Blogs from Amiens, Picardy, France, Europe - page 2

Day 3 and legs are dead. Michael (lets crack on) Cooke is setting the pace. Paul & Colin are plotting revenge at the back. Lovely countryside but still very windy. Lots of wind farms along the way - never a good sign. First near death experience as a speeding French lady pulled out without looking but Cookie managed to stop - good job he got his breaks serviced before he left. No more accom booked and a friendly native has just told us Doullens does not have any hotels. Hmm ... Found a basic hotel & headed into the night - the only ones out! After pizzas we had to ask for a bar to unlock & let us in. Barcelona v Real Madrid was on the tele & Tony, a fantastic host & the champion ... read more

I learned to tango in Amiens. I never expected to tango, but when the opportunity arose, I defined the first rule to live by on my trip: I am not allowed to refuse an invitation to anything. The point of this thing is to expand on every element of my social being, and the only way to do that is to get out and DO THINGS. Tangoing is actually pretty easy. Tangoing WELL requires a few lessons. My SERVAS host, Jason, is a math teacher by day who moonlights as a tango instructor. He is a short, endearing 30-something year old man who loves comic books, and who (like many French people I’ve met) seems to have a closet that consists almost exclusively of striped, Marcel Marceau-esque shirts. My time in Amiens was actually just a ... read more

We finally had our first official orientation today after being here for 3 weeks now... and the President of the international students association was naming all the countries that were attending the university here. He mentioned Vietnam...and for some reason I was the only asian guy in the room, so there were heads turning for a while trying to find this Vietnamese guy until all eyes finally laid on me. lol. Then i realized what just happened...so then i had to say out loud, ummmm....im from chicago or en francais "Je viens des Etats-Unis"! After I said that, people had this look on their face like they were kinda confused. lol. And then they served us lunch. We went around introducing ourselves and then of course the first thing they said was "ah, tu viens de ... read more

Monday, 29th September, 2008 Wow, what a day. Woke up and got moving quite early for us. Left, Bethune with a heading of Amiens, with a planned stop at Thiepval. We had booked our next night in a Premiere Classe in Amiens, so this was our destination for the day. Popped into a supermarket for bits and pieces. Visited The Notre Dame De Lorette, French cemetery, truly massive, containing 40,051. I may have said it before, but a photograph does not convey the sheer size of some of these cemeteries, with the grave markers stretching off into the distance, this place was big. Stopped at the local Estaminet and had a coffee, the place is filled with Trench Art and memorabilia. The little dog continually tries to get your attention to play with his toys, very ... read more

Today we picked the car up in Paris and headed for Amiens in the country, north of Paris. It was a shakey start with Ev first losing his credit card at the train station then once we picked the car up in the first 10 metres Ev scratched the rims of the car on a very high curb. We finally made it onto the highway and were off. About an hour and a half later we arrived in Amiens. It is a beautiful little city on a canal, definently a place I recommend going if you want to chill in little bars with a few beers. We stayed with a friend of Shaun's, Maud and her boyfriend Reun. They were great hosts and Maud feed us well. On Saturday we drove to the coast and taught ... read more