Blogs from Aquitaine, France, Europe - page 74

This is where Niels went to college!! College is for the 1st degree, whichis diff than U.S. So Niels, this if for you. It was a lovely drive into the mountains. It's a ski area. Niels, you didn' t tell me you could ski!! One of the buildings is the dorm where the students stay. They come home on weekends. It's like a boarding school for middle school or high school students. Niels, I saw the big mountain that your fitness prof used to make you all climb every Monday morning. No wonder you have grande musculation! It was good for you, no? A lot of school kids were outside and heard us talking English. They said, "Allo!" and giggled. When I said, "Hi! How are you?" they burst into laughter and said, "Fine thank you" ... read more

Just pics here of our trip to castel ruins from 1100. The walk was really steep and we had to rest on when we got up there. Cool to imagine what it was like to live there. You could see the old windows, fireplaces, etc. Of course Ivo knew all the history! It was a great sunny day. We lay down near the top for a while and just enjoyed the afternoon. Marleen and I went runnin around the castle together while Ivo sat on the mountainside. What a great girlfriend she is. We've had too too much fun.... read more

This morning Ivo and I will travel to see some castles in surrounding area. Yesterday I walked around a lot to see the city of Foix up close. I browsed some shops and tried out my French on the Shopkeepers: It wasn not so hard and really a lot of fun since I worked for a month to learn phrases. As I expected, it is not going to be easy to put this experience into words. I sat in the side streets yesterday and watched French school children playing a game and listened to thier mother calling to them from the window above: School lets out at noon on Friday: Maybe we should try this in Gore! I saw lots of teenagers hanging on the square listening to music and holding hands: So cute! I will ... read more

I got intouch with my mate Olivier who I met in Bolivia last year and it turned out he was now living in a little surf town down the south of France so thought it'd be rude not to go up and visit him while I was close... well turned out it wasn't as close as I thought, but I made it there after a little mission involving a train, some desperate sign language and half a dozen friendly people who picked me up while I was hitch-hiking in the sweltering heat. France is cool, realy frustrating not being able to speak the language and having that ignorant feeling all over again(the list of things-to-do never ends), but it was awesome hanging out with Olivier and meeting all his friends and all their friends and playing ... read more

I discovered today that wine tours of the Bordeax region are rather popular. So much so that I couldn't get a tour of St. Emillion tomorrow. I did manage to get on the tour of Medoc region today. The coach ride provided some pleasant views of the region (vines as far as the eye can see sometimes), and the tour stopped at two wineries - Chateau Anez (Haut-Medoc appellation) and Chateau Labégorce (Margaux appellation). The wines were quite good, though a bit more full-bodied than I'm used to at over 60% Cabernet Sauvignon. The tour showcased the pleasant aspect of Bordeaux wines. My desire to buy some highlighted the difficult and ugly aspects. First of all, the wine stores in Bordeax (the city) charge premium markups. I know, because I had comparative vineyard pricing for two ... read more