A trip down memory lane

After brunch on Saturday, Erik and I walked up to Montmartre to spend the afternoon and go out for dinner.

I don't think we've been back to that neighbourhood just the two of us since we left. We've enjoyed taking people up to Sacre Coeur, and taking them to the Zebre and Bar, but it's been a long time since we just wandered around and remembered how different our life was when we lived there.

We started off with a walk up rue Dancourt, past all the same touristy shops and restaurants. We continued straight up the stairs to Sacre Coeur to enjoy the view.

I have to say, it's still my favorite view of the city, and we were lucky, as it was a clear day, so we had an excellent view of the tour Montparnasse and all the other more beautiful landmarks.

We made our way through Place du Tertre and checked out the art work before heading back down towards rue des Abesses to peruse the shops. Our favorite bakery was packed, and unfortunately we were way too full to contemplate a baguette. All the shops looked the same, and being a Saturday, the neighbourhood was bustling. I miss doing my shopping in those stores. So much more fun than the Inno.

Anyway, we eventually stopped for a drink, and considered our next move. We were both exhausted from walking, but it was only 3:30, and we were planning on eating dinner at the Cercle. Which left us with about four hours to kill. We eventually decided to head home and come back for dinner, which of course didn't happen. We ended up at the Time Machine, and ate at the Midi Vins, and decided it was a fitting end to our day. Montmartre is a fantastic area, but we feel quite at home next to the big tower in Montparnasse.

Best of Brunch

On Saturday morning, Alex invited us over for brunch.

And what a brunch it was!

We started with bacon (that Erik had to cook, because he was the man) and eggs with goat cheese. Then Katharina had made little toasts with magret de canard that she served with fig jam. Yum! We then had a charcuterie plate with fresh bread. We finished off the meal with crepes that Alex had made, which she served with maple syrup and Nutella. And she served coffee with foamed milk. Alex has this cool little electric whip thing that made a small container of skim milk into foam for cafe au lait. Amazing!


Alex and Erik in the kitchen


Bon apetit!


The cafe au lait


Sooo satisfied!

Remeber this post?

November 15, 2005

Well, we're here!

Exhausted, and a little disoriented, but we made it to our place with our 200+ lbs of luggage.

First of all, let me recommend that you don't fly American Airlines. It really was a fine flight, but for some reason, flying through Chicago really didn't make any sense (we were going the wrong way...plus a long layover). And the food was quite possibly the worst I've ever had. It will just make the Parisian kind taste that much better!

Well, our apartment is pretty awesome. We have literally just walked in the door (after making 4 trips up in the ancient elevator--its just big enough for one person and a suitcase. We had four), and wanted to share the views that we have from our windows. They might not be the nicest views in Paris, but they're really the only ones we've seen yet, and we think they're pretty awesome (by the way, flying into the city was so dissapointing! We were hoping to see some of Paris, but the plane somehow managed to completly avoid it, and we got to see farmers fields instead).

So, here you go. Enjoy, know that we're here safe, and we'll write more as soon as we've eaten (or maybe tomorrow).

Take care,
E+T

*********************************
November 15, 2006
Hard to believe it's only been one year!

I feel like we've been here for so much longer, and I have to admit that I've fallen in love with this city.

Part of my excitement at reaching the one year mark is that it brings us that much closer to moving back to Canada and all the people and places that we miss, but I'm beginning to realize how much I'm going to miss Paris when we're gone.

I love seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle every hour, I how every inch of this city is so beautiful, I love how good the food is, and I love how polite people *usually* are. I love that we live in a building that throws parties in the courtyard, and I love having school holidays every six weeks. I love that we have a cafe called the Time Machine on the corner of our street where we know everyone who works there, and they know us. I love that we have a long list of restaurants that we need to try. I love that we managed to find good restaurants, after the terrrible, terrible 10euro tourist menus that we were eating when we first got here. I love that people get dressed up for everything. I love that they're setting up a skating rink in front of the Tour Montparnasse, and I love that we can easily rely on public transit for almost all of our transportation needs. I love that you can order champagne with your meal and people don't think you're crazy. I love that we think that it's reasonable to drink Champagne on special (and not so special) occasions. I love that Erik is turning into a wine snob.

I could go on, but it doesn't change the fact that I think we're pretty happy here. It's been a long year, and it's probably been one of the hardest years of my life, but it makes me pretty proud to look back on everything that we've been through this year and realize that we're doing alright. Actually better than alright. We've spent more time together than we ever would have if we'd stayed in Toronto, and we still enjoy each others company. There's no one that I'd rather be in Paris with, and that makes it a dream come true.

(Please attribute any sappiness in this post to the Champagne that was ordered with dinner. My usual sarcastic self will be back in full force, probably tomorrow, after the field trip that I'm going on. Stay tuned...)

