first. WOOSH! Looked like he was in a special effects movie with how far he kept going down. Talk about a WTF moment! Boat driver said the water was over 6 meters deep! That’s almost 20ft for my US readers ;-) But that was the only beach like that. All the other beaches I visited you could walk out half a mile into the sea and still be only in waist deep water. For a black person you can’t ask for better beaches than that! Super clear water so I can see sharks and super shallow so I can run back to shore just in case I do see something I’m afraid of. Only sorta kinda bad thing? The water was COLD! I think in the 6 or 7 days I was in Sardinia I went into the water maybe 2 times. When I say in the water I mean walking into it at all. My feet went instantly numb the first time I went in so that was pretty much enough for me. I took some nice photos of me standing directly at the waters edge. More than enough thank you very much.  

I know I already spoke about how nice the people are but it deserves special attention. The people were so nice a part of you thought they were trying to scam you. At one point I missed a bus I needed to catch after the rental car was turned in. No surprise I missed some form of transportation. A taxi driver offered to drive me where I needed to go but it was like €85 for what was a €7 bus trip. I decided to wait for the next bus which was like 5 hours later. When the taxi driver realized I was OK with waiting he kept on trying to give me tips for things I could do while I waited. At first I was like, “Back up homie.” I get uncomfortable when people invade my personal space! But he kept recommending and I finally relaxed and caved. He told me about a restaurant close by and I went. One of the BEST decisions I made on the whole trip! Was a REAL husband & wife place. While the wife cooked the kids did their homework in the kitchen with her. Talk about home cooking! The husband was telling me about all these places I needed to visit and people I should call once I got there. It was like visiting cousins family introduced you to online and you were meeting for the first time. In other places I visited things you had to pay for were not only free in Sardinia, but they were a little offended you thought they would charge you for it. How can you not love that!? 

Ok, my last observation of Sardinia is the food. Very very simple menu but always cooked with such a high skill it made it seem like you were eating at a Michelin restaurant. Perfect example of why people should be using fresh and local ingredients when they cook. Basic stuff I cook myself just tasted 20 times better when I was there. 

CORSICA

Ok, so let me begin my observations of Corsica what I ended with Sardinia, food. But before I begin I

Bonifacio, Corsica

have to say I didn’t spend as many days there as I planned. Due to loving Sardinia more than I thought and staying an extra day I didn’t see nearly enough of Corsica. Also an unexpected French holiday which meant absolutely no public transportation happening also limited my Corsican experience. 

So, Corsica is a French island while Sardinia is Italian. Italian food is amazing. I love it thru and thru. French food is a cuisine as I always tell people. It’s more complicated with many more layers. Some people like it, some think it’s too much. I lived in France before so I knew what to expect. In saying that, the food in Corsica was on some nother other level! Steak was rarely on the menu in Sardinia, but in Corsica it was always one of the main dishes. When in Rome.. Lord have mercy that steak I had in Corsica! If my mom would’ve asked me for a bite I would’ve had to think long and hard before I gave her a piece. I never knew beef could melt in your mouth like that! I could cut the dang meat with my SPOON it was so tender! Every restaurant had proper COURSES. The last place I ate in Corsica I ordered Guinea fowl on what I would have to describe as a golden lawyered potato cake. The waitress tried to take it before I’d eaten licked the plate clean and I almost karate chopped her in the throat! When food makes you consider resorting to being stingy with your momma and violence you know it’s good! Say what you want to about the French, but they throw DOWN in the kitchen!

Another thing you notice very quickly about Corsica is that it has more class and this definite elegant undertone that Sardinia doesn’t have. It’s not better, just different. Without anyone saying anything you automatically want to dress up a bit more when you go out for dinner in the evening. Coming from Berlin with its constant laid back casual style it was a nice change. I personally liked it and appreciated the people there stepping out looking well put together. Normally island folk are always casually dressed, not so much in Corsica. If anyone was dressed super casual you knew they were a tourist and not a local. All the time would be a bit too much for me but for the time I was there I appreciated it. 

The people. Yes. Well Corsicans are certainly nice, I mean it is an island after all. But at the end of the day they are French. There was still this very palpable distance with the people in Corsica. Could’ve had something to do with the language. Very few people spoke English and I don’t speak French. Normally you go somewhere where you don’t speak the language you ask young people. In this day and age most young people listen to English music and have contact with the language often enough they have a basic command, normally. No, not in Corsica. I would ask people, in French, did they speak English. They would answer “A little bit”, then proceed to speak in very fast French to answer my question. Wait. What? How does that work?? I ask you if you speak English, you say yes then proceed to only speak to me in French? And they didn’t even try to speak to me like I was deaf and dumb, meaning veeeery slooooow and loudly. Nope. They just spoke to me like I was born and raised in Paris and would understand everything they said to me. The only places people spoke English was in the hotels. As soon as you left the hotels French. Yeah, a bit more difficult to communicate than in Sardinia. 

What’s interesting is, as cultured as the cities and towns of Corsica are, the nature and landscape is WILD. In Sardinia you get the feeling the island has been run through with a comb. Like it’s been tamed to a certain degree, not in Corsica at all. Has this very real sense of wildness and rawness to it. I personally loved the contrast it creates between the cities and open spaces. That wildness though? Fucked my allergies UP! The last time I had an allergy attach THAT bad was well… in France! Years ago when I lived there near Lyon. I took allergy medicine the entire time I was in Corsica and double the normal dose when I felt the attack coming on. Didn’t help in the least. My eyes swole up so bad it looked like I’d smoked out on purple haze for 2 days straight! I was so congested I had to breathe through my mouth and still sounded like Darth Vader. I sneezed 19 times in a row with no break, TWICE! Just achooachooachooachooachooachooachooachooachoo. I was a HOT mess! To make matters worse, that was the day I was trying to catch a bus to another town and no one told me that it was a French holiday so nothing was running and all the car rental places were closed. I was standing at a bus station all alone looking like homeless junky cause I couldn’t see well enough to walk back to the city center to get another hotel. I had to wait it out until the swelling went down in my eyes enough for me to see which was oooh about 3hrs. Surprised no one called the police on me! Not the best memory of Corsica but I go back I’m taking a kilo of medicine in case that happens again!