But first, did you know that Paris is the fourth most expensive city to live in? It's tied for fourth with either Reykjavik or Osaka, depending on how you read the article.
Alright. I believe I left everyone last night at the end of our first night in Brugge. We woke up fairly early the next morning, and set off after breakfast for the town belfry. This is Belgium's most famous Belfort, and there were 366 steps to the top (no problem after the CN tower!). Erik had taken an extra hard boiled egg at breakfast, and was carrying it around for most of the day. There is one picture of him holding it on the first level of the belfry. It actually lasted the whole day, until Erik and Pete were at the pub and Erik played with it too much and the shell cracked. Not really important information, sorry. The view from the top of the belfry was fantastic, and you could see most of the bells. They actually started ringing while we were up there, and were quite loud! On the way down we stopped in the little room where the carrillon is controlled. The gears were amazing!
Our next stop was the canal tours. They were described by LP as 'touristy by essential' and we were lucky that they were running that day. It was quite cold, and there was actually ice on the canals, but the boat plowed right through. It was a great tour, in English, French and Flemish, an interesting way to see some of the interesting and beautiful buildings in the city.After that it was lunch, and we trekked way up north in the city to find a restaurant recommended by our friend LP. Unfortunately it was closed, but we managed to find another place that had a reasonably priced menu. The food specialty in Belgium is moules frites (Erik's favorite!), so Erik and I had that, and Pete had the chicken. I thought the moules were fantastic, nice and big in a nice sauce. Erik decided that they didn't have enough butter...
Being in Belgium we thought it would be fitting to visit a brewery. There were two listed on the city map we had gotten at the hotel, but only one in the LP. The non-LP one was closest, and we spent a whole hour trying to find it. For some reason the map didn't include an address, which made it quite difficult to locate. By the time we got to the other one, the tour had already started, and the next one was in an hour. I left the boys at the brewery so I could go and visit the chocolate museum, named Choco-story.
The museum was great. Any museum that gives you chocolate when you pay your admission is good in my books. The museum traced the history of chocolate, from the Aztecs, to it's arrival in Europe (and beyond). There was a great display of china chocolate cups and chocolatiers that you would have loved mom. My favourite part, though, was the chocolate making demonstration at the end. Belgium is famous for inventing the praline, or filled chocolates. The chocolate maker showed us how it is done, and of course we got to sample those too! They were delicious! And she made it look so easy. Although her chocolate was pre-melted in a fancy machine. No tempering going on that I could see.
I met up with the boys and we headed back to the hotel for a nap. Pete has caught my cold, and was feeling a bit under the weather. For dinner we headed to a place that we had noticed earlier, mainly because it had so many fries waiting to be cooked. Unfortunately our entire meal ended up being cooked in the deep fryer, and two meals of frites in a day is more than I usually indulge in. Plus, I didn't think the fries were that great. I'm going to try and focus on quality fries from now on....Does that mean I have to sample more?
We went for another walk along the canal and up to the 'draw'bridge castle where we had entered the city the other day. A couple of drinks in the pub and we were off to bed.
Another early start the next day. Our plan was quite vague. The boys were interested in seeing war stuff, and basically planned to drive into the cities along the Northern French coast that had been involved in particular battles. We started with a stop in Dunkirk. We checked out the port museum, which devoted a dissapointingly (for the boys, anyway) amount of wall space of the three floor museum to the fact that the port was almost completely destroyed during WWII.
Next was an unplanned stop at the Canadian Cemetary past Callais. I had noticed a sign on the highway that said 'Canadien' and we followed it to this beautifully kept cemetary for the Canadian (and British, and other) soldiers who died fighing their way across Northern France after D-Day.Our next stop was a quick bite to eat in Boulonge, where we all ordered 'surprise' dishes (couldn't understand what the very loud waitress was saying). It was delicous.
Then came the long haul to Dieppe. Unfortunately being a seaside town, the memorial in Dieppe is closed during the winter. We did take a quick walk along the beach to check out the cliffs (quite spectacular) before driving to see the cemetary there as well. No pictures from Dieppe, unfortunately we ran out of film in Callais.
The drive home was incredibly long. We went through a dozen small towns, and Erik thinks he went through at least 12 roundabouts on that drive. Basically, all intersections are a traffic circle, that gets crazier the closer you get to Paris.
We had pizza for dinner last night, and it was great to be home. The heat was on, we all had great showers (no timer! Yay!), and went back to work the next day. Erik has commented on how fast the week goes when you take Monday off....maybe this will be a new habit.
I was talking today in my class about holidays with my students. I can't believe how much time they get off, and I'm not sure how it works out. They have a two week holiday every six weeks (can you imagine having to move from a French system to a North American one? Kids must go crazy!). They get eight weeks off in the summer, and Wednesdays off too. I just don't get it! One of my schools runs a camp the first week of 'vacances scolaire' so I'm working next week, but I'm certainly looking forward to the week off after that. I think I get paid for it too! I guess they make up for it by having to take courses like Latin. But what do I know?
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