Drama and Perturbance

This morning at the nursery school there was an extensive drama that developed after the 'closing' of the school gates.

A parent rang the school bell at 9:17 to drop her two boys off.

The day at the nursery school starts at 9:00. The director greets students until 9:15 as 'a favour' (her words) to the parents. Anyone arriving after that time is a huge inconvenience to director, the teachers, and the other students, and shouldn't be let in. And apparently at regular French schools, the gates are literally locked (like ours was) and no one will let you in after the designated time. This is normal procedure.

Initially, I really didn't understand what the fuss was about. Any public school in Canada (I'm assuming..) would allow any student into class at any time, although a late slip might be required after the bell. But I can't imagine a school locking it's doors an not allowing any one in after a certain time (although the whole locked gate thing would likely eliminate all of the strangers that seem to make it into schools these days...).

On the other hand, I kind of understand where they are coming from. Many of the kids arrive before 9:oo and are ready to go. It's not fair to them if kids are arriving at any time, and it disrupts lessons, which is going to happen with any child under the age of 5 who can barely remove his coat by himself. Plus, a parent is never going to learn if they are allowed to drop their kids off whenever they want. But I'm not a parent, so what do I know.

Any thoughts? The situation was only resolved because the lunch lady arrived, and the mother was still there, and the director had to let the lunch lady in, and thus the kids as well.

On an unrelated note, this has been a week of perturbance for me on the trains.

On Wednesday there was a strike by the SNCF workers, which made my usual 45minute commute to St Cloud into a 1.5 hour commute from hell.

Then tonight, on my way to tutoring, also in St Cloud, I discover that there has been a fire at some power station, and so my train is basically taking a huge roundabout that added an extra 45 minutes onto my regular 20 minute ride. I should be happy that the trains were running at all, but it's still frustrating.

And we still don't know what the strike was about.

What's the point of a strike if no one knows what you're striking about?

We're clearly not French enough yet!

And on that note, I got my note today for my carte de sejour medical, which is scheduled on a bad day for me. I called a couple of times today to try and reschedule, and no one answered the phone. No message or anything. Erik later told me that when he went for his, one of the two receptionists had just returned from grocery shopping, and the other was on a personal phone call.

Sigh.

It's almost hard to imagine things being any other way...

The Joys of 38square metres*

I don't know what we're going to do when (if) we ever live in a regular (by regular, I mean North American sized) apartment again.

I had to laugh when Erik just got up to get something out of the fridge, and the opening of the (bar sized) fridge door caused his computer power supply to fall to the floor.

Or how the last time Joan and Howard called, I had to call them back so I could move the drying rack to reach to phone.

Or how using the toaster oven sized oven is a more effective heat source than our electric heater.

It certainly is cozy, but aside from baking, there really isn't too much that we miss.

We're starting to think that everyone should just move to Paris instead of us moving back....










(just kidding!) (but do visit!)

*My handy online conversion tool tells me that 38 square metres is approximately 409 square feet for all you imperial people!

Récépissé

Almost one year later, and we're (well I'm) getting closer to being able to continue working here in France. I went this morning to pick up our récépissés (only between 9-12:00 please), which as far as I can understand are just another 'clue' on the 'scavenger hunt' through French beaurocracy that we get to enjoy.

Because Erik is 'simply' renewing his carte de sejour this year, he just has to wait until December when he can exchange the blue paper for a new card. I think. Not sure why he needs the blue paper, but the helpful people at the prefecture of police don't get paid to answer silly Canadian questions (I actually don't intend as much sarcasm as you might think in that paragraph. They were surprisingly un-condescending.)

Because this is my first time applying for one of these cards, I have to do a medical first. So, now that I have my blue paper, I have to wait for them to send me something in the mail, which will then allow me to get the medical done (chest xray here I come! I think xray films are going to become the hottest Parisian souvenir!). Once the medical is completed, I proceed directly the the building next door to collect my prize (or, carte de sejour).

Other than all this fun, I had a nice day yesterday at the musee des art decoratifs et la mode. Alex and I wandered through the exhibits detailing interior decoration from the middle ages to the present before meeting Anja to enjoy an exhibit on the French designer Balenciaga. The Balenciaga exhibit made Alex and I decide that we need more reasons to dress up. I certainly don't get to wear a ball gown often enough. I think Anja got a bit more ouf of the exhibit than we did though, she being the fashion student and all.

And we had a dinner party on Friday with Alex, Pavel and Tatiana. We enjoyed some fine food and fine wine in our lovely apartment. It was delicious, and I think everyone had a great time.

And tomorrow I get to go back to work. I do love vacations, but they certainly don't make it easier to get back into a routine. And I don't think there are any more days off until Christmas!! How will I survive??? If Erik were reading this as I type, he'd probably roll his eyes at me. Rightly so, I suppose.

Do we really need another reason to love red wine?

