Day 14: Paris (Day 1)

Bonjour!

Today we were heading to Paris the city of Lights. We had a 10:20 train to catch at St. Pancras. Thank goodness that it was only 5 minutes from the Hostel. So we headed downstairs at a reasonable hour and had some breakfast, then walked to the train station. It was nice and smooth, unlike going to London! So we napped a bit on the train, a bit wiped from the crazy London tour...

Our Train in Gay Paris!

All I could hope for is that is was going to be a better start than Strasbourg...So now we needed to figure out how to get to our hotel from here...hummm....Metro, RER....well needless to say we figured it out and found our hotel room at le Hotel de Dieppe. It is in the Saint Lazar area...so we were able to get our rooms right away and we were just relaxing before we decided what to do in Paris. Then Jeff saw that Leif had posted to Facebook that he was in Paris with Celine. What a coincidence...so Jeff sent a text message to see if they were interested in doing something before he flew back to Canada...so Leif and Celine said lets meet for a night boat cruise on the Seine. Then we all decided to meet at 10:30pm near Notre Dame de Paris.

Notre Dame de Paris

While we were waiting we decided to go look for some dinner...unfortunately we made a poor decision when surrounded by tones of expensive restaurants in a trendy/touristy neighborhood.  We had way too expensive cokes and dinners that were Meh. After a poor start to culinary food, I was a little down. We decided to explore the neighborhood as we were in the Saint-Germain-Des-Pres area (I have fabulous Lounge music named this!) so I was excited to see or hear some good music...none of that either! (But I did get some French Accordion music in the subway! YAY!)

The four of us got on the boat at the back...really is that a surprise?? So of course we are all chatting as we putt putt down the Seine. It was really beautiful, but we were not listening to the commentator at all, but pointing out interesting things along the way. Celine saw people doing the Tango on the banks of the Seine...

Notre Dame at night

We were having such a good time that the sights just flew by.

Me and Celine at the back of the boat!

Of course Jeff and I had been in Paris since the morning, but we had not see the Tour d'Eiffel...and before you knew it there it was all bright and Orange! LOL... So we had to get pictures of it and I told Leif and Celine that they needed one too, so this is what kind of shot Leif gave Jeff...

Celine I don't know how you do it! lol

Leif always makes me laugh and Celine too (thanks the stars!). I can't even show you the serious picture...ok here it is:

This is Serious!?!?

Oh Leif, life would not be as much fun with out you...and we are so glad that Celine loves you too! Our night really ended when Jeff and I took the Metro with Leif and Celine to drop them off at Gard l'Est. We continued on the Gard Nord then a transfer on to our stop...now we got home at around 12:30pm...everything was dark and sketchy near the hotel. Even our hotel was dark, we had to buzz in and ask for our key. Oh yeah, you don't keep your keys here, you drop them off at the desk when you leave.

Bonsoir,
Ern

Day 13: London (Day 3)

Hello Everyone!

Today we had a very busy agenda planned.
1. St Paul's Cathedral (open 8:30am)
2. The Globe Theatre (open at 9am)
3. The Tower Bridge (jeff) on the way
4. Hampton Court Palace (opens at 10am)
5. British Museum and Portrait Gallery (closes at 6pm)

So that was the plan, but we only finished 1-4. We didn't get to see the British Museum or Gallery, but that is OK. We needed something else to go and see! LOL.

So here is our hostel room, we even had 2 pillows each and didn't have to bring the sheets down!

Our Hostel Room!

It even had air conditioning in this room!

We had breakfast in the hostel which wasn't too bad. Cereal, yogurt, pastry, juice and fruit. We head out to the Cathedral and it was huge! To bad they don't let you take pictures inside...had to buy a post card.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Then we continued towards the Globe theatre and we had to cross the Millennium walking bridge to get there...and well lets just say that if I could run across it I would have...the sides were just a little too open for my sensibilities! Shawna and Lindsay it was like Vancouver...remember...only this was much wider and not so much of a drop, but you know what it was like for me! LOL

That is me moving really fast!

We then arrive at the Globe theatre...I was super excited to see a recreation of this theatre with period techniques...and I have tones of pictures.

The Globe

They have an exhibition that we only got through half of it, but when they opened the theatre to 2005 they did all the costumes by hand like they would have in Shakespeare's time! It is my dream, do costumes that are contemporary to Shakespeare's time now! I need to get a job there! and it is theatre! I was in heaven!

From the expensive seats...they were painting the stage for the new show going up.

This is the only place in London that has permission to have a Thatched roof...if you want to see more you will have to come over to my house! LOL.

