Goodbye to the Dam

So I haven't exactly been diligent about posting this week, but that is because we were just having too much fun.  After spending time with both of my host families in Angouleme, we headed to Amsterdam on Tuesday.  And we absolutely fell in love.  Amsterdam has hundreds of canals that go out in concentric circles from the city center.  There are trams and buses to get around but nearly everyone has a bicycle (or two) so they are everywhere! The people are so friendly, everything is extremely laid back, and it was a very relaxing way to end our trip.

We rented an apartment on the Prinsengracht canal and it worked out great - very central and within walking distance to everything.  We visited the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank house early in the week, but spent the rest of our time just wandering around, enjoying good food and beer and taking everything in.  Amsterdam is such a melting pot of different people, languages, cultures and food.  We ate everything from Indonesion to Greek to Italian to herring to waffles and drank everything from Hoegaarden to Heineken to Amstel to Palm to La Chouffe. :)

Our most memorable moments and favorite things from Amsterdam (in no particular order):

1. Friendly people.  It didn't matter where we were, so many people went out of their way to be nice or offer help.

2. Leidseplein - a diverse area of town with restaurants and bars galore...and a waffle stand.

3. Waffles....hot off the griddle, topped with chocolate and whipped cream.  Yum.

4. Kaasboer Beledge Broodjes - a sandwich shop in the Jordaan area.  LeederD said it was the best sandwich he's ever eaten.  He said he'd even consider moving to Amsterdam if he could eat one of these everyday.

5.  Anne Frank House - an extremely moving experience that nearly had me in tears by the end.

6.  Indonesion rijsttafel at Sama Sebo - a delicious feast consisting of 23 different dishes.

7.  Bicycles

8.  Finding Snow White - our first night in town, we met a lady who was looking for her lost dog.  Ten minutes later, we came across the loose dog but the owner was no longer in sight.  LeederD ran around trying to find the owner while I stayed with the dog.  When he finally returned with her, she plastered us with hugs and kisses and couldn't stop thanking us.  It turns out that the (black) dog is named Snow White and it didn't actually belong to this lady, but to her friends who were on holiday in India.  Not only did she have family members helping to find Snow White, but the police were also on the lookout.  We were happy to have crossed paths with Snow White.  And it felt good to do something good.

9.  Red Light District - definite tourist trap, but a must see.  It is just bizarre watching people window shop for prostitutes.  But the most beautiful part of the RLD?  The 40+ white swans hanging out in the canal.

10.  Public urinals.  They just made us laugh.

11.  Bloemenmarkt - the flower market

12. Canals

Now that our journey has come to an end, back to reality we go.  It was an unforgettable trip and we will surely return to Paris, Angouleme and Amsterdam again some day.  Until then, we have some very fond memories. 

Gros bisous and goede nacht.

La vie dans la campagne

This is going to be a short post without photos because we are now in Angouleme at Muriele's house (my 2nd host mom) and I am having a hard time using her computer.  I can't upload photos and the French don't use qwerty keyboards, so it is taking me forever to type this! :)

We finished up our last few days in Paris just strolling around different neighborhoods...le Marais, St-Michel, Montmartre and Chinatown.  It was nice having a few slower days after doing all of the main tourist sites the first 4 days!  We were able to see Sylvestre again and spent most of the day Thursday with him.  We hung out at his flat for a while and got to meet one of his roommates, so that was a lot of fun...and it was great for LeederD to see real life in Paris instead of the hustle and bustle of being a tourist.  Thursday night we went to a true Parisian cabaret show, so that was quite entertaining too!