Red wine extract and obese mice

The Chocolate Salon

On Sunday Erik and I went to the chocolate festival extrodinare, the Salon du Chocolate.

And what a chocolate extravaganza it was! Never had we seen so much chocolate in one room. There's not really much I can say about the day other than the fact we both left on a huge sugar high, and Erik was impressed at the amount of booze they managed to mix in to the fun. We figured free samples of liquor are probably good for sales...


A sea of chocolate covered marshmallows.


Chocolate and champagne. My new favourite combination.


The home team.


Erik sampling a sursprisingly un-tasty chocolate rum treat.

In the end, we didn't actually buy very much. Most of the French chocolatiers that were there (well, I'm pretty sure they were all there!) all have boutiques in Paris, so it seemed a bit silly to go all out at the show. I did get a box of beautiful Japanese truffles, and some salted butter caramels from Normandy, which were fantastic, and Erik was pleased to purchase a bottle of Grand Marnier that isn't available in stores.

All in all, it was a delicious day.

Time to cook!

On Saturday morning, Erik and I met Alex at the Caroussel du Louvre to go the the salon Cuisinez! It was advertised as a cooking fair, with cooking classes included in the ticket price, as well as displays by many food producers and food related things.

We quickly realized that the cooking classes weren't all they were adverstised to be. There were only four cooking class venues, and sign up for the classes only opened 20 minutes before the class began. And the classes were only for about 15 people at a time. So, people were basically lining up at noon to sign up for a class at 4:00. Not having paid to stand in line, we moved on...

Luckily there were other things to see and do, many of the food vendors were offering free samples, and we tried some fantastic bread, a cointreau martini (yum!), some cookies, wine, and other things.

All in all it was an interesting experience, but the venue was way too small, and the whole event just seemed poorly organized.

We salvaged the rest of the day with an awesome Vietnamese lunch in Chinatown, and then Alex made us some awesome curry for dinner that we ate in her way-too-cute apartment.

Our food themed weekend continued today with chocolate.....

You know what's great about the holidays?

You get to catch up on all the things you don't have time for when you're working.

Like watching the season finale of Desperate Housewives (season 2--does Mike really die???).

And taking all those middle of the day fitness classes.

And going to the doctor.

And spending time with long lost friends.

Like my good old friend the 24hr blood pressure cuff.

Except that it's not a long lost friend, it's a friend I hoped I'd never see again. Sigh. I'm feeling sorry for myself, but hopefully doing this thing for the THIRD time will finally clear up the question of whether or not I have white coat syndrome. Cause I'm getting tired of going to the doctor and getting blood pressure readings that are through the roof.

Plus I have to pay for this one. The so called 'free' system here hasn't seemed to be very free yet, as I've had to pay for absolutely everything. This all day blood pressure fun (called MAPA here) is running me a cool 90euros.

I bet I could buy a nice pair of shoes with all that.

sigh. I'll have to rent a video instead. Limiting my activity to short 15 minute bursts is virtually impossible. And nothing looks stupider than the person who has to stop walking in the middle of the street amidst whirring and clicking sounds for 60sec.

Sweet Treats

My sweet tooth has reared it's ugly head again lately, and as a result, I've been perusing the grocery store in search of new remedies for this continuing problem.


I usually reach for a vanilla yogurt after lunch, but I have been getting tired of them lately, and we've developed quite a collection of those terra cotta pots, so I've moved onto something else. Flanby. I first discovered this treat as the dessert/cheese course of the nursery school lunch. It's a tasty, slightly sweet vanilla flan with a burnt caramel sauce. And when you dump it into a bowl, it jiggles like jello. Very fun.


The other recent purchase was a box of Petit Ecolier cookies. A nice butter cookie with a piece of chocolate on top. Add a glass of milk, and you've got a complete snack, as recommended on the back of the box. I often see kids eating entire boxes of these on their way home from school with their nounous (nannys). But they're tasty, and if you get the dark chocolate kind, not too sweet. I have yet to eat an entire box in one sitting though.

That's about it for now. We went to the Quebec bar on Friday night, and enjoyed a game of scrabble in French. It's harder than it sounds. I also took a picture of one of the signs with Canada crossed off of it, but unfortunately it's on my phone, and I can only get pictures off my phone with Erik's computer, and the computer is, unfortunately, dead. So, either the new computer with have an infra red port, or next time we go I'll bring the camera.

Howard Wins

Canadian Thanksgiving

Proud Canadians....

....eat cheeseburgers and french fries with their fingers.

Erik and I went out for dinner last night to one of the Canadian bars he and Roman discovered on their 'Canadian Bar Pub Crawl' (we're great hosts, aren't we? I don't think any of our guests have left without a trip to the Canadian Bar). We decided to save the poutine being offered for another time and both ordered burgers, which seemed to be a popular choice, judging by the plates on other tables. As we were waiting for our food, I noticed that every single person with a plate of burger and fries was eating the burger with a knife and fork!! I couldn't believe it! The only explanation we could figure for such un-Canadian behaviour was the fact that the bar was playing a French football game, so I'm hoping that it's not a regular occurence.

