Blois on a Sunday

Since we were sans car Noel dropped us off in the center of town around noon. We walked for a bit and then found a restaurant to have lunch. I had a pizza (they are pretty enormous and they insist that one pizza that is about 14 inches around serves one person). We then got on our sight seeing game. Our first stop was the Maison de la Magie (not to be confused with the Maison de la Magie that sits at the corner of Kirkwood Road and Woodbine!) This is a museum of magic because Robert Houdin, who lived from 1805-1871 was from Blois and is considered to be the father of modern magic. He was primarily a watchmaker and then moved onto magic later. He is the man that Harry Houdini took his name from. They had some interesting displays and a cute little magic show at the end complete with a levitation and a man in a shrinking box illusion that were really good.

Then we moved onto the Blois castle. It was very popular with the kings of France during the Renaissance - particularly Francois I and Louis XII. 7 kings and 10 queens spent time here and Catherine de Medici actually died here. The interesting thing is that the building is on four sides of a square and each side has a totally distinct style - gothic, renaissance, neoclassical, and I can't remember what the other one was. Ryan deleted the picture of the neoclassical facade but use your imagination...





























We needed to stay in town until it was time for dinner, due to lack of transportation, so we found a bar, J Hendricks Cafe to hang out in. I had a couple of beers and Ryan, true to form, ordered a prissy girl drink...









Then he redeemed himself with an absinthe. Hard to see in the picture but the disgusting liquid is in the bottom and then on top they have this dagger looking thing with a flaming cube of sugar on it...









After drinks we needed food so we headed to the only joint in town that looked happening - Au Bureau where we got enormous hamburgers. We sat near a young couple from Paris (he was American and she was French). They met at work in England doing financial work until the economy tanked and they both lost their jobs. Now he is studying international business or something with an emphasis on "green business". We had a cool chat about things to see/do in Paris and she helped translate some menu stuff for us. Enormous buns but the burger is normal size. This is the waiter that Ryan made me insult with the discussion of French counting (see previous post) so I'm pretty sure these have been on the floor or on someone's butt prior to being served...

Then is was back to a much warmer room at Moulin des Charmes. Funny thing about taxis in Blois - there is 5 euro on the meter when you get in because he drove from the taxi stand at the train station to pick you up at the restaurant and then they charge you double because it is a Sunday. So, the 6 mile journey cost 27 euros (a little over $30). I love the strike...

I need to do some shopping on the Champs Elysees so that is all you get for now folks. We move onto Paris next - ooh la la!

Blois the Accomodations

When we left off we had arrived in Blois with no hopes of a car. We stayed at Moulin des Charmes - a lovely mill that was built by monks in 1150 AD with our hosts Marina and Noel. They have only been running the Chambres d'hotes for about 17 months after moving out of a chateau somewhere else in France. That evening (Saturday night) we had a delightful table d'hotes with our hosts (literally table of the hosts). The woman is French (of Russian descent actually - her grandfather was the Governor of the Ukraine who was a cousin to the Czar and they fled to France after the Bolsheviks) and the man is British (an investment banker who has lived in various castles and huge houses in France as well as some time in Canada). We were joined by another couple (Louis and Marie Claire) from near Giverny (think Monet) who were on a honeymoon trip. The evening started out with some brut white from Vouvray in the living room. It was mostly in French (Louis and Marie Claire didn't have much English) and I tried to translate as best I could to Ryan. Dinner was several courses with different wines for each (apparently he now invests in wine too and seems to believe he knows a lot about every topic). After dinner things got oppressive when the French people retired to the room with the fireplace and I was left, with Ryan, at the table with the Thatcher/Reagan conservative who explained to me the unavoidable fall of the American Empire due to our non-sustainable way of doing things. I got to hear how 30% of Americans are fat and ugly and don't want to work and how all drug addicts need is for someone to force them to take a shower in the morning, brush their teeth for 30 seconds, and then make them run and do calisthenics. I was waiting for Ryan to comment that if the Brits brushed for more than 30 seconds maybe they wouldn't all have teeth that look like trash but he did a good job of holding his tongue. Noel, our host, believes that the threat of forced military service would scare them all "straight" and that society would be on the right track. Then he wanted to talk about health care. He did talk to me about the great advantages of nationalized health care but then backed me into a corner asking me how much money I made - it was quite uncomfortable.

However chilly the atmosphere was in the dining room, it was nothing compared to the frigidness of our bedroom. We told Noel it was a little chilly and he promised he would turn some heat on and I think he did turn the heat on in the bathroom but it was absolutely frigid in our room.