Once I bought out the gift shop, Jeff headed to the Tower Bridge and I relaxed by the Thames in a really nice park near tower bridge.

I am in the park beside the helmet building,..Jeff's View of the Thames

Jeff will have to let you know what his experience is going up there...

We then headed out towards Hampton Court Palace. I really wanted to go there as they have people dresses up in costumes and they do period feast weekends and such...so I really wanted to see what that was all about. Let me tell you it sure was the highlight of my trip. I have SO many pictures of the period Tudor kitchens...I loved it.

One of the three different kitchens.

But I won't bore you with my silly fun, but I have to say that it is a beautiful palace too. The Gardens are really nice and the swans are like in Munich, but the coolest thing we saw was a 400 year old grape vine that is still producing grapes and they are sold in the shops.

This is the root ball!

The yummy grapes are dangling for anyone to eat...oh yeah you couldn't get in the green house!

And then there is the architecture of the building too...

Hampton Court Palace

 Well we spent so much time there that we had run out of time to go to the British Museum...oh well. We decided to head back to the hostel and get diner and some more Magner's Pear. Yum! Only I spilled 3/4 of my pint on Jeff and he had to go back and change...I was sad, my drink did go in my stomach!

On our way back from food we noticed what street we were on!

Judd has a street named after him! Go Judd!

Who knew we were right beside Judd street! LOL had to get a pic of that for Judd!
After we had dinner we decided to turn in (it was 11:30pm anyway) and I would shower and try to get some blogging done...well there you have it. Tomorrow we head for Paris...bye bye London, we will miss you!

Cheers,
Ern

Day 12: London (Day 2)

Oy!

Today was going to be our 2nd full day in London and we really didn't have anything planned except the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. So we decided that after breakfast we would head into Picadilly circus to get our London visit passes which would let us into most of the other attractions that were not free, such as the tower. So once we got them we decided to walk down to Trafalgar square and have a peek at the fountain and pigeons! This is a really nice panorama that Jeff took.

Trafalgar Square

and a picture of us!

Just the two of us...and pigeons...

 Moving further along we passed the Queen's stables when they were coming back from the changing of the guards...we thought that we should try and see that tomorrow...

Changing of the Guards at the stables

As we continued our walk we ended up passing by One Downing street, home of the current Prime Minister. As you can see there was a lot of security and tones of police too!

One Downing Street

So we are getting closer and closer to Parliament and Westminster Abbey...I really did want to see Elizabeth I's death mask...but once we got there it was too expensive and was not covered in the London Pass...how crappy. Next trip I will have to go there!

Westminster Abbey

 So right across the street is Parliament. I totally forgot how much gilding there was on the structures! The Tower where Big Ben lives was very gilded on the top!

Not Big Ben...that is the Bell that sounds the hours.

We were so close to the Thames that we decided (thanks to our London Pass) to take the city Thames boat tour. It would take us right to the tower...so off we go!

We are ON A BOAT!

On the your (which I recommend to anyone going to London) we saw the London Eye.

London Eye

and all kinds of other buildings. The Boat Captains actually do impromptu tours, they don't get paid for them, but only ask for tips if you like them. They were really good and funny. Here are some nice shots Jeff took while we were on the cruise.

The Globe

HMS Belfast

Tower Bridge

and finally...

Tower of London with visible Traitors gate from the Thames.

Now this was really cool to see. Wop we jumped off here and went into the tower...I have so many pictures about this as there was armor and such in every room, that this will have to be done in person! But here are a few samples...

Outer Gates

King's Bedroom

This palace is much cooler now that I am interested even more in medieval history...yipee!

After the Tower we decided to take the boat cruise down to Greenwich and back to Millennium Pier and then head for dinner. Well we had such a nice cruise, but I won't bore you with the pictures...I have posted a lot already! We thought we might try to go there tomorrow if possible.

It is hard to see in this pic, but there is an orange ball that Greenwich mean time is calculated.

We decided to head back to the Hostel and have dinner there, but we took a double decker bus back! We sat up top right in front, it sure would make a crazy ride too!

On the double decker red bus.

We made it back in one piece and decided to have dinner at O'neill's Irish restaurant on the corner near our hostel. Jeff had some beer and I had Magners (Which I love) and Jeff ate Ribs and I had the biggest hamburger ever! But the problem was that the other servers gave our food to some other table, so we waited over an hour for our food. Though we ended up getting to know our server (Áine) better and they paid for another round, so I had Magner's Pear and OMG! I have to get them to get it in Canada! It was so much better than Sir Perry's, nice caramel finish!

Magner's Pear - must get in Canada!