Because the burgers were really good, and Erik and I made sure to get right into it. We even licked our fingers, for everyone's enjoyment, when we were finished.

Anyway, we've now decided that this place, the Moosehead, is much better than the other one we'd been to, the Great Canadian. Not only is it closer (we can walk there), the atmosphere was kind of like a cross between Sneaky Dee's and a Firkin pub in Toronto. Plus, they serve pitchers, a rare sighting in this city.

(And would you believe that there are actually four Canadian bars in Paris? One of them is a cool little Quebec bar, that doesn't havea single maple leaf displayed among the plethora of fleur de lys. Canada was even crossed off of one of the Tourism Quebec posters in the bathroom. But with tourtiere on the menu, and games like pick up sticks to play, we can't wait to go back...)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a completely unrelated note, all the American teachers at the American school were shocked to find out that Canadian thanksgiving isn't at the same time as theirs. Unfortunately I didn't have a good explanation as to why that is, as I generally understand that we're all giving thanks for the same reasons?

Ok, I know it's been awhile, we've just been so busy with our boring everyday lives that I haven't had time to post.

Here's a quick update of what's been going on:

• We're going to Italy!! Finally bought our tickets last night, we're not sure when Steve gets here, but we're leaving for Milan on December 23 and will be gone for about a week. I've been preparing for this trip by making gnocchi. Using a recipe written in French. Not only did I learn what a torchon and a lechefrite were (dishtowel, cookie sheet), I also learned how vague French recipes can be. It didn't list a quantity for the flour. Just said add until it's not sticky. Almost an entire bag later, I decided I had added enough, but it was still a sticky mess! Anyway, Erik and I have decided that anything served with a garlic butter sauce is a good thing, so I may just try to make it again. Or ask for lessons in Italy.

• The stores were open on Sunday!!!! One of the things that continues to drive me bananas about Paris is the fact that NOTHING is open on Sundays. This means that Saturdays are a crazy stressful day because all errands and shopping need to be done on this day (plus a trip to the gym and about six loads of laundry without a dryer). Which means that they usually don't all get done, and we either starve on Sundays, or go without whatever thing we needed to buy (like the back up hard drive we've been meaning to buy since the last time Erik's computer gave him the blue screen of death. But then the computer revived itself, and we forgot about it. Except now that it's officially dead, we really wish we'd gotten one...) Anyway, to get back to my main point, for some reason, all the department stores were open on Sunday this weekend. We have no idea why, and there seem to be some pretty good sales going on aswell, so we took advantage of this to buy Erik some very fancy shoes. You should see him all dressed up now. He looks so French! He even changed out of his sweatpants last night to return the video (we're now finished season two of 24. Thank goodness there are two more to watch!)

• Because this past month and a half have been so incredibly stressful, I am happy to report that it is vacances scolaires season again! As of next Wednesday, I'm off for two weeks all because of Toussaint (or All Saints Day). Seriously, I'm beginning to think that Canada hasn't gotten the memo that these religious holidays should involve as much time off work as possible. I'd also like to mention that Armistice Day (Remembrance Day here) is also a holiday. Unfortunately it's a Saturday this year, and I'm not sure if there will be any pont taking so soon after Toussaint.

• Our apartment has been overtaken by some type of moth like insect. Every time we open the cupboards they fly out. We have no idea where they came from, or how to get rid of them, so we're working on peaceful co-habitation. At least they're not mice.

• And I think that's about it. It looks like Air Canada is having a seat sale in our direction, so if you're looking for a holiday, our place has a super comfortable air mattress to offer up (seriously, just ask Nancy and Daryl and Roman. They loved it!) We're seriously considering investing in a blanket for guests who choose to visit this lovely city in the colder months. We're still planning on coming home in June for various weddings. I'd like to visit sooner, but time flies, and let's be honest, I'm not a huge fan of snow. And I hear you've had some of that stuff back there already, so I won't mention that I was wearing sunglasses and a tshirt on when I went shopping this afternoon....
  

To Strasbourg and back again....

(click to see the rest of the photos)

Our visit with Roman began with a trip to Strasbourg. We raced out there in our rental car in time for our 2:00 brewery tour at Kronenbourg. It was worth the rush, though, despite it being a huge group of mostly Scottish high schoolers, the tastings were unlimited at the end. Until closing.