The grounds are lovely - they have chickens and we had fresh eggs each morning along with the usual assortment of bread and pain au chocolat. This house also has two dogs - black labs and one of them is 14 (Jimmy) and one is 7 (Roxy).

Ryan, God love him, always tries to get me to ask people really complicated or inappropriate things in French. He wanted to know if the newlywed couple had lived together before marriage or not but I ended up substituting apres (after) for avant (before) and it was a weird conversation for a time. The next night at dinner he wanted me to explain to the waiter how weird it is that the French word for 80 is literally (four twenty) and 90 is four twenty ten. That didn't turn out well either.

Noel did give us a ride into town the next day and on the day we were to leave for a small fee that was less than that of the taxis we took which was nice. He also turned the heat on for real sometime on Sunday so that night was a lot more pleasant. More about our adventures in town on Sunday coming up next...

Update

Sorry we haven't blogged in several days but we haven't had internet access. We have t0 pay $20 per day and have hardly been in the room enough to make it worth it. Paris is fantastic and we have a lot of sight seeing under our belts so I will probably blog some today after we hit the Louvre and the Pompidou museums...

Friday and Saturday

Friday we decided to "chillax" and do some wine tasting because we are intimidated by French wine. First we had to go into Uzes to get our camera battery charged (poor Ryan left the charger at home so we paid 7 euros to have the camera shop charge the battery) and stopped off at the little shop for me to buy another pair of warm knee socks. Then we headed off to drink wine. We hit one winery right in the town and then headed out before realizing that it was now noon and everything is closed until 1400. So, we went back to Mas Laurent, had some wine and lunch and watched some Sopranos (we are making our way through the final season).

After picking up the camera battery we headed out into the countryside to sample some Duchy D'Uzes wine (a special region surrounding Uzes). The production and labeling of wine in France is very complicated. In this region the white wines are chardonnay or viognier and the rose and red are blends of syrah, grenache, cab sav, cab franc, merlot. They are mostly very light on the tannins which we enjoyed. The best part of the whole thing was the chance to speak a little French in a relaxed atmosphere and I actually did pretty well. There was one winery in particular where the lady had very good enunciation - she spoke very quickly but I was able to understand her. It was a good time. We ended up buying 8 bottles of wine because they were only like 3-6 euros each (you know how Ryan loves a bargain) and Ryan even bought a magnum because it was only 19 euors ($24).

That night it was simple pizza for dinner with more wine and then more Sopranos before tuck in. Saturday was another travel day. Our GPS decided to stop working (that sucks) so we got lost trying to get back to the train station in Nimes. I was so worried that we would miss our train. Turning the car in was a breeze so we made it in time only to discover that the strike had delayed our train by 30 minutes. We were also the last stop on the line before Paris so the train was packed. I forced Ryan to find our assigned seats and there was already a family sitting there so we stood leaning against a luggage rack for the entire 3 hours. We used the I pad to watch more Sopranos and Ryan made friends with this very outgoing 7 year old girl who kept looking over the seat at him. Her mother fell asleep and she actually became a little obnoxious at some points but then eventually began to bother the high school age boy sitting across the aisle from her.

Funniest moment of the day occured about halfway through that train ride. I told you that Ryan and I were standing by a luggage rack. Well, we were actually alternating between standing, crouching and leaning against the luggage and sitting on the floor. At one point he reached back to tuck in his shirt when he realized that it was all wet in one spot and the top of his jeans was wet too. There was a bit of a perfume odor in the air and it became apparent that he had activated something aerosol in someone's bag that he was leaning against! Oops! He ran off to the bathroom to wash his hands with a good 5 inch area of wetness on his lower back - I have tears running down my face now just remembering.

We hit Paris at the Lyon station and had to find our way across the Seine in the rain to get to Austerlitz station where we realized that we had missed our train to Blois by about 10 minutes (due to the delay in the other train). I thought that trains went pretty frequently along this route but instead of getting a 1337 train, we were delayed until 1548. That meant that we got in to Blois at 1727 and the car rental place closed at 1700. We wandered around the station a little in the cold and rain before we decided just to take a taxi to our chambres d'hotes. With tomorrow being Sunday, I don't think we're going to get a car at all. So, we've come to the Loire but won't actually be seeing any chateaux (except the one in Downtown Blois) - shuttles run to them during the summer but not during this season and not on Sundays. Oh what fun this strike is...