After 2 ciders and dinner I was ready for bed...a little pickled on the side! LOL. BTW that was the last picture the battery could handle...actually Jeff had to play with it to do it!

Cheers!
Ern

Day 11: Lille to London (Day 1)

Bonjour and soon to be hello!

As I was saying in my last post that we were in the super sketchy hostel, but it was super cheap...so I guess you get what you paid for. We knew that we wanted to be a the ferry fairly early so that we didn't have any issues like Kehl. So as we are on the road we have about an hour before we need to leave on the ferry according to the GPS. Lots of time, but then there is construction in France (like Canada) and a huge line up to get to the tolls, so that cut our time to half and hour. Jeff was looking at our train tickets and noticed that we weren't leaving from the Ferry as originally thought...now we have no idea where we are leaving from as I thought that we were leaving from the Ferry...that would be why we were dropping the car off there...but that was not the case!

When we dropped the car off to Europcar the guy at the desk said that the station was 21km away (and it is 9am and we leave on the train at 9:36!) Holy Crap! How do we get there? Bus, shuttle, nope by Cab only. So we found a cabbie who could get us there but it will cost 35euros...what? I only had pounds left...so he raced (literally over the speed limit) to get us there in 15 minutes. Now the problem is that we needed to be there 30min before the train left to do British Customs and have our bags scanned...WHAT!!!

Jeff is jumping around trying to get someone's attention and they tell us it is too late, but they will see what they can do. They were a little grouchy, but nice enough to get us through. The British customs had us fill out forms very quickly and he asked me what was my profession...and I said I worked for the Government of Canada and Jeff was a student...he was like "Well lets get our through for our compatriot!" So he was rushing us through and the French scanner guys were hurrying us on as fast as possible and we got on the train just as it was leaving the station. They don't wait for anyone!

We are on our way!

This was a fairly quick train as it was about 1.5hrs and then the time change back an hour once we get to England.

St Pancras Station

We get to St. Pancras - which is were our hostel was located and decided to head right there in hopes our room was ready or at least lockers. We had to get lockers but it was fairly simple. Seemed like a really nice hostel too. So with our arrival at 9:30 am we have a whole day to kill before we can check in at 2pm. So we decided to head to t Victoria and Albert Museum for the morning...I knew I would be here a long time. Saw tones of awesome dresses and stuff..

18th century gown

We ate lunch there and continued on our way. Our feet were quite tired by the end of it. So as we were walking along to catch the next Tube back to the hostel. We wanted to figure out what to do that evening. We stopped in a small convenience store with groceries and saw the beer section...humm what could be the prices, well they had Strongbow there in cans about 440ml and in packs of 4 and the cost was £4! Unbelievable! So cheap! I need to move to London!

We head back to the hostel and decided that we would try and go see Les Miserables that night. I have never seen it, but know all the music and words. We head out and decide not to get dinner as it was already late in getting out. We get to the theatre and get ticktes (OK they weren't cheap but so worth it!) they theatre was really nice.

the logo on the scime.

The show was fantastic! Valjean and Javert were excellent, I didn't like Marius as he had a weird verbrato, but all together enjoyable!

A nice picture of us at the theatre.

It is now 11pm and we are trying to find something to eat, but nothing is really open as we find out it was their bank holiday! No wonder it was so busy! Well we then decide it is time for bed if we want to do anything tomorrow!

Ern
PS. I do have lots of pics of Trez at the wedding...I will post them to Facebook.

Day 10: Lure, France: Leif and Celine's Wedding Day/Night

Bonjour!

I know that this is coming quite late, but both of us have been running like crazy to see as much as possible.

So the day of the wedding arrived and it was a cloudy day with then sun trying to get through. The night before we had made plans to have people come to the hotel at 2:30pm to get a ride to the church, I had also promised Celine that we would look for some disposable cameras (in green) for her tables. It sure was interesting trying to find cameras in Lure, so after breakfast we head out into the small town to look for them. It is about 9:30am when we find them. So we head back to the hostel to start getting ready...

Of course everything goes really well and I am ready to go for 2:30 - really that isn't interesting in the least. But we get to the church on time. It was a really nice little church.

Church in Lure

We really were not sure what to expect for a French wedding...would it be the same as North America?? While waiting for the wedding to start we met some really nice friends of Leif and their significant others. We met Lukas and Lucie (they live in Switzerland) and Markus and Leslie (Toronto). We all sat together. Now Lucie is from England and she reminded me of Sue! (Miss you Sue!) Now then we wait outside till everyone arrives before we go into the church, the the guest go in before the groom. Leif then enters with his family and we all wait for Celine to come down the aisle. the ceremony starts with everyone waiting outside. Finally she arrives as we are being serenaded by a local orchestra (amateurs...nice but not my cup of tea). So they are still doing the grooms march as Celine is waiting at the front of the church but the music didn't stop...so she had to wait till the end of the song before they started hers. She didn't really have bridesmaids as we do, but witnesses that are in the pews.

