Blogs from Besançon, Franche-Comté, France, Europe

It’s time to start the drive back to London. It’s over 600 miles so we’ve divided it into 3 chunks. Our first overnight stop is Besançon. We set off from Zurich with musical accompaniment for 4 hours of driving/culture. By the time we reach our hotel, we have covered Tudor history (Six), Greek Mythology (Hadestown) and American history (Hamilton). The hotel is difficult to spot, requiring 3 (increasingly irate) circuits of the one way system to locate it. I briefly hope our arrival will stop daughter no 2 from reciting the lyrics of every musical in the world, but we’re in the birthplace of Victor Hugo. It’s mid afternoon, so locating a restaurant that’s still open takes a while, but we find a crêperie which serves an awesome Roquefort pasta. Besançon is a fortified city in ... read more

We were up early today and out the door by 8:30… on the promise of a Maccas morning tea! The nearest was shut so we headed onward until we found one that was open in Besancon. The real reason was reliable WIFI as we had nowhere to sleep. That was easily solved and we also found that there is a cool old citadel in Besancon which has a zoo inside. Old buildings for the old folks and big cats for the young-uns. Off we went but trying to get there, we realised that we are back in France. Driving is more arrogant here – they simply think you should know where you are going and get it right! Annoying differences between GPS maps and the real roads made it a bit difficult but we eventually got ... read more

Note: All events mentioned in this entry occurred back in October 2006. For more updated entries and trips, please refer back to this blog at a later date. Entries that take place in the present day will NOT include a note like this. Thank you and enjoy! I had already been to Besancon during my, at this point my first three of 9 months ahead of me (I first mention it in my blog entry entitled "First Trip to Paris," for more details). However, I only spent 5 hours and missed out on a lot of very important sites, so I decided to come back for a second visit. I take the train as usual to Besancon, and make my way towards the Musee des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts). However on my way I ... read more

OK! HOLD THE PHONE! WHO AM I? AND HOW DID I ACQUIRE SUCH AMAZING FRIENDS? Soooo, last night I got ready for girls night out. Charline, Aurore, Pauline, and I had been planning on having a little soiree together before I left. They invited Rejane too, since I'd introduced them. I was excited, thinking: yeah! girls night! woo! At 9pm, Charline came and picked me up in her car and drove us to Pauline's place in town. We walk in and Pauline and I do bisous, and they say Aurore is in the living room. I thought it was a little odd that the door was closed, but then Pauline threw it open and inside.... WERE ALL OF MY FRIENDS YELLING "SURPRISE!" with balloons! AH!!! I was totally in shock, and I looked around and saw ... read more

Time passed. Around 5am, things started coming alive and then around 6am, Cyntia and I went through security and boarded the plane. We were in Paris before 9am! Then we took the RER to the TGV and returned to Besancon. At Christine's house I met PJ for the first time, and he drove us back to the CROUS. Cyntia and I had about 5 hours between the time we arrived at the CROUS to the time PJ came to take us to St. Lupicin to meet up with everyone to go to Spain. I repacked my bag, choosing to take my larger backpack for the next trip, and posted pictures on Facebook. It was nice to have a few hours to relax because it had been a whirlwind getting back and our vacation was only ... read more