Otherwise, we found Strasbourg to be a bit boring. Erik and Roman were happy about the selection of beers, but the tourist things we did were quite dissapointing. From a sleep inducing boat tour to yet another church, we were ready to get out of there, so on Monday we took a day trip to Colmar, where we planned to do some biking around to different wineries in the area. I claimed that I'd only bike in the rain, so of course it rained that morning. The trip continued to go downhill when the tourist office didn't seem to have any sort of map detailing where exactly in the town the wineries were, and the bike rental place was closed. And the one winery that we did find yelled at Erik for tasting the wines in the wrong order. Other that that, it was a charming town, with lots of half timbered buildings, and it reminded us a lot of the Romantic Road.

I guess all the towns can't be winners, and we managed to have a good time regardless. We sampled flamekeuche, an Alsatian pizza, we had a nice dinner on the river, sipped white wine on an outdoor patio, and enjoyed the performances of local 'entertainers'.

Goodbye and Hello!

Last Friday we said goodbye to our good friend Zoe (sniff, sniff!)

It's hard to believe it's already been a year since she (and we) got here, and Paris won't be the same without her!

We also said hello bright and early on Saturday morning to Roman. We picked him up from the airport and headed straight to Strasbourg for the weekend. More on that later....

Two Problems

We seriously can't get enough of this show.


Paris has gone wine crazy, and after a dissapointing trip to the "Foire de vins" at the Inno we discovered the cave at the Grande Epicerie. We're in big trouble....

Anyone interested in a wine tasting/evening of watching 24??

The road to Mont St Michel

Here are some pictures from our weekend in Mont St Michel. Lucky Erik got to avoid driving, so Alex and I took the wheel to get us there. We learned that the yellow roads on the map are much faster than the red ones. The 5.5 hour drive there was only about 3 on the way back. Plus super driver Alex conquered not only the round-about at Porte Maillot, but the mother of all traffic circles at the Etoile. We had a great time!

(click on the picture to see the whole album)

More pictures from Steve and Christy's visit

Steve and Christy made us a delicious dinner at the apartement they rented

Enjoying some Devaux champagne


Picnic-ing on the Champ de Mars in front of good ol' Eiffey


Enjoying a drink on the banks of the Seine

Why I love our grocery store

Not only does our local Inno have an amazing wine selction on a regular basis, it also has a Foire aux vins on right now. I haven't quite figured out what makes this fair special. Aside from the many posters, the red carpet and the decorative trees, it's still the same old wine section, if not a bit smaller than usual due to all the renovations that are happening in our store (demain sera plus beau-'tomorrow will be prettier' is a common slogan for stores undergoing renovations).

But wait. There are wine tastings. They were tasting champagne when I was there at noon today. There is free delivery for your purchase of more than 50euros of wine. And, I think you can pay in installments if you have the Monoprix card, but that seemed like an odd thing to offer for something like booze.

Anyway, Erik and I picked up the catalogue (yes, there is a catalogue) that they recommend that you peruse at your leisure, then come back in and stock up on your favorites. Which I'm sure we will do

Sigh. What will we do when the grocery store doesn't sell wine anymore? It seems like such a foreign concept...(like fat free yogurt. And margarine. Remember when I liked that stuff??)

La rentree

I realize it's been awhile since I've posted, but there's been a lot going on around here lately.

Mainly, la rentree.

Which means, basically, 'back to school time' but almost seems like a holiday of some sort. Our gym felt it necessary to make a special class schedule for this trying time of the year, and the grocery store has been innundated with people stocking up their kitchens and on school supplies after being away all summer.

Anyway, the nursery school started on Tuesday (for a reason that I'm still not clear on, considering that Monday wan't a holiday here) and I had a bit of time before to go in and attend staff meetings that were in Japanese, oh, I mean French (my French went on vacation this summer and I've been having a really hard time getting back into it. It didn't help that this staff meeting was over 3 hours long and consisted of such important topics as plant placement in the garden, renovations that badly need to be done but can't possibly happen before school starts and a fun 60 min session trying to hash out the perfect lunch schedule for all the teachers).

But the kids showed up on Tuesday morning and fell right back into their old routine. Most of the kids in the 4 and 5 year old classes are students that were here last year, and it almost seems like they never left. Some of them are still a bit confused about who their teacher is, and what classroom to return to after English, but I'm sure it will all get sorted out soon enough. Oh, but they're still so QUIET!!! At lunch today I don't think any of the kids said a single word. It was lovely! I realize it won't last, so I'm trying to enjoy it while I can.

That's about it. Classes at the American school don't start for me until the 20th, so I'm trying to enjoy my free Wednesdays.

We're going out for dinner tonight with Steve and Christy, who are staying in a cute little apartment in the Marais. And we're trying to figure out where to go for a weekend when Roman is here in October. Any ideas?

For all of you who went back to school on Tuesday, I hope your week has gone smoothly. Hard to believe it's the beginning of another year! I guess time flies when you're having fun...or living in Paris. We'll be home before you know it!

Happy Birthday Karina!