Ancient Rome

This post will encompass travels from Wednesday and Thursday but since they are both ancient Roman ruins I thought they would go nicely together. I am not an engineer but I have to say that those Romans were quite impressive in their ability to build, to kill people, and to move water!

Prior to picking up the car in Nimes, we decided to go explore and see the Roman Arena there. It is a well-preserved arena (the best in France) and there was a terrific audioguide - Ryan felt like he was inside his show, Spartacus!

The arena was built around 80 AD and held about 24,000 people. Nimes was the largest city in the Western Roman Empire and was a very important stop on the way between Rome and Spain. The arena has four tiers of seats and a series of tunnels and exits (called vomitories) so that the upper class people who sat down low never had to rub shoulders with the poor people up top. The floor was covered in sand, which was turned over throughout the day, to sop up the blood. The rich guy in town would host a spectacle that would last all day. The first events were often animals fighting - pigs, bulls, bears and lions. Next would be some hunting competitions. Just before lunch they would feed prisoners to lions or other wild animals (according to the audioguide most people found this disgusting and would leave to buy food from the vendors. After lunch would be the gladiator fights. The audio guide cleared up some common misconceptions regarding this sport. It was really more like boxing - competitors were volunteers who sought money and glory and went to special training schools. There were various "levels" of gladiator that wore different costumes and had different weapons - none of which were designed to really kill - they were pretty blunt. The newbies would fight in the morning and lead up to the main event between two well-known fighters. Fighters were not allowed to deliver blows that would kill - your objective was to perhaps injure and definitely tire out your opponent. Several matches would occur at one time in the ring. There were referees primarily there to make sure that the men were actually fighting and they were not conspiring to bring about a certain outcome. At the end one man would give up out of shear exhaustion and then the guy who was hosting the event would pass judgment. 90% of the time the gladiator was "let go" because if he was killed, the host would have to pay a very large sum of money to the training school for "offing" one of their guys.

Interestingly, Nimes is the birthplace of denim which was invented by the Protestant middle class in the 18th century. It was known as serge and was for work clothes and was dyed blue and worn by the fisherman of Genoa. Levi Strauss began importing it for jeans after a trial of tent cloth failed and it got its name "denim" as an abbreviation of "de Nimes" which means from Nimes.

Our next stop was the Pont du Gard (Bridge over the River Gard) which is a bridge in a Roman aqueduct that carried water from a fresh water spring in Uzes (or near Uzes) to the all important city of Nimes. In Ancient Rome water was life - it provided comfort, pleasure, aesthetics, and hygiene. Take, for instance this row of Roman toilets pictured to the right. I have sat on many nastier toilets while en france...

Construction on the aqueduct started in about 19 B.C and took 15 years to construct. Even though Uzes and Nimes are only about 12 miles as the crow flies, Roman engineers picked a course of about 30 miles that allowed them to use much of the natural landscape to construct the aqueduct. About 90% of it is underground in tunnels (much like a modern day sewer). The grade had to be within certain standards to make sure that the water would flow (downhill) but not so steep as to allow overflow or quick degradation of the aqueduct. The chamber that carried water was 4 ft wide and 6 ft deep and lined with waterproof mortar that carried water for over 400 years! Water went from source to Nimes in 24 hours and dropped about 40 feet in the process (about 1 inch every 350 feet). This structure is the second highest remaining Roman structure at 160 ft high (only 6 ft shorter than the Roman Coliseum) and originally spanned 1100 feet but is now only 790 feet after the collapse of 12 arches. The main arch is the largest ever built at 80 feet. Just pondering the engineering of the arch structure itself is pretty amazing - the entire structure requires no mortar but the simple fact of gravity and the force exerted by the inverted keystone that keeps the structure aloft. I think the Greeks invented the arch but the Romans definitely exploited its use. Normally you can walk across the top but that area is closed for the winter so we were only able to walk across a road that is level with the first level (which has only been there since 1743 - ca c'est trop nouvelle!)

The thing that is nuts to me, aside from the engineering feats, is the fact that the water that came to Nimes was funneled into a holding tank and then distributed throughout the town in a pressurized water system. There were cisterns and public fountains and the private homes of the rich had running water! They used lead pipes and bronze faucets. This system provided about 100 gallons of water per second and they built systems like this throughout the Empire. In Rome, aqueducts supplied about 1,000 liters of water per person per day which is much more than we consume in daily life now.

Sorry to bore you with history - we just have nothing even close to this old in the US and it is fascinating to me!!!