Now we are just enjoying life in the countryside for a few days.  We arrived in Angouleme yesterday afternoon, walked around town for a while and had a cafe with Murièle and my host sister Audrey.  LeederD got to see my old stomping ground...the houses I lived in, the cafés and bars I frequented and where I went to school.  Murièle lives about 25 minutes outside of town now in a little village called Nonac, so we are here just loving the peace and quiet after a week in Paris.  My host sisters are all here with their boyfriends and babies and it is so nice to see everyone.  LeederD is managing just fine with the language barrier, but I forgot how exhausting translating can get by the end of the day.  C'est dur!  We had a great dinner last night (la raclette) and tonight we get to eat foie gras and some other specialties of the region.  So yummy!!  We headed over to Cognac this afternoon and went on a tour at the Martell distillery, then drove through the countryside and tried to take in all of the scenery.  Tomorrow we are heading to Gille and Mireille's house (my 3rd host family) and spending the whole day with them.  We will post again after we arrive in Amsterdam, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday.  So for now, we're going downstairs to drink our aperitif before dinner...shoot, such a hard life this week. :)  Gros bisous à tous!

Baguettes and cheese and wine, oh my!

Monday night we had a great time with Sylvestre.  He came to our flat and then we walked over the the St-Michel neighborhood, hit up a couple of pubs, and sampled numerous Belgian beers.  We had a lot of fun...probably too much!  Being out until around 3 a.m. made it very difficult to wake up yesterday morning.

Yesterday we used the last day of our museum pass to see the Musee d'Orsay and we really enjoyed many of the pieces at this museum...Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rodin.  This museum is in an old train station, so the architecture is pretty neat.

 

 

 

Since we were finished up with all of our museum sightseeing, we just spent the rest of the day poking around the Latin Quarter, Saint Germain and Ile St-Louis.  We came across some beautiful churches and also spent some time watching teenagers play soccer at Arenes de Lutece, an ancient amphitheatre built in the 1st century.  Last night, we watched the Eiffel Tower light show and went on a Seine River boat cruise to see Paris by night.  Afterwards, we enjoyed a late dinner at a creperie with salted crepes, dessert crepes and a bottle of Breton cider.

Miles walked on Tuesday: 11

After walking nearly 40 miles in 4 days, we needed some relaxation time today. :)  We spent the entire morning strolling around the Marais district not far from our flat and checked out the Place de la Bastille, Place des Vosges and the Jewish Quarter.  It's a perfect autumn day, about 60 degrees and sunny, so we soaked up the sun at a cafe directly across from the Centre Pompidou and watched street performers and passers-by for a couple of hours. 

Right now, we just finished eating a perfect lunch in our apartment...a baguette, three different cheeses and a bottle of red wine.  We did some laundry last night and had to get creative with hanging a clothesline, so I'm sitting here sipping wine with underwear hanging above my head.  Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do...and wine makes everything better anyways.  

My Mom posted a message saying that our dog Kenzie misses us a lot.  So...we took a few pictures of her friends that we've met on this side of the pond.  Dogs are treated like royalty in France, so LeederD is getting quite a kick out of seeing them in stores and cafes.  I even found a doggie scarf for Kenzie, but I don't think LeederD is going to let me get away with that.  Sorry Kenzie Roo. :(

This dog waited outside of a jewelry store waiting for his owner who was doing some shopping inside.  He just hung out and waited...so cute!  Maybe Kenzie can learn some manners and patience from him?

This cat just hung out on his owner's moped while he did some grocery shopping...

And this dog was just so darned cute with her red hankerchief around her neck. :)

Well, we're off to do some more strolling in St-Michel...bisous!

La Tour Eiffel, Les Invalides, and Centre Pompidou

Bonsoir!  We had another busy day today and it's not over yet!  We woke up early this morning, made our daily stop at the boulangerie for a tasty pastry and headed to the Eiffel Tower.  After climbing 720 steps, we made it to the 2nd level and spent some time taking in the view.  I wanted to post a nice photo of us at the top, but we haven't been very successful in asking great photographers to take pictures of us.  Most of them haven't turned out or parts of us were chopped off.  Fortunately, we found a nice gentleman who took a fairly good picture of us from Champ de Mars.

Next, we took a nice stroll from the Eiffel Tower to Les Invalides.  We spent some time relaxing in a small park and then headed into Les Invalides to visit the Army Museum and Napoleon's tomb.  LeederD really enjoