#travel by #train in France #guingamp

Okay, hello dear friends. Good afternoon. Such a beautiful, beautiful afternoon. So I am taking a train. Eat my madeleine in the train and I am traveling by train in France and it's very convenient. I am so surprised that I didn't thought about it. So this is a local train station. I took second grade, second class train ticket and because it's a local, in Bordeaux, it's convenient. I bought a ticket on the counter. I can buy ticket on the screen without contact with people. There are ticketing machines but for this time I bought from the counter and on the train I can see the beautiful landscape, beautiful scenery and it's such a pleasure. And please excuse me if you hear a little bit too much noise from the background. I am in the library and the library is relatively small, does not have an individual soundproof, individual meeting room but I do enjoy every minute of my life here. The train does not directly go to my destination and I need to take a change and it's just very, very simple. The train station is relatively small and with everything indicated clearly. Here is what in my bag. I always have my recording equipment, a charger, lipstick, some meddling, my hat and a book, notebook and a pen and that's about it. People are very, very, very helpful and very kind. Whenever I ask a question, they answer with more detail than I have thought about. So it's very helpful. So I have arrived in Ganggong. It's one of a relatively small town but there are some things that make Ganggong that is so different or so unique. It is one of the smallest town, is one of a small town in France or even in Europe that has a major league football team on about the Ganggong. So my boys had taken soccer training or soccer camp there. So I know a little bit about this and I went there. I went to that shop also along the streets. It's quiet and beautiful and this is a Tuesday afternoon. Not so many people, very quiet and here is a beautiful Eglise. Under it, there is a crêperie and according to statistic, Britain, the France, Britain has more crêperie, crêpe, the French crêpe shops than the rest of the world. So it's one of the most famous thing there. And in the city center, there is a fountain. Used to be in the middle age or in the old time, Ganggong used to be a marketplace and fish was washed there, vegetables washed there and this was a center marketplace. The town square is kind of a very narrow triangular shape and with old buildings, old shops around. Just walk around the street, it's fun and for a couple of days, it was rainy and cloudy and finally, there is sunshine coming out and it just feels so good. People having a cup of coffee outside. I don't know, I do not want to spend money on food when I travel so I didn't have coffee. I should have a cup of coffee or a cup of chocolate and that building I am zooming in is one of the oldest buildings in town and the building a little bit dordue, the window a little bit twisted so it's very old. That's the main church, Eglise of the town with very sharp, narrow style. It's not Italian style, right? It's not ho-co-co Italian baroque style. It's a more Gothic style and in Brittany, Brittany has the longest coastline in France and there are huge, huge and very strong rocks, big pieces of rocks. So there are churches, castles, a lot of them are made of granite rock which are very strong and time durable. It can stand the test of time and of course, these churches and some of the churches and a lot of buildings were renovated but they renovated in the style of the old so make it look more or less very much like in the old time and you can see this kind of roof is quite a Gothic style, a construction style, a building style. I had the front of it, you can see the stone granite sculpture. This is a little bit like Notre Dame, don't you think so? With two towers. It's just a much smaller scale and they are the original piece. I forgot how many years they have been here. It's been from middle age, something for 500 years, for 800 years. It's been there for a long time. I need to check and Gangon has been renovated and I went to their tourist office. I have never been to tourist office by myself and this time I was thinking maybe I should go there. So here are the maps. I am going to the city hall, Mairie or Odette de Ville, Centreville is the city center and they made the city drawing, landscape drawing or city indication map in isometric design which looks like you are seeing it from a very high aerial point which make it very lively and very interesting. I can visit the city hall, the court, the corridor and this city hall used to be a chateau, used to be a castle and I need to do further search about this castle and now it is used for city hall use and very well renovated, very clean, pristine, in the best condition, not new, not flashy and feels solid, feels simple, feels organic, feels very original. I did go upstairs, I do not know if I am allowed to go upstairs and I just walked in the corridor. So this used to be a castle and the court of the castle now is a parking lot. I can visit, people can visit, it is open to the public and a lot of has changed into public use or public facility. City has made them into public facility in front of me, right in front of me, right here. You can see this building and this building is kind of an educational center, adult education for some Bodong class. Bodong is Britain's local college, a little bit Celtic, a little bit French or it's very much close to Celtic and they made also this part into a theater for performing art and there are classes