Avignon

After another delightful breakfast at Mas Laurent and a nap for the suddenly dizzy and weird again Ryan, we set off for our day. The first stop was a large store called Carrefoure which is a little like a small Walmart - groceries, clothes, electronics all under one roof. Here we purchased some Coke Light (is caffeine withdrawal why Ryan is so sick in the morning?) and dropped off some laundry to have it washed and folded at a laundry in the same building. Then it was on to Avignon. It is so nice that towns are well signed and it is really easy to navigate. I also wish that the US would discover the beauty of the round about - it is so much more efficient than stoplights and stop signs. I suppose there is no chance of that unless we get invaded by a European country.

We didn't hit Avignon until noon and Ryan felt the need to get a little cafe au lait (a latte) and I had a chocolat (nothing like hot chocolate made with real full fat milk with coco sprinkles in it). Pardon the terribly unflattering picture of me. I would like to point out that I layered extensively today (a tank and a t shirt and a dress with leggings and my recently purchased knee high socks) and for the first day I was not cold. That was a bit of a feat because it has been ridiculously windy although that improved when we got to Avignon. Ryan stopped at H&M to get a hat to cover his poor bald head.

There is a Papal Palace in Avignon where popes resided for 68 years in the 14th century. A civil war in Italy had made it almost impossible to stay in Rome during the 12th century so the pope and his cardinals roamed through various cities almost like a king and his court (only probably without the debauchery). In 1309 Pope Clement V was elected and he was French so he decided that he wanted a new home in Avignon. In 1378 the Romans had had enough of French Popes so they elected an Italian one but the French Cardinals insisted that the French one was the true Pope and so until 1417 there was a Great Schism in the church where there were two Popes. The Papal Palace and courtyard are huge and the tour with the audioguide seemed to take forever - there are no furnishings and there was just too much going on and on and on about the various Popes (even for me - Ryan was completely over it about halfway through!)

We walked across town to have lunch at a restaurant that Deborah, our hostess recommended. It was 1400 so they were basically closed but would seat you if you had the plat du jour (daily special). Ryan had the rabbit (like a rabbit back leg with a creamy mustard sauce) and I had the monkfish with a provencal sauce. They were both good.

Then it was on to the Pont St Benezet (the Benezet Bridge which is the subject of a children's song that I learned in French class (sur la pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse). According to legend, a young shepherd named Benezet was out in the field with his flock when God told him to build a bridge across the Rhone in Avingnon. The townspeople laughed at him because it seemed ridiculous (and very hard). They challenged him to pick up a huge stone to set as the cornerstone (so to speak) of the bridge - a challenge that should have been impossible for one human being. He was able to do it and so the bridge was built (probably one of the miracles that allowed him sainthood). It was built between 1171 and 1185 and originally had 22 arches and was 3000 ft long. It was rebuilt multiple times until 1668 when a large part of it was destroyed and people just decided not to rebuild.

That is it for this post. Next we go waaaaaaay back to the time of the Roman Empire - a bientot.


PS - Ryan would like everyone to be aware that after the credit card charges came through the hairdryer cost me $105...

Mas Laurent

Making up for our trials on the trains is the perfection of Provence. Our chambres d'hotes (bed and breakfast) Mas Laurent is amazing. Our hosts, Deborah and Tim are a great Aussie couple with two dogs (a Schnauzer named Kaiser and a mostly dachshund named Bella). It is set in a picturesque area just west of the town of Uzes (pronounced Ooh-zays like "says" but with a "z"). We are on the ground floor with a private bath and the Mas is a 17th century farmhouse with stone walls that are like a foot thick. There is one very low ceiling that Ryan has hit his head on at least twice.

Here is our cute little car which we finally picked up on Wednesday afternoon. It is called a Fiat "Panda" and Ryan is proclaiming that our next car needs to be a stick. Mind you that this is at the same time he is telling me that I either have to shift for him or hold the GPS because he can't do both...








Here is our lovely room at Mas Laurent. It has lots of charm and unfortunately quite a bit of wildlife of the insect variety. I think we offed the spiders on the first night - one was actually killed while crawling across the bed. Now we have an assortment of crickets and flies. The crickets don't actually bother me but I'm not sure that I want any in my suitcase as a tag along.








