Blogs from Pays-de-la-Loire, France, Europe

April 4th2012 Wednesday Cloudy early morning and it rained during the day but brightened up late afternoon. Today we heard the Cuckoo!! We took a trip to the Le Mans 24 hour Museum and took a walk around a bit of the circuit - all very interesting . In the city centre we walked around the old centre - a beautiful cathedral. They were shooting a period movie around the old quarter and there were several people walking around in 16th Century costume! Shopping and back to base.... read more

I know bloggers usually blog about the present but I'm just starting this traveling blog now and I'm going to try to recall my travels as far back as 2005. This is kind of a new year's resolution, to start doing something that I love while still having the safety of my job. I have always been someone 'safe'. Staying close to home, which I call Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, which by the way is breath taking in its own right. My last year of university I had decided that I wasn't ready to be 'an adult' and walk into a full time job. I wanted to experience life! I decided to apply to go study aboard, study French of all things, which is my native tongue, but to do it in a foreign country, ... read more

One of the things that studying abroad has taught me is that a lot of things seem like a big deal in the moment, but aren’t in the grand scheme of things. Right now my biggest headache is trying to figure out whether or not I’ll get credit for my classes that I’m taking here. And like most times that I worry about the future, I hear this one sermon from Grace Center in my head telling me to not expect bad things to happen all the time. I keep preparing myself for the inevitable worst where some credits won’t transfer over and I have to drop down to a French minor in order to graduate in May. It would suck, but is it the end of the world? Am I ever, ever going to use ... read more

Tourist day today. This is when our scooter really comes in so useful. A quick check of our map and off we went East along the south side of the Loire for 10 kms and then a right turn up to Fontevraud and L’Abbaye Royale. What an excellent choice for a visit. The guide literature describes it as ‘one of the largest monastic cities from the Middle Ages’ and it is certainly much more than one would expect to find in a normal abbey or chateau. It was founded in 1101 as a community of religious men and women to became a monastic city consisting of 4 priories, 3 for the nuns and another for the men. It enjoyed royal protection throughout its history and Eleanor of Aquitaine, husband Henry ll of England, and their son, ... read more

Backpacks are heavy!!! And while I pack too many toiletries and books, Ed has decided to fit the equivalent of an artist’s studio in a backpack. And we hadn’t booked anywhere! Damn it. Eventually, we found some dodgy hotel across from the train station- which was in complete darkness the whole time and so you had to feel around the corridors in order to find your room. Twice we had random people open the door with their own key, peer into the room, say ‘excuse me, excuse me’ and then leave. On one of these occasions, the guy actually tried to get passed Eddie into the bathroom where I was taking a shower. So of course- Eddie and I being naturally paranoid people, assumed we were being filmed, and turned all lamps towards the walls. We ... read more