Blogs from Aquitaine, France, Europe - page 70

Hello again! We are back and hopefully now having internet at home we'll be keeping you more up to date with what we have been doing. This happened almost a year ago. We left to Paris on the 1st Sept by Eurostar this time, forget about the coach! It was great, we arrived early and went straight to visit my Grandad who lives about 1 hour by train from Paris. We spent the night at Tiphaine and Murilo's place, they have a studio not very far from the centre of Paris. We didn't do much that night. The next day we made our way to my Auntie's place where the wedding was happening, not before Tom went to a MacDonalds to have a Royal with cheese and beer (have a look at the Pulp Fiction ... read more

I may not have the spelling right: this is an old house that Mark and Trish Tyler, the mom/dad of my famille d’acceuil, have recently bought and are rebuilding. I don’t know exactly how old it is, something like 200 or so years old (probably older). Mark and his crew have totally gutted the place, and are now installing pipes and preparing the floor for the concrete foundation that will be laid in the coming weeks. I spent the last three days sanding the wooden floors in one of the upstairs rooms; they are the original wood from the original construction of the house. ... read more

Jean-Marie (my friend who I’d met at the tournament in Moscow and who initially invited me to come and teach baseball), accompanied by the club president, was to meet me at the train station in Mussidan, a smaller station before reaching Bordeaux. I learned two things on this train from Lyon to Bordeaux: first, if it is a small station, the train stops for a very short time (about a minute). The second lesson was that the doors on some French trains are very difficult to open. Because of these two things, I did not get out at Mussidan. It was an aweful feeling trying to open this door (thinking I had ample time to exit the train) and seeing through the window Jean Marie and Alain, le president, standing there scanning the (small) crowd of ... read more

August 23, 2006 Today was dedicated to exploring the Pyrenees Mountains. There looked to be a lot of amazing things to do here including hiking, rafting, kayaking, mountain climbing, and horseback riding. Of course, there’s also skiing and snowboarding during the winter season (which I assume lasts quite a while). Without forward planning, a little sightseeing by car and minimal hiking on beginner trails were the option for me. In fact, I was pretty lucky. These mountains can apparently be pretty fickle (even in the summer) and it is ill advised to do even minimal hiking without some basic hiking gear (knife, water, jacket, sweater, compass, route maps, etc.). Of course, I had none of these, but the weather forecast was clear for the next few days (except a little rain shower in the late afternoon), ... read more

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