Here is our room from the outside. We only have the large door on the bottom (which is I'm sure the cause of all the crickets) and the window belongs to a room above us but I hope you an see how charming it is. The whole mas is comprised of two buildings around a courtyard. Our building has the bedrooms, a common room, the host's family room and the large dining room and kitchen. across the courtyard is a gite (a self sufficient unit for rent with a kitchen and all) and an artist studio (or atelier). There is a pool (too cold now) and lovely land with two ponds. We parked our car and noticed that we were parked under an olive tree!







As proof of the charm of this place here is the key to the closet in our room - I feel like I've gone back in time...

We need to head off for our adventures today. I hope to be able to blog about our adventures in Uzes and Nimes (those occured yesterday) when I get back.

Je deteste la greve

I hate the strike - I really do. October 19th was a very long day. We got up and got ready and then I tried to return my hairdryer. Unfortunately that salon cannot do refunds so I was either going to have to exchange it for foreign hair product or keep the hair dryer. So, I now have a very expensive European hairdryer to keep - interesting souvenir.

We then made our way through some drizzle to the outskirts of town to the train station. Upon arrival we found that our train was delayed an hour. So departure time was now 1240 and we also found that our train from Paris to Nimes was canceled so we would have to catch a later one at 1720 that would put us into Nimes too late to pick up out car. Ryan, who is still suffering from disorienting jet lag, slept in the train station while I read. The delay ended up being more than an hour and I think our train left Bayeux at 1330 or something. We watched Saving Private Ryan during the ride since we had just been to Omaha Beach the dat before. Fun thing about the Bayeux train station is no food, no toilets, no WiFi. I called the proprietress (is that the right word) of the place we are staying in Provence to try to arrange getting from Nimes to her place but just got a ringing phone and no answering machine.

Got to Paris at 1530 or so and found our way by metro to the other station which was really crowded and dirty. We had a quick sandwich while standing, Ryan paid to use a really nasty toilet, and we waited to find out which track our train would depart from. I called our destination and was able to leave a message. Once they announced it there was a mad rush for seats. Because we didn't have tickets for that train I kept fearing that the people who had tickets for the seats we were sitting in would come and ask us to move. Thankfully that didn't happen. If you were a scoundrel you could just about go anywhere in France right now for free because no one is looking at tickets or anything. However since I don't know the language that well and have no interest in spending time in prison, we have had tickets for all our sojourns.

The TGV train was very nice and very fast (like 250 mph). We watched another movie and drank some wine and beer but didn't think to eat since we had lunch at 1600. Then we had the unfortunate luck of having a medical emergency somewhere on the train and had to make an unexpected stop for an ambulance to take someone away. About 15 minutes prior to our arrival we received a call from Deborah - the nice Aussie lady who runs the chambres d'hote. She arranged to have her gardener, Zhouri, pick us up at Nimes station and ferry us out to Mas Laurent. That cost us a cool 50 euros and will cost us the same when we have to return to Nimes on Wednesday to pick up our car. The Mas Laurent is a delightful place and Deborah made us a lively last-minute dinner of fennel salad, omelettes, and cheese with a little red wine to wash it down.

No pictures for this crummy day...

October 18th - D Day Tour

Today was a very cold and sobering day. We met our D day tour guide at 830am - he was a funny young British guy with some piercings. We rode in a van with two older couples - one from Tampa and one from Virginia.
This is the tour guide Sean




Our first stop was the church of Sts Come and Damien in Angoville au Plain, a village of approximately 50 persons where two paratroopers, aged 18 and 20, one a medic and one a stretcher bearer, treated around 80 people on June 6,7 and 8 1944. They treated American and German soldiers (the town changed hand multiple times during the day) and one civilian boy whose entire family had been killed. This part of the tour was to describe the plan or the paratroopers and all that went wrong. None of the men that they treated died of their wounds.
This is the church in Angoville au Plain

Blood that is still present one a pew where a wounded soldier was treated

From there we went to the town of Ste Mere Eglise (the first town liberated by the American Forces and the subject of the film "The Longest Day"). More interesting stories of paratroopers and a museum to visit (where my feet recovered from a bit of their frostbite). We then headed to Utah Beach, Pointe du Hoc (where Rangers were able to scale the cliffs against incredible odds and didn't lose a single man). Then we went to Omaha Beach (where things didn't go nearly as well as they did on Utah) and finally to the US Cemetery. The scale of the entire operation was simply amazing. 3500 American men died at Omaha beach on June 6th. In contrast 4400 have been lost in Iraq since 2003. Each year the French are called to disarm over 1200 unexploded ordinances that are found. In addition about 12-15 German bodies are recovered in Normandy every year

Pointe du Hoc (the rock is supposed to look like a hook. It is hard to tell how vertical these cliffs are from this picture.

