Blogs from France, Europe - page 1260

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Europe » France November 17th 2007

So I'm going to be honest. Today was the first birthday where at 12:01AM the first thing that came out of my mouth was "damn... I'm getting old." .... Anyway I'm off to Barcelona for a 36 hour trip to meet up with an old friend from high school in a random part of the world on a 16EURO plane ticket. Kindda crazy! Blog update later, I promise! p.s. thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes. Et bonjour Derek--I didn't know you read my blog!... read more

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris November 17th 2007

Ceci, c'est moi. Parisien, malgré les apparences. Non pas provincial, bien que j'y sois né et que j'aie vécu 21 ans dans le Sud de la France. Non pas banlieusard, bien que j'y réside. Paris m'est violemment attachée. J'ai commencé à vivre de facto quand j'ai atterri dans ma nouvelle chambre, le jour où, préparant une arrivée surprise bien plus tôt que prévue, j'ai cru déceler la fausseté du sourire quand il m'a demandé ce que je faisais là. L'éveil succédant à la torpeur de ma jeunesse plate et sans saveur, car déjà oubliée sans le vouloir. Ce premier jour en région parisienne allait influer sur ceux qui allaient suivre, en une succession de répétitions qui n'allaient prendre fin que ce jour-là, inconnu de tous sauf de moi-même, où je divaguais boulevard de Sébastopol, les yeux ... read more

Europe » France » Aquitaine » Bordeaux November 17th 2007

So joined this food tour around Bordeaux today, and it was actually more than fooood! The guide brought us to the different places around town and explained some stuff about the buildings and things as well! quite informative and interesting! Found out the whole city was demolished and rebuilt in the 18th cent. so most buildings are either Louis XV or Louis XVI style! haaa and you can tell the difference by looking at the way they decorate above the windows....coooool! The tour first, went to this very nice cafe, had this creamy cofffeee thats like the blizzard ice cream from Dairy Queen! it wont fall when you hold it upside down! haaaaa!!! and they had brilliant hot chocolate! the so-called secret receipe....haaa! They also made the famous cake from the region, Canele? dunno but it ... read more
Bordeaux!
Inside the church
the Square....

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris November 17th 2007

How Many Boobs Did You Count?? November 19, 2007 After a quiet week around the house in Rognonas, Justin and I left on the TGV for Paris Saturday November 10th. The ride up was so peaceful, forging through the French country side at 200 miles per hour. You never feel you are going that fast but Paris is 450 miles away and you are there in 2.5 hours. Sure beats the 8 hours drive we took back on October 1st. Justin really enjoyed being on the “bullet train” as we don’t have train travel in the US, really. It is a fun experience to zip across an entire country while relaxing with a good book. We arrived at Gare de Lyon and metro-ed problem free to our “Paris apartment” to meet Becky and Gus. We were ... read more
Paris
Paris
Paris

Europe » France » Rhône-Alpes » Chamonix November 17th 2007

Bonsoir mes amis! Check out the snow... it snowed all day Wednesday and we now have about 20cms all around town. Think I'll be able to get out snowboarding sooner than I thought as we get our lift passes next week... this week off to resort manager training in Alpe D'Huez for a couple of days, with girls trip to Annecy on the way down with my boss Anouschka and new colleague Rosy who arrives tonight. Have a look at webcams at chamonix.net you might even see me on the Cham town centre webcam on my way to or from work ! ... read more

Europe » France » Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur » Saint-Raphael » Brugge November 17th 2007

It was time to escape the hustle & bustle of London once again, and this time we were off to Brugge, Belgium! Day 1 With packs on our backs, we had yet another early start. As the Eurostar had moved from Waterloo to St Pancras 3 days prior to our trip we had to make it across Londontown for our 8am train. Breakfast was put on hold as we raced out the door, figuring we would eat when we got there. Unfortunately that was not to be as the queue for coffee was longer than a queue for the ladies loo at a music festival. The new Eurostar terminal at St Pancras is amazing. The huge arch construction worth 800 million GBP seems to have been worth the effort - it is incredible. The new high ... read more
The Eurostar at the brand new St Pancras Station
Our hotel room
Erin tasting the fruit beers of Belgium

Europe » France » Aquitaine » Bordeaux November 16th 2007

Southern France is cold!!! highest 9 degreesss! But not toooo bad, except at night...haaaa Got to Bordeaux finally!!!! the trains are kinda still not too good... so I couldnt go meet Daphne in Toulouse!!!! argh...pity......;" was really looking forward to it! Met Daphne and her bf in Romania! they were so nice=) Anyways, so had a full day in Bordeaux....went to the nice park, saw the churches....thats about it! Boreaux is very famous for their expensive wine! wahhhaaaa.... but the wine regions are out of town and the trains arent running...so I decided not to take the trouble to go to the vineyards..... will go on a food tour tomorrow to try all the local fooood! =) Heading tO Paris and just found out the strike is not only trains!! the metro and RER lines within ... read more

Europe » France » Champagne-Ardenne » Epernay November 16th 2007

I got Helen a card for her last birthday which read as follows: "I love you," she said "Is that you or the Champagne talking?", he asked "It's me talking to the Champagne", she answered. We are in Epernay, in the Champagne. Our mission is to get to grips with the small producers, and they do in fact make champagne which puts the larger producers to shame. So far, so good. I have discovered a most excellently named producer called, wait for it .... Pierre Peters. ... read more
Waaah!  Too fast!

Europe » France » Île-de-France » Paris November 16th 2007

Yes, yes, I know...it's been two weeks since I was there. There's no excuse, but hey! At least I'm updating now, right? Because our flight left at the ungodly hour of 6:45am, and trains don't run that early, we had to get to the airport the night before and basically sleep there. Not so much fun, but since we staked out the most comfortable chairs in the place it wasn't bad. So I was feeling a big cranky when we left, a feeling exacerbated by my first ever experience of flying through another plane's wake. For those of you who haven't, it's a split-second where you feel like you're free-falling. Literally everyone on the plane gasped at the same moment, because we all thought, you know, we were going to die. But the captain came on ... read more
l'Arc de Triomph
Interior
Hotel du Versailles

Europe » France » Lorraine » Verdun November 15th 2007

Growing up I read alot as a kid about the British in WWI and the battles at Ypres/Passchendaele, the Somme and so on. The French I knew were doing their thing somewhere, and were taking appalling casualties, but I didn't really know much of the detail. Well, a lot of them were at Verdun. Now it is an enormous national monument - something like 9 or 12 villages were destroyed, and there was so much unexploded ordinance about they didn't bother to try to rebuild the area for miles around. They built an enormous, sombre ossuary at the top of the hill to hold the remains of 130,000 unidentified French "polius" (it means "unshaved") and mourned their losses. (All through France - every village and town - you will see sad little monuments to WWI losses. ... read more
The Ossuary




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