Puzzling

Part of our Christmas decorating this year (and in honour of their visit to Canada) involved dumping out a puzzle that was given to us by Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka last year.

1000 pieces. The fact that it's on the coffee table is added motivation to finish it.

We have now officially almost finished the 'easy' parts, aka all the parts that aren't just blue sky.

As I type this, Erik is down to the last 5 green pieces.

Wish us luck!

Also, any guesses as to what the puzzle is of? :)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Market

On Saturday night we visted the marche de noel on the Champs Elysees with our friends Kareen, Pascale and Carmen.



We had a great time browsing through the stalls and sampling the different things to eat (Norwegian fire roasted salmon sandwich, waffles with Nutella, tartiflette and warm pretzels were the highlights) and drink.  I don't think that Erik passed a vin chaud stand without stopping for a refill.  That could explain why he was the only one still warm by the end of the night.  (the long johns and down filled vest probably helped too!)


They had a real Santa perched in a sleigh high up in the air that moved across some wires to look like it was flying.  He made a festive little speech to all of the spectators below. 

 It was a fun night, and really got us into the holiday spirit!

Vaux le Vicomte

On Sunday we visited the castle Vaux le Vicomte. It's the castle that inspired Versailles, built for Fouquet, one of the king's finance ministers.

The castle is certainly less touristy than Versailles, and perhaps a bit less opulent, but made for a great day trip on a beautiful fall day.







We finished off the day with a delicious meal at our favorite Thai restaurant.

Look a new post!

It's now the first school break of the year and Howard and Joan are here in Paris to visit us (and the city).

Here's what we've been up to:


Eating! We seem to be doing a lot of this :)


Kampaii! We had lunch at a Japaense restaurant on the rue St. Anne


We tried to visit the newly renovated Musee d'Orsay, but it was closed due to a strike. Our second choice museum, the Orangerie was also closed because it was Tuesday. Then it rained.


But Joan spotted this rainbow as we waited in line for the free exhibition at the Hotel de Ville, and the day suddenly got better (ice cream also helped!)


We finally made it into the Musee d'Orsay yesterday and had a great lunch in the museum's restaurant.

Chiliwack

The last stop on our great British Columbian adventure was to Chiliwack to see our friends Alison and James, and their two year old son Cameron.



Apparently the thing to do in Chiliwack if you're not into farming is to go hiking, and James took us on a great walk through some old railroad tunnels.



Erik, James and Cameron had fun throwing rocks into the water, each seeing who could throw the biggest rock (James won).

Then we went up a mountain to have lunch in a little lodge before driving up a very windy road to a look out point overlooking many of the mountains in the non-Rocky Mountain mountain chain we were in (can't remember the name....)







The view was pretty spectacular.





Then we went out for a night on the town, continuing with our theme of eating far too much at each meal. We had some great appetizers on the patio of a restaurant in a downtown hotel before heading to a popular Italian restaurant for dinner.

Erik left the next day, and with James working Alison and I (and Cameron) were free to go shopping and then out for lunch. We ended that day with popsicles and a trip to the great splash pad near their house and sushi for dinner.


A very purple Cameron post-popsicle, pre-sprinkler

It was so great to see them, we hadn't spent any quality time with James since long before we moved to France, and I had only met Cameron briefly when my trip to Ottawa two years ago was delayed by the volcano. Wish they didn't live so far away!

Capilano Suspension Bridge

On our last day in Vancouver we picked up our rental car and drove out to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

This was probably the most touristy thing we did the entire trip, and I can't say it was worth the price for the amount of time we spent there, but it was still pretty cool. And stepping out on to that shaky bridge for the first time is pretty scary.

They also have a new Tree Walk open, with walkways attached to the rock face over looking the valley. Pretty cool, but way too crowded to be enjoyed properly.

Vancouver

Next stop on our whirlwind tour of BC was a couple of days in the great city of Vancouver.



First order of business was lunch at Japadog, for some Japanese inspired street meat. Those hotdogs fueled our very long walk over the Granville St. bridge to Granville Island.



After looking around the craft and food markets we took the water taxi back and walked up through English Bay. If only Paris Plage could be more like that....




For dinner on our first night we did an Izakaya crawl. Izakaya are Japanese restaurants that serve small dishes traditionally eaten while drinking beer. To stretch out our stomachs between stops we walked around Coal Harbour to the Olympic Torch cauldron.



Day two started off with a bike ride around the sea wall of Stanely Park.





Then we went into the park and biked around Beaver Lake, where we stopped to eat the picnic we had picked up at the Whole Foods before starting (what a great grocery store!! I want one in Paris).




We spent the rest of the day wandering around Gastown and Chinatown, and had a delicious early dinner at Bao Bei a Chinese 'brasserie' in Chinatown.

Saltspring Part 3

We happened to be on Saltspring during the full moon in August, so we signed up for a full moon kayak tour with Tracy and Ed. We had a great time paddling out to one of the private islands near Saltspring for tea and cookies, and on the way back we were able to see some phosphorescent plankton.








Erik and I also hiked up Mount Maxwell, the highest point on the island. We were rewarded with great views of Fulford Harbour, and of the other Gulf Islands.




We made it!