SOOOOOO.... I drove a Renault Clio on the french road system by myself, no well actually Miranda was there to be my fearless navigtor. The clio is a very cute little hatchback; ours is a goldish color. All the controls for radio and heat are in picto-grams; of course the spedometer is in kilometers. It feels very weird to go even 70 kmph through a small village. But I remembered my standard shifting just fine, once you learn I guess it really is in there forever. It brought back memories of driving Juup, the little red Geo Metro. The back roads [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour gentlemen and ladies of the court greetings from Tours, France. Yesterday Alliey and I picked up our car....yes we are actually driving in France...and drove to the tiny village of Amboise. Our car is named Mademoiselle Cleo because it is a Renault Clio. So far Alliey has done a great job of driving a stick shift in the area...it helps that we have a GPS system to help us navigate!!! So after we got the car we drove along the Loire River past the village of MontLouis, which is famous for it trodyglote caves. In these caves there are vineyards, [View Full Entry]

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ha ha [View Full Entry]

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Voila [View Full Entry]

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We are having a nice time so far. Of course travelling is always tiring, but we are taking things at a nice slow pace. We get up in the morning nice and late and have breakfast with Isabelle. We talk about what we want to do that day, and she tells us how to get there and other nice things to do in the area. Then we pack a lunch and head out by noonish. She is a 5 minute walk to the nearest metro that takes you into Paris, maybe a half an hour of travel time total with [View Full Entry]

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Our First day was wonderful! We stumbled off the metro into a pcturesque neighborhood near st germaine de pres. We were in awe of the beauty and charm of the little streets. Miranda kept pulling me in the direction of a large and looming steeple that could be seen some blocks away, framed by the narrow streets like a tunnel. That's Notre Dame she kept insisting, and I with the map in my head knew we had to cross water before we reqched it. It is on the Ile de la citè in forked by the Seine. Lo and behold as [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour from Ivry-Sur-Seine! We survived our fist day! Miracle of miracles! We survived completely in French, mostly because we were too afraid to ask people if they speak english. My french has improved by 100 percent. which is to say that yesterday I knew 15 words, now I know 30, but ah well we have 7 weeks to practice. The trip here was gruelling. 8.5 hours on the plane to Geneve, 1 hour to France, .5 hours getting to the RER (metro) only to stand in line for another hour to get our carte orange (week metro passes) Then an hour [View Full Entry]

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Having serious Butterflies this morning, as we're doing our last minute stuff. (Or I should say I am: Miranda's been done for three days now, she is serenely reading a book) France has been working its way into my dreams in weird ways, like a dream I had where I was trying to find my way around in the little Renault and a traffic cop saw I had photographic equipment in the back of the car and directed me to a French school where they were expecting a photographer for picture day. I had to learn how to say "sit here, [View Full Entry]

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Hi All! We are packing Furiously and have sooooo much to do. It seemed like we would never get here, but we are a week away from leaving. We have done a pre-pack and so far including all clothes, shoes, necesseties, electronics and a full bottle of water, the pack is weighing in at about 35 lbs. Not too bad. There are probably a few more things to add, and I hope some more things to subtract, but we are mostly ready with everything we need to bring. Documents still have to be readied, photocopied and properly stowed. We still have [View Full Entry]

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