Not sure if you can see these deep craters that are from bombing at Pointe du Hoc prior to D-Day. They are very deep even after 50 years.

This is looking down from Pointe du Hoc. Can you imagine how easy it would be up here with a machine gun to just pick guys off of the beach? Thankfully they only had two of the five guns up and operational because they were fortifying the defenses after all the bombing.

The American Cemetery is beautiful. The monuments are in perfect rows in all directions (an amazing feat 50 years ago). When you enter the inscriptions are all facing away so that everything is uniform and no particular detail such as a name or a state captures your attention. They buried the men randomly (except that brothers are buried together) with no respect to rank because no one person's sacrifice was greater than another. The only exception is that Medal of Honor recipients are inscribed in gold.

We capped off our day with another dinner of traditional Norman cuisine - the entire front room of the restaurant spoke English - a couple from Melbourne, a couple and their 6 month old from Sydney, a couple of brits and a table of 4 from Virginia. On Tuesday it is off to Uzes in the south of France - hope the weather is warmer and a bit sunny!

Oct 17th - Bayeux Day 2

Today has been a lazy day so far. We watched some Modern Family that we have downloaded on the I pad this morning (love that show). Then we took a quick nap and got up in time to go to lunch. The weather is rather cold and dreary so we stopped at this tiny place and split a Croque Monsieur (Hot Ham and Cheese) and a Tartine with potatoes, cheese and tomatos and a basket of french fries. I was warmed from the inside with a delightful cup of chocolat (hot chocolate). We met some lovely British people who were taking a motorcoach tour out of Rouen (the town where Joan of Arc was burned as a witch). One elderly lady was sporting an Obama button on her coat.

We walked around town again and all along a path by the Aure river.

Here is a slightly better picture of the cathedral:

Here are sights from out walk next to the river:

After our walk I had to come back to the room to warm up and we watched more Modern Family. Then it was time to head out for a snack and a drink.

Here is a view up the main drag from our hotel:

We went to the same boulangerie we went to yesterday for our baguette and Ryan got this enormous meringue with almonds and powdered sugar. It was good for about 3 bites and then became just too much sweetness. I scarfed down all my pain au chocolate which is a buttery croissant with bits of chocolate inside - a much better choice in my opinion.

With our tummies full and me freezing to death, Ryan decided to revisit a bar that he went to yesterday while I was trying to figure out some way to get us to Mont St Michel by car today. It was a dark cool place. We each ordered a beer - Ryan a Loburg and I a Leffe. Mine was gagful with its caramel notes so Ryan was chivalrous and switched with me - way to take one for the team my dear. We then saw some guys order this drink that we could see had grenadine, stella, and an unknown third ingredient. I asked the bartender and he told me it was a Monaco - grenadine, limonade, and Stella and that it would be an appropriate drink for me but not for Ryan. So I ordered one and Ryan got a Stella and then the music changed to a Tina Turner album. Pure coincidence but weird music to hear in a dark and masculine bar. Ryan took pictures of me but said I was smiling too much which is why I look like this:

The drink was good but very sweet. On our way back to the hotel we met a Cuban American couple who asked me to translate a sign at a restaurant for them. Then he asked me if I knew where he could get gas because the strike has affected gas stations over here and it is being rationed. The restaurant they wanted to eat at didn't open until 1830. It was only 1730 but his wife was insistent that they wait there until it opened!!! He then asked if I was French (after he had already verified that I was American when I answered the question about the restaurant) and proceeded to tell me in a very loud voice that there was just something about the French that he didn't like. I suppose when you are hen-pecked to death by your wife you need to find someone to rail against. Speaking of French people not to like, I've been avoiding the crabby desk guy all day - I made Ryan go ask for dinner suggestions because I am afraid he may call and tell them to spit in our food or something!

Hopefully I'll have more exciting things to post tomorrow after our D-Day adventure.

Uggh

I didn't post this yesterday because I was holding onto hope that things would work out. There were two things on the agenda while in Bayeux - the D-Day sites and a visit to the famous abbey of Mont St Michel. The hotel that we are staying in has a shuttle that makes a day trip to Mont St Michel and I made a reservation for Monday the 18th. When I made our plans for the D-Day tour I decided that Monday would be a better day for that because we would be less tired and it would require more of our attention. I do remember contacting our hotel via the internet to request a change to Sunday and then crossing this portion of our trip off my list of things to plan.

