Annecy

Somehow the text that I typed for this post never showed up, so here is a bit of an explanation, a little bit late.

Last weekend I was in Annecy for a reading workshop, a last minute decision, and a good way to get myself thinking about school again. The workshop was fine, but the highlight of the weekend was the city itself. I fell in love with Annecy the minute I saw the mountains from the window of the conference room. My hotel was right on one of the many canals, and I went for a lovely run around the lake where Annecy is situated. I wandered around the quaint old town on Saturday night, and from almost everywhere I could see the mountains. And everyone was so friendly! Anyway, all this to say that I am very much looking forward to going back with Erik to properly discover the town, and all the mountain-related activities that can be had.

Avignon

Two hours and forty five minutes is all it takes to go from grey, rainy Paris, to hot, sunny Avignon.


View from the pont to the Palais des Papes

After stopping off at the hotel we followed the town ramparts around the city to the famous pont d'Avignon, or more accurately the Pont St. Benézet. Our admission ticket included entrance to the Palais des Papes on the same day, so we trekked over there to get started on the equally detailed audio tour.


The palace is immense, and by the time we made it through we were more than ready for the wine tasting that was being offered in the wine store in the basement of the palace (sometimes France really has it figured out).


We had dinner on a terrace in the courtyard of the Eglise St. Pierre. The food was so-so but the view was breathtaking.


The next day we picked up our rental car (free upgrade to a BMW! All of sudden everyone wanted to drive!) and drove up the Rhone valley to Chateaufneuf-sur-Isere to visit the tasting room at Jaboulet. Our host was incredibly enthusiastic, and definitely set the bar high for all our subsequent tastings (none of which were as enjoyable as our first--well, our very last in Chateauneuf du Pape was pretty good).



We had a great lunch by the river in a nearby town and then drove down to a tiny town called Mirmande, which we learned from the road signs was a ville perché , and it quite literally was perched on the side of a mountain.



At the top of the town there was an old church and a little cemetary, as well as fantastic views of the countryside.







We had an amazing dinner in the courtyard of our adorable hotel.




We weren't able to sign the guest book the next day when we left because the cat was napping.


The village of Mirmande, taken the from the car as we were leaving. You can see the church at the very top. It poured rain that morning, so we were glad we had explored the town the day before.

There's more to come, so stay tuned...

Final Day in Russia

Our last day was very low key. It had finally started to cool off a tiny bit, but we were worn out from our intense week of visiting. So we took it easy wandering around the downtown, doing a little shopping, visiting a couple of parks, and having a nice lunch in the second floor cafe of the bookstore that is right on the corner of the main street.


The view was fantastic, and Julia and I had had enough beer to last us a while, so we decided it was time to try some Russian champagne. (side note: there were many, many moments when all we wanted to drink was a glass of water. It was so incredibly expensive--about 7 euros for a 25cl bottle of Vittel that we drank beer mostly out of principle)


For dessert we went back to the doughnut place where I restrained myself and only had three. We thought it was funny that Erik managed to get powdered sugar on his sunglasses.


We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with one of Julia's old friends, at one of the bars that he owns in the city.


We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up some food for dinner, and to bring home. Check out the aisle of vodka! We found out as we went through the cash at 11:30pm that you can't buy vodka from large stores past 11pm. Oh well! That didn't seem to stop people from shopping though, we couldn't believe the amount of people that were lined up in the store with full carts that late at night.


And the next day were back in the blue van with Julia's grandma (who was also in love with their dog) headed for the airport.

So there you go, that's our trip to Russia in a nutshell.

Stay tuned for our trip to Avignon...photos uploading as we speak.
:)

A non-champagne reason to visit Reims

Hot day, cool beer

Climbing to new heights

Karina, this one's for you....

Please excuse the interruption to our regularly scheduled posting...

....I'll get back to Russia in a couple of days.

In the mean time, Steve and Yoshimi arrived on Saturday, and we have been busy getting them acquainted with our new neighbourhood, and with Paris.

Today we did a walking tour from the Lonely Planet, through the covered shopping arcades in the 1st and 2nd arrondissements.



We stopped occasionally for refreshments, of course.

More Russia

On our second last day we finally slowed down our pace. We knew we had to be at the immigration office around 2pm, so we spent the morning wandering around on one of the islands.

We got to see St Petersburg's one and only mosque up close.


It was beautiful.


We visited the Egyptian sphinxes on the edge of the river.


We saw Peter the Greats original house, the first house in St. Petersburg.


We saw the Military academy

and military ship Avrora

After finally successfully completing our immigration requirements, we celebrated by heading back to our neighbourhood to check out a new Irish bar, O'Briens.

It was there that we discovered the deliciousness of deep fried bread covered in garlic salt and cheese. We ordered two plates.

On the left you can see O'Briens, but more interestingly, the size of the apartment blocks that were everywhere.


After a late dinner at home, we dragged our exhausted selves back downtown to see the bridges open. Every night around 2am, the bridges that cross the river open up to allow shipping boats to pass.

The city was really very beautiful all lit up



And it was fun to watch the bridges open right up.

Peterhof

On Sunday morning we joined the hoards of tourists at the hydrofoil docks to head to Peterhof, the tsars summer residence.

Our visit got off to a bad start with confusing ticketing rules on the hydrofoil. After a quick shot of vodka to calm some nerves frazzled by bad customer service and incredible heat, we set off to explore the opulent grounds of this summer palace.







After our experience at the Hermitage the previous day, we decided to skip the crowded Palace interior, and just appreciate the extensive grounds surrounding the palace. There were many fountains adorned with golden statues...


...and even some 'interactive' fountains that were quite popular on this sweltering day.


We weren't the only ones visiting the gardens that day! :)


We had a nice picnic by the river


and the boys fed the ducks before we headed back to the boat docks for our scheduled 5:15 last boat departure. Where we were greeted by about 200 other hot and tired tourists, all crowded around the boarding gate. Said boat arrived, and was quickly filled with about four tour groups that had not been waiting in 'line' (there wasn't really a line, but they weren't waiting anywhere near the boat). After the boat left, the yelling started, as impatient tourists asked the unresponsive employees when the next boat was, and if they would get on. We finally got on the third boat, and I have to say that while I highly recommend visiting Peterhof, I would strongly encourage visitors to consider alternate transportation. The service that we had at the hydrofoil company was so beyond poor that it was embarrassing.


Did I mention that it was hot?



To cool off we went back to the air conditioned Pushkin cafe, where Julia and I enjoyed their homemade cranberry juice.



Then we took the metro home--check out the old wood trim on the carriage.

I'm assuming we had another quiet dinner/evening at home, as I don't have any more photos from this day. We were wiped, and five days of not sleeping due to heat and noisy construction work were beginning to take their toll...