We hope that you have a fantastic day, and we wish we were closer to help you celebrate.

We love you!
Erik and Torie

A little late, but no less funny..

We have been so lucky this summer to have so many people visit us. Keep 'em coming, we love having guests!

In July, my friend from Red Pine came to stay with us for four days en route to Canada from Australia. I unfortunately didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked with Liane as it happened to be the one week that I was actually working full time, but she managed to keep herself busy, and have an adventure or two at the same time.

My favorite story is of her trip to Versailles. She got up bright and early to make it out there before the crowds. Four hours later, after some bad advice from various employees at the train station, and a couple of broken down metros, she finally made it to the castle with the new friends she made on the way. Liane had stopped to help a group of Korean tourists who were just as lost as she was, and they ended up spending the day todgether at Versailles (one of whom had studied English at Carleton University in Ottawa!). Liane's version is obviously much funnier, especially when she told it in her frazzled state upon getting back into Paris, so I'll just leave you with the photo of her and her new friends. Maybe she'll write the good version in the comments??? Pretty please???


Thanks Liane for sending the pics! It was great to see you!

Having falafels at L'As de Falafel


Dinner at the Midi Vins

Steve and Christy

Steve and Christy arrived bright and early on Saturday morning. We spent the weekend cafe hopping, and walking around.

They left this morning for Champagne, then Bordeaux, and I think Erik will enjoy a break from all the euchre we were making him play. They'll be back in a week or so, and we're looking forward to hearing about their adventures (they're staying in a chateau!!)


Two boys with bags. They're such a great accessory!


Walking along the Seine.


It doesn't get more Parisian than the Canadian Bar.

Hot off the press!

Well, I've finished going through all of our pictures, and have organized some of the most interesting in an album for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy!

Erik's new hobby

Can you find the pictures taken after our first day of biking?? (hint: he's wearing his England shirt)




You can click on the images to enlarge them

Two Good Looking People

Just so you don't think we always looked as good as we did in those blue rain ponchos...

We're home!

And it certainly is sweet. We got in at 7 am after a relatively painless and quiet train ride. It seems that top bunks, and older couchette-mates make for a more pleasant ride.


Without further ado, here are some pictures. We took almost 500 shots, and I thought I'd just pull the hightlights off the card, and ended up with 65. Yikes. Hopefully these ones will give you a bit of a taste of what we've been up to for the past two weeks.





Two happy bikers. We weren't lost this day, you'll notice our handy little map in Erik's hand.


It wasn't all about beer...


Look ma, no hands! Having fun in the Ford Fiesta


I clearly couldn't be happier to be eating another sausage and drinking more beer. At a street festival in Frankfurt.

Just when you think Germany has got you down...

...your hotel gives you free internet.

Today is our last day, we leave tonight from Frankfurt on the overnight train. Both of us are looking forward to getting back to Paris, and back to our regular lives. We are officially off German food, and our last couple of meals have been Chinese and Indian. A person can only eat so many meals of sausages and other forms of pork.

But I digress.

Quick update.

We picked up our rental car in Wurzburg last weekend, and were a bit surprised when they wouldn´t accept Erik´s drivers license. Turns out it expired in July, and since it´s not something we use often over here, we never realized it. So I got to do all the driving on the autobahn, which wasn´t nearly as scary as I expected. But I do now understand why everyone here drives nice cars. Trying to merge onto the highway where everyone is going 130 km/h+ in a Ford Fiesta that doesn´t really accelerate at all isn´t only not fun, it´s kind of scary. But we made it up the Rhine Valley and back in one piece, and have enjoyed some great views of the valley and it´s vineyards, and visited some great castles.

We´re happy to be back in a big city, and did a little bit of wandering around yesterday. It´s nice to see people on the street that are under the age of 60, and who probably aren´t tourists. Frankfurt seems to be a big city that doesn´t have too much to distinguish it from other big cities, but we did see an interesting museum featuring some ruins from a Jewish ghetto from the middle ages. Today we´re hoping to hit the modern art museum and the museum of communication. Or, if the sun comes out, we might just hang out on a patio. We´re hoping a few drinks will make the train ride less painful tonight.

We´re looking forward to catching up with everyone once we get home.

Tchus!

ps. I feel that I need to mention that it has rained EVERY SINGLE DAY that we´ve been in Germany. Some days have been worse than others, but come on!! Didn´t the weather hear that we were on vacation????

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Hard to believe it´s already been one year. It seems like it was just yesterday that we tied the knot. It´s been kind of a busy year, but an awesome one. Too many memories from the year to go over, so we´ll just stick to the last two days!