Upon check-in yesterday (Saturday) we determined that they had not gotten my request and we were double booked on Monday. Calls were made and there was a possibility that the D-Day tour would have two openings today because of the rail strike. I checked back later in the day when the nice woman was gone and a rude man was on. The D-Day tour did not have any Sunday openings (and neither did the Mont St Michel shuttle). He chewed me out for canceling the Mont St Michel trip while keeping the D-Day trip (I explained that I was going to try to get to Most St Michel on our own) and was not very helpful. What followed was my attempt to find any way to get to Mont St Michel on our own. The hardest part is that car rental places both here and in Caen are closed on Sunday. The only other possibility is taking a train to a small town that is 10km from the Mont and then paying 28 euros to ride a bus for 15 minutes to the Mont (not sure if that 28 euros is one way or not) but, perhaps because of the strike, the first train to that town arrives at 1745 - that's not cool since it closes at 1800.

We got up early this morning and presented ourselves in the lobby just in case someone had to cancel last minute but no such luck. So, I am super bummed to not see Mont St Michel - maybe we will make a day trip from Paris. We now have a very low-key day so maybe I'll go back to the tapestry and get that postcard after all. Otherwise we are going to watch a movie (it is pretty cold outside this morning) and fart around town today.

Ta ta for now!

Bayeux Day #1 Oct 16th

Ryan has had a tough time with the jet lag today. After departing the train and dealing with our ticket issues, we walked into Bayeux to our hotel - a charming place right in the middle of town and were able to check in around noon. After Ryan changed into jeans (it was 50 outside and he was wearing his shorts - kept wondering why people were staring at him), we walked up and down the street by the hotel - got some chicken panini sandwiches to eat while we walked. After eating Ryan actually started to look and feel like a drunk man - all off-balance and couldn't walk straight. I guess it was lack of sleep (he would not make a good doctor) and I got him back to the hotel to bed for a nap.

One of my brilliant plans was to buy a french hairdryer because I know that high wattage appliances like those do poorly with power converters. So my first objective after I tucked Ryan in was to find one because no hairdryer, no shower for Christy. The search was much more difficult than I had anticipated. First I went to a pharmacie where two gentleman directed me to a larger store that had housewares (like a small version of Bed Bath and Beyond). The woman there suggested I try a hair salon. I think I went in 3 or more of those. Hair salons do not normally cater to tourists I think because there was little to no English in there. I finally found a shop that sold hairdryers and I had two choices - the small professional one for a mere 120 euros or a larger version for 64 euros! Still yearning for a shower sometime in the future, I bought the model for 64 euros.

I then returned to the Hotel Churchill for a one hour nap. Upon tucking into the bed, I found a hairdryer in the nightstand. Now I am torn - do I return the one that I bought in hopes of finding a cheaper one somewhere else (like in the next town) or will that turn into a misadventure as well?

Ryan was very hard to awaken from his 2 1/2 hour nap but I finally drug him out of bed to do some sightseeing. We went to the Bayeux Tapestry which is a tapestry from the 11th century that depicts William the Conquerer's victory over King Harold of England to claim the British throne which happened in 1066. The tapestry is in excellent condition for being 1000 years old and it is very cool to see a story depicted in fabric in such detail. It is amazing that the tapestry has survived at all. It survived two fires and the cathedral where it was stored. Also, during the French Revolution is was used as a tarp to cover a wagon that went from Bayeux to Paris and was rescued by some guy and folded and stored in an office for years! There was also consideration of cutting it up to make flags for a parade! After viewing the tapestry there is a film and poor Ryan was nodding and bobbing throughout - he was still feeling poorly. Unfortunately they don't allow pictures of the tapestry. I was going to buy a postcard that I could photograph and have for the scrapbook but I had no money with me and Ryan had already exited the building to sit on a bench. Perhaps I will go back.

After that we went to the Cathedral de Notre Dame de Bayeux - a cathedral from the 11th century that has both gothic and romanesque architecture. It is a huge place and very beautiful.

After the cathedral we grabbed a snack of break and cheese and headed back to the hotel for a bit before heading out to a dinner of pizza and wine. I have no idea why this is in black now and no patience to figure it out since I am ready for bed so bear with me. Here is a lovely little scene that we caught while walking around. The weather has been rainy and cold most of the day - hoping it improves...

Another snafu...

