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Nicholas Cullinan in Tours, France
Quintessentially French Experience
ours is a medieval city located in the Centre region of rural
France. As the former capital of France, it boasts of an architecture that is stunning to say the least. There is plenty to do –
from visiting nearby castles or Paris, which sits a mere hour’s train
ride away – to drinking a chilled beer on the city’s infamous Place
Plumereau. This square is the epicentre of student life in Tours; it
has many bars and cafés, and on summer nights, the sheer number
of students makes it almost impossible to cross from one side of the
square to the other.
It must be the beautiful surroundings that distract the university administration staff from their jobs, which they
seem reluctant to do. I have to admit that it took me
a while to get to grips with this. I had never quite realised how good we have it at Bristol (and doubt I
will ever bemoan the system again). When I arrived, I
was instructed to e-mail my course coordinator. Two
weeks in (classes having started a week before), I still
had not received a response. I thought I should maybe
venture down to this mysterious man’s office to see
whether or not he existed. I feared that he might have
been very il