We´re in Wurzburg today, and have had a lovely day. We visited the Prince Bishops Residence, which was fantastic. The first four main rooms that we saw were absolutely breathtaking. The fresco in over the stairwell is apparently the largest in the world, and depicts the Prince´s influence on the different continents. Each continent is represented by a woman on an animal - apparently the alligator was the most representative animal of the americas. Who knew. The next room was completly done by hand in the most intricate stucco work. The artist lost his mind after doing stucco 14 hours a day for 9 months. There was also an amazing room of mirrors that was completely destroyed (along with most of the residence) in a 20 minute air raid at the end of the war that also destroyed almost 90 percent of the city. The mirrors in this room were unique because they had been painted from behind, but they managed to restore and recreate the room to its original condition. The day before, we had seen the name plaques for the restoration of the city wall in Rothenburg. Probably 50% of the names were Japanese, an interesting phenomenon.

We were also lucky because the sun was out today, and it was actually warm for a while, so we enjoyed the roses in the garden of the Residence. We also trekked to the top of the hill to the castle (which was also the Prince´s old residence) where there was a Medieval Times-type show going on for the kiddies. The rain started again before we could start cheering for the "correct" knight. The rain is still coming down now as we make our way back to the hotel before dinner.

Thanks everyone for your anniversary wishes. We are having a great time - it just happens to be periodically interrupted by vertical moisture.

Rain, rain, go away!!!

We´ve reached the end of the biking part of our adventure, and out of the three days we were riding, it rained for two of them. Actually, I think it´s rained every single day we´ve been here, and has been cold too. Where did the summer go?

We stayed at a great guesthouse outside of Dinklesbuhl, so we had to make a 20 minute walk into town. Naturally, the first walk was in the second worst rain that we would see on the trip. The town was beautiful though, and an afternoon on a patio reading Time magazine took the edge off. The woman who runs the guesthouse didn´t speak any English, so we had to get by through single words out of the phrasebook. We did understand, however, when she asked us why our bikes were "schisse." Good question, we asked ourselves, as we wrapped our smaller pack in plastic garbage bags.

We rolled into Rothenburg ob der Tauber yesterday around 4:00. We were soaking wet, and pretty tired. The plan had been to bike to Shillingsfurst and visit the castle there, before heading on to Rothenburg. It started raining just as we left Dinklesbuhl in the morning, and by the time we got to Shillingsfurst, it was raining so hard we couldn´t see. We stopped for lunch, and thankfully the rain slowed down, and we decided to just keep going, since Erik was soaking wet, and we were both pretty cold. In keeping with the theme for the daz, once we got to Rothenburg, the lady that runs the hotel that we are staying at wasn´t home, so we sat on the sidewalk for 20minutes before she showed up. The sun had come out by then, so we were just starting to warm up when she got there.

But we made it, we did most of the biking we had planned to do, and want to do more in the future, on real bikes with real raincoats, etc, etc. There was a nice Dutch family staying at the hotel in Rothenburg. They had been camping for a week and decided to call it quits after a night of rain coming up through the bottom of their tents (travelling with two small kids, to boot). At least we were sleeping in dry hotels in between each bike/swim. Also at the hotel was an English family whose car had broken down. We were a pretty depressing bunch.......but the breakfast was great!

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is also great, except that our footwear in 10 degree rain is limited to flipflops. We´ve spent today checking out the museums and other indoor attractions, and we had a great piece of Black Forest Cake at lunch. We´re off tomorrow for Wurzburg, and have just checked the weather. We´re not too happy to find out that it´s supposed to rain for the next five days. We both packed for the hot weather we had in Paris before we left, so I think we might have to pick up some warmer clothes. Or just eat more sausages.

I guess that´s it. Despite the weather, we are having a lot of fun. German food is pretty straightforward and is just what you need when you´re freezing. After biking in the rain for four hours, I don´t think a serving of pate would warm your bones.

We´re off to find a hotel that we can´t afford to stay at and squat in their warm lobby and drink their beer.

Hopefully we didn´t accidentally book a convertible for next week....

Biking Tips for the Romantic Road

Leg 1: Augsburg to Donauworth, 48km (suggested route)

70 km, 8 hours. Just for comparison, a below average Johnson male can run 20km in 3.5 hours on his feet. With no wheels. So, some tips to avoid this problem....

1. Avoid the rain at all costs. If you must bike in the rain, get a real raincoat. The plastic poncho that you bought will act like a sail in the wind, and slow you down. Plus, it may get stuck in the wheels...

2. Do wait for the tourist office to open at 10:00. Even better, buy the English map online. Remember that you are riding a bike, not driving a car, so regular maps aren´t much help. Good maps could prevent a lot of backtracking, and shave a good four hours off your time.

3. When you see a sign that you think says city centre in German, do take the time to get the phrase book out of the bottom of your backpack. It could save you a tour of the industrial zones of the city you are hoping to enjoy.

