Blogs from Nord-Pas de Calais, France, Europe - page 26

An early rise and early breakfast to catch the 8:53am from St Pancras (Kings Cross) in London to Lille, France. A 20 minute tube to the station from Earls Court and a short walk with a few sets of steps to contend with and we found the Eurostar departure point, checking in with only a few minutes to spare. Inside the train you could imagine yourself on a plane, 2 seats either side of the centre aisle. Your ears even keep popping! We weren't issued seats together, but a kind lady agreed to move when Karina asked if we could sit together. Plenty of kids but as I update this blog about an hour into the trip it's relatively quiet. Just finished our 3-4hr stop-over in Lille, a little city about 1hr by train from Paris. ... read more

The key to get into the building is finicky; you have to turn it once without touching the door, then once it is turned halfway, you have to pull with everything you’ve got on the door handle in order for it to turn the rest of the way. The apartment has its own aroma, just like any house or room, one that is not yet ours. You have to be careful when you turn on the faucet in the kitchen sink not to turn it on all the way or it sprays down the whole kitchen. All the little things that take so much getting used to will soon just become part of the way I go about things in the new place, as hard as that is for me to imagine, having just moved into ... read more

Plus que 32 jours de travail, dont 9 en congé! Bravo à moi, je survie à la routine... mais bon il faut m'entendre chialer!!! hahaha Pascal s'avère (comme on l'avait tous espérer:o) patient et dédié! Le temps passe à une vitesse folle... Alors nos préparatifs de voyage n'ont pas le choix de suivre la cadence! Donc à un mois de notre prochaine étape nous avons pensé vous donner une petite idée de nos futures destinations... Mais attention ce que vous allez lire N'EST QU'UN PLAN!!!!! (si on revient dans deux mois vous êtes mieux d'être pas trop déçu!) Sans vous donner les dates et tout le tralala voici notre parcours rêvé jusqu'à la fin juillet! Royaume-Uni Portugal avec la Maman Johanne:o) France Pologne Pays baltes Russie Chine Hong Kong Attention aux mamans et à ceux qui ... read more

So I went into a store the other day for bigger sizes with a friend who was doing some shopping. I will not name it, as I am about to totally rip it apart. Anyway, we walked into the store in hopes of finding my friend a new bra. We walked to the back of the store, and we saw, much to our surprise, very small numbers and very big cup sizes. My first thought was, a dream come true! I always have a hard time finding bras because usually if I can find my cup size, the band is too big. However, the shopping trip was not about me. We made our way back to the beginning of the store and asked the saleswoman about finding other sizes. She then explained to us that actually, ... read more

Ce qui frappe en premier n'importe quel voyageur dans le nord de la France, ce sont les innombrables cimetieres militaires. On peut voir des milliers de tombes en moins de 5 km. Au detour d'un village, au milieu d'un champs d'agriculteur, les cimetieres sont la pour nous rappeler l'inoubliable realite de la guerre. Parfois, on peu deviner l'ancienne ligne de front en reliant visuellement les cimetieres, separes quelques fois les uns des autres de quelques centaines de metres a peine. La majorite de cess cimetieres sont geres par la Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Cette commission est en charge de tous les cimetieres militaires du Commonwealth, notamment ceux du Royaume Uni, du Canada, de l'Australie, de la Nouvelle-Zelande, de l'inde et de l'Afrique du Sud. Chaque cimetiere est ordonne en rangees de pierres tombales blanches. Contrairement aux ... read more