At the train station we had another snafu. I booked most of our trains during the summer online to take advantage of good rates and paid online with plans to get the tickets at the station from a self-service kiosk. I had a pretty good suspicion that the kiosk would not work with US credit cards (European cards have a chip instead or in addition to the magnetic stripe. Our cards didn't work so we had to wait in line to talk to someone at the ticket counter. They also quite specifically state that you must use the card that you used to purchase the tickets. After swiping both of our credit cards and having the agent tell us that neither card was right, I remembered that while in California in August, Ryan lost our credit card and they issued us a new one. Apparently this is a big problem and she had to reticket us to Bayeux with only 4 minutes until the train left (our original train had been rescheduled). We were charged 70e for the new tickets instead of 30e that I originally paid. This agent knew English well but we were in too big a hurry to deal with the reserved tickets problem and ran to catch the train (Ryan actually ran a little on his knee). At the station in Bayeux there was a very helpful girl who understood some English (but didn't speak much). She re-ticketed us for Nimes (at a cost of 200e instead of 79!) but helped us fill out a form that should reimburse us for the extra cost. I only have one more train ticket that will be a problem but I will sort that out later.

Beautiful scenery on the way to Bayeux...

Par un avion

Flying first class was awesome - my cheapskate husband even turned to me and said "wow, this is totally worth the extra cost". Of course, since the trip was paid for with Marriott points we didn't have to actually pay the thousands of dollars between coach and first class. We settled in to watch the 4th Harry Potter movie because my goal was to go to sleep immediately after dinner.

For dinner we started with appetizers of shrimp cocktail and a stick with tomato, mozzarella, kalamata olives, and zucchini. Then we had a salad with hearts of palm and balsamic vinaigrette. The main course was filet in a red wine sauce with asparagus and mashed potatoes. Dessert was a trio of petit fours. It was not exactly gourmet but it really didn't feel like a plane at all.

Then the chairs reclined all the way back so we could lay down and get some good sleep. Ryan took advantage of the free eye shade and the seat was large enough for me to turn and sleep on my side. My liberal consumption of water and wine conspired to wake me in the middle of our approximate 3 hour nap - I hate the bladder sometimes! Sleep was peaceful but brief because then they had to have time to serve us our elaborate breakfast of fruit, scrambled eggs, potatoes, and a provencal tomato. Immigration and customs went well - no problems with Ryan's close-to-expiring passport. We then rode the Roissy bus to l'Opera and walked to the gare St.Lazare (train station) to catch our train to Bayeux. I think Ryan was actually a little shocked that I could speak with people to get directions. The funny thing is that the guy spoke English and we totally did a little of each so it wasn't hard at all.

On our way

My passport did arrive at about 700 this morning - thank you Fed Ex guy!!! I've had the opportunity to hear many funny (only in hindsight) stories from people in similar situations. It is nice to know that you are not alone when you do something stupid. I also am proud that I don't have the most expensive passport in history - someone had to spend 1500 to fly to London the day after Christmas to renew a British passport prior to a trip from the US to St. Lucia. By the way, I am using Ryan's blogger account because it was already set up but all of these posts will be done by Christy. Now I just wonder about the French rail strike which has been going on since Oct 12. Can't find any current news about the situation. We are to board a train to Bayeux 3 hours after landing in Paris Saturday morning...what an adventure!

First Snafu

So this trip has been planned since last November when our original trip got canceled...I've been planning for months and think I have everything all worked out. On Saturday night, while at work, I have a nightmare that I get to the airport and my passport is expired. I woke up shaken but blew it off, sort of. I asked Ryan to get the passports out of the safety deposit box on Monday. He texts me at work - the bank is closed for some reason. Oh that's right, it's Columbus Day. So he goes today, Wednesday to get them. When I get home from work and get Drew all settled I decide to look at my passport because I am curious when it expires because of my dream...OMG it expired in March 2010!!!!! Mind you it is 430pm on Wednesday and we leave for the airport at 1030 on Friday morning. I instantly want to throw up or run out in front of traffic but instead turn to my friend the internet to help me out of my debacle. It is truly painful but you can pay a lot of money and apparently get a passport renewed in 24 hours. I'm counting on FedEx and the passport office in Chicago but I'm promised delivery of my passport by 830 Friday morning. Not sure I'll truly relax until it is in my hands. How could I be so stupid? Thank God we can afford the extra charges and don't have to cancel the trip! Ryan's expires in December and I already told him we are definitely taking care of that as soon as we return so this doesn't happen again...

Trip to France

We will be leaving on Friday for a two week trip to France. I am taking a cue from some other friends and will try to blog our adventures as we go. Wish me luck!