on, back to that old building, there are classes of Bodong of Brittany Downs and on the side, just around the castle, on the side of the castle was a prison. This used to be a prison and it has been used from the old age until 1952. On 1952, they have two young teenagers came in here and then when they are done, it was the last two, the last two prisoners here and later on the city has, city has a board or city, now the city is the priority, property owner. Now this is belong to the city and the city starting from 1990, late 1990, started to renovate it, to repair it and some part made into a history exhibition. What we have seen, some of the picture used to be the prisoners, their life, the prisoners, a story about, yes you can see that little box and this used to be the prisoner cell. This must be a large prisoner cell but now they renovated and leave a few rooms, three or four rooms, but prisoner cells as its original shape, without any furniture, just the prisoner cell, very small. The rest of it has been renovated into an art education center. So in the middle of the court, some students can come here to do a video project because it's plain flat, flat surface and you can put a background so students can use the screen, green screen or whatever method to make videos. And inside there are other art class, performing art class, music performance. I think they are doing really good on it. The city has put a lot of resources into renovating and getting back what has been forgotten and make the best use, not only just to rebuild it but to develop into a new function. I find it very, very interesting. So here we came back to that building we were talking about, the Bodong class, the Brittany language class, Bodong dance class, the Brittany dance class, and then I kept on walking along this beautiful flower-covered fence. It looks so beautiful, don't you think so? And these are just everyday flowers. Something so unique about Brittany, about Bodong, is its blue sky, pure blue sky. I kept on walking and I arrived here. My usual suspect, my usual visiting destination. On one side is a beautiful park, on this side you are seeing right now is the library. I go to every city anywhere in the world. If I am by myself, I visit the library. If I am with family, I follow family. By myself, I always go to library. And this is the library children's section and there is another room, maybe we are seeing, it's storytelling, children's storytelling, a little theater kind of room. It's very spacious. I wanted to get internet but I think the internet you need to have a subscription or for some reason I do not have the library internet. I need to use my own internet, use my own hotspot. I kept on walking, walking along this beautiful riverside. Look at the trees, look at the trees. It is so good. Whenever I see a river, it makes me so very happy. So I arrived at my destination. This is one of my destinations. My destination, I want to see everything of the city. So this is start the Hu Du Du. I think Hu Du Du start the Hu Du Du or something. It's a cute name. So this is E-A-G-O-N-A-V-O-N-D-G-O-N-D-G-A-N-G-O-N. I have listened to one of an English description or a video about Ganggang. It pronounced game game and it's in French is Ganggang and in Bodong is gram game. I think it's gram game. And Ganggang, I think this football team started from 1929 or something. I forgot but they made it. They made into a major league. As I walk along the streets in Ganggang, I saw a lot of young men wearing red, black, blue, the typical their jersey and I was trying to buy one just not the right size. Maybe next time I will come here. I feel connected to this place. It's quite close to where we live and the fans are passionate about their team and you feel the energy, you feel the local support, you feel something so shallow, so passionate, so enthusiastic about it. I have took my longest road to Ganggang to the start. To the start. I think start at Hodudu. And then on my way back home, looking at the river, looking at the dark, quiet, beautiful, such a beautiful day. The city has done great things and I am just grateful. I am just grateful for everything that is happening here, happening in my life. From the train, so easy, convenient. I came, I took 40 minutes or something and coming to another place and the train ticket, one-way ticket is $11. 22 euros. 22 euros and if I like to go to other places, I can go to, I can choose another day to go to other places. But yeah, train is convenient, is on time, everyone has a seat. Anyway, here I came to another old castle. This used to be an old castle and very, very old. They excavated and renovated just a little bit of it. They did not totally rebuild the castle and there is a sense of old, there is a sense of history, there is a sense of nostalgia, there is a sense of that something is gone, history is history. So I feel it's quite well arranged, not everything we will repair or we can repair. Leave something old, leave something gone, leave something to be history might be just the right choice, right? I do not know how the city is planning and I feel, I feel my experience, my trip to Ganggang give me a new way, new perspective about history, about how to use, how to make the best of the old. And they made some modern sculptures, art surrounding the old castle. So there is a mixture of old and new and the city made a lot of effort to bring people back to center view, to the city center. At the end, I came to the train station and ordered a cup of hot chocolate. For a long time, I didn't drink coffee and I do not drink coffee, hot chocolate is good.