4. Make sure you get a decent bike. Just because it felt good for eight seconds in the parking lot doesn´t mean it will be comfortable for 8+ hours. Raise the seat. Raise it again. Wish you had a real bike when all the real senior citizen bikers laugh at you. Make sure you at least sit on a bike once before attempting an extensive bike trip. Take lots of advil.

Erik´s advice:

1. Beer and sausage make all lower body pain dissapear.

2. When in doubt see number one.

3. Even though it´s raining, you should still wear sunscreen.

4. There´s a reason why pedal brakes stopped being a good idea when you were eight. Check to make sure your wife doesn´t buy a bike that has pedal brakes (in my defense, it has hand brakes too) because you´ll end up riding it (isn´t he great????) because it weighs twice as much as a normal bike.

So, here´s the story.

Being the keeners that we are, we figured that we didn´t need to hang around and get the bike map from the tourist office. We had printed off the maps of the route from mapquest, and we had the German road map. No problem, right? Wrong. When we got to the end of the bike route at the outskirts of Augsburg, things started to get really bad. Not only was it pouring rain, but our choices were 90 degree turn from where we wanted to go, industrial park, or autobahn. Seeing as we weren´t driving cars, the autobahn was quickly eliminated. Luckily the industrial park led to another industrial park that led to a gas station that had a pretty poor map of the area, in German only. By sheer luck, we somehow managed to make our way from small town to small town, with only a few moments of expecting death. We did eventually make it to Donauworth, after eight hours of non-stop biking in the rain. It was pretty bad. Our first stop, once we actually managed to get into the town, was the tourist office, for the bike map we so badly needed. They only had it in German, but we didn´t care.

So we hereby issue the "Johnson First Anniversary Challenge", to every child born in the family, and anyone else who thinks they might be crazy enough to accept.

Beat the following.

In the month of your first wedding anniversary
-no map
-less than $200 worth of bikes, that have to be bought the day before
-no German
-two weeks worth of clothes
-Augsburg to Donauworth
-less than eight hours.

If you can beat that time, or survive your second year of marriage after attempting to beat that time, we´ll buy you two beers and all you can eat ribs at the Buena Vista Hotel and Bistro.

See you there.

(by the way, we took the train to the next town to give our bums a break, and the next day of biking was much better. It helps having a map. And sun.)

Leave comments, hope you´re all well.

Bike, Bike, Babz!!!

Well, we´re using German computers, and the y and z are reversed, and Erik is going crayz watching me mix them up as I tzpe. So I´m not going to fix them anzmore.

Anzwaz, we got bikes!!!

Definetlz the most stressful part of this trip was not knowing if that was actuallz possible, but we spent most of the daz zesterdaz visiting five different second hand bike shops before we found the perfect ones. Thez´re not prettz, but thez´ll get the job done, and we´re prettz excited about it.

We´ve got to get going, but highlights so far have included sharing a couchette on the night train with four kids going to Ulm to do an exchange. Thez didn´t sleep, so neither did we. Well, thez slept for a bit after Erik told them to ´ferme ta gueule´(his first French insult).

Oh, and beer and sausages. The sausage record that was set zesterdaz bz Erik was 11. He´s a bit behind todaz, but I´m sure he´ll catch up. And 1L glasses of beer that cost less than a half pint in Paris. And I got made fun of bz a table of older German ladies at the beergarten this morning because I was onlz drinking a pint, not a litre. Thez all had their full litre steins, although some had to use two hands to get them to their mouths.

It´s a great life.

We're off!

well, not quite.

But we're all set. Unfortunately our train doesn't leave until 10:45, so we've got the entire afternoon to fill still. I think we'll rent a movie, then we're going out for dinner, so there's no dishes to wash. Time Machine, here we come!

So I guess this is goodbye, we'll try and post during our adventure, but no promises. Also, this is post #200!!! Hard to believe, isn't it?

I'd say goodbye in German, but I haven't learned how yet, and the phrasebook is already packed. I hope to hear from everyone soon, and wish us luck!

Bye for now!

Blog Updates

I've had a bit of time on my hands these past couple of days, and have been playing around with our blog.

Aside from the new look, I've also figured out how to add a link to our feed. This means that you can now subscribe to our blog through a newsreader and receive updates in your inbox. It's not quite that simple though.

I read blogs through the newsreader that is part of Thunderbird, my email program. I've never used Outlook, so I can't help you there, but I would be surprised if it didn't have a similar feature. Here is the link on how to create a RSS and Blog reader using Thuderbird.

I hope this feature helps people who don't tend to check our blog regularly (cough, cough, Alison, cough, cough). I like reading blogs this way because it means I don't have to check each site to get updates, instead I get updates that are kind of like emails. But they don't look as pretty.

There you go. Hope that keeps you busy for a bit, I'm off to pack.

Did I mention we leave tomorrow??? I should probably start learning some German...

Yay! I'm so glad that people are leaving comments. It's nice to know that people are reading (and I know that you are...).