Celine coming down the aisle with her Dad.

Her dress was fantastic...More about that later...now a French Catholic wedding meant that they had chairs up front, the wedding was done in French, Germain and English. There was readings, soloists, a bag piper and the orchestra, plus all the church stuff too, so needless to say we were at a long wedding. It was really nice, but the oddest thing was that we left the church before the couple, so we all loitered till they came out...then did a half fast group shot on the steps...who knows if I can be seen in the picture or not. Now I have some photos of that, but I can't help but post this...

Leif looking a little shell shocked

So now we head to the Aperitif that is a short walk from the Church. We were greeted by a 2 man band playing some nice Jazz. There were finger food and Champagne (real Champagne), then came out the had on buns and hot appies (mini hot dogs with cheese on top, and other yummy stuff) as well as mini deserts...we had to make sure to eat something as we were not having dinner till 8pm.

Aperitif after the ceremony

So that continued until 6:30pm when we decided to go back to he hotel to catch the 7:30pm bus to the reception hall. Now at the aperitif it rained but only after they had completed the wedding pictures. I knew that this was going to be a long night as we were informed on Friday that we were expected (by Celine) to be at the reception until the 5am food course was served...oh boy!

So we get on the bus and head to the reception hall for dinner. Now the appetizers were served at about 9:30pm...and here is the spread and my plate (it was buffet style for this course).
\

Appetizers Spread.

Smoked Salmon, pickles, Prosciutto, Salads and Foie Gras!

They then did some speeches and we also go up and did some dancing...then at 10:30pm the palate cleanser came out.

Cherry Sorbet with Kishe

Boy was this potent! It was very tasty, but Wow killer. So as we are waiting for the main course to happen, Leif and Celine do their first dance. They were so cute and Leif said he was so nervous. I have video for those who wish to see it.

The first dance.

So then at 11:45pm the dinner is served! I can't believe that I am eating this late, but I am not stuffed at all! It was super yummy too!

Beef with pallela and roasted vegetables.

Now we have been partying for quite some time. There is wine on the tables - in fact the white didn't last at all, we finished that before the food was even put out. They had beer free flowing...I am looking at my watch and say "Wow! We still have 2 courses left|)  So then the cheese course comes out around 1am and desert at 2am. And everyone is dancing while they wait, and not our crappy way of dance, but actual partner dancing. We were all waltzing...even Jeff and I (very poorly) But it was so much fun! Pretty much everyone is still at the party (even the very elderly) obviously this is a normal French pratice!

Cheese course.

Champagne with Desert.

Desert, mousse, sorbet, a little cake and some fruit.

Well it is now 2am and we have been dancing up a storm...speeches had been completed and the full socializing was happening. They didn't have a DJ, but a 2 man band that did everything from traditional french to rock and roll (and even AC/DC! LOL) But the food is not done yet. The wedding cake was still to come! Now I have NO idea what time this came out, but it was the traditional French cake the Croquembouche! I was SO excited!

Traditional except for the shape!

Sooooo, yummy! Then more partying and at 5am out came the last food course. It was Onion Soup or as we know it in NA French Onion Soup!

French Onion Soup

So needless to say by this time I was very tried, Jeff was drunk (and very happy with his buds) and we had to catch the 6am bus back to the Hotel. Once we were on the bus, the sun was starting to rise, and I couldn't think of the last time we were up that late. Jeff helped on of the guest from getting sick all over the bus and back to his room before we made it back to ours. The hotel had the best shutters ever, complete light blockage! We needed to sleep and get to brunch for 12:30pm. Well we slept in till 12:30 and Celine knocked on our door at 12:45pm (we were packing by this time) as we had to check out and head to Lille today.

So we had made it to the brunch, said hi to our new friends ate (or I did) and then headed out around 3pm. Now we have a 5.5hr drive to Lille in our car! (Oh No! I forgot to get a picture of our car...) here is a picture from the internet. I LOVE this car...it was peppy and great! (except for the window button...it was by the seats near the clutch not on the door)

only ours was silver

Well it rained and it was a crappy drive. We got in around 10:30 as I had to stop the car at the rest stop to sleep for an hour...I was wiped! So Lille's hostel was super sketch, well I guess you get what you pay for.

Next installment will be our harrowing trip to get to the train!

Aurevoir!
Ern