Finally a french holiday...

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Well, finally, after a bit of slaving and hard yakka, I have had a decent holiday. Met up with Kaz and ventured through France and beyond...lots of speaking french, climbing towers, tours in french of which i understood very little, churches, statues, a few museums, food markets galore, trying loads of different french cheese (Alice, my diary is looking a lot better) and eating far too many french pastries (Karyns favourite french past-time!) - A summary (I have tried to be brief):

- Lyon - A Rugby game and a lot of Kiwis including bumping into people we knew, loads of fun
- Chamonix - Back to the mountains felt like home, except for the fact it rained and was foggy so spend our days indoors instead of going up the gondola or hiking. Gutted. Did randomly bump into friends from Tawa though!
- Dijon - Beautiful city, hired bikes and explored the wine region for 40km. Really cute little towns but unfortunately we kind of forgot about the wine tasting! An awesome day out.
- Paris - WOW. My first visit and I was amazed. The buildings, the history, the monuments everywhere. Took in most of the sights in 4 days, though in a somewhat rushed fashion so will have to return to do it properly.
- La Rochelle - given every place we wanted to go was booked out (bloody world cup!!), this was kind of a last resort but ended up being cool. Pretty little seaside port, with old forts and loads of seafood. Even shouted ourselves to a meal out - amazing!
- Toulouse - Another rugby game (this time excellent seats thanks to Karyns dad), and some good atmosphere. Again, bumped into old family friends from Tawa - old next door neighbours. The world is far too small.
- Pau - and a view of the Pyrenees, venturing here again to escape the crowds and cos it was the cheapest way to leave france! A very short time here, and given it was a sunday, the only things to do were go to the castle and the boulangerie for our last pain au chocolats. Quite sad to leave France which has been my home for 10 months and leave the culture and language behind.
- London - back into english speaking territory and it is still confusing me having to say thankyou and sorry instead of merci and pardon and the whole crossing the street thing looking the other way - i am destined to get myself killed! Great to catch up with friends and just kind of chill for a while and not have any real necessary things to do. Did manage to go to Les Miserables - absolutely amazing!, and I took myself to St Pauls and hiked up the dome. And we discovered Primark!
- Oxford - a quick visit to see friends studying there. A beautiful city and incredible buildings - saw where Harry Potter is filmed and fed the ducks and geese (apparently a monumentous thing to do) - we only just escaped alive - the geese are crazy!
- Cambridge - another quick visit to see more friends studying. Another beautiful city, but there less than 24 hours.
- Cardiff - apart from the obvsious reason as to why our trip to Cardiff was rubbish, it had some awesome atmosphere, the castle was kind of cool (especially the fact that the Cardiff regiment have a goat who actively serves and gets paid!), the streets were packed, everyone was in fine form (obviously post-game this was not the case) and the stadium was awesome. Well, for 60 minutes anyway. Our drive back to Cambridge in the middle of the night was rather sad.

Back in london for a couple of days before heading off to Luxembourg to go to the end of year Cricket dinner for the club I played for and see friends, then to Edinburgh to be a tourist, see another mate and suss out job opportunities, then Sheffield and the Lakes District to see another mate and do some adventuring...and then a week of something before I'm home in November for sisters wedding, before coming back with a uk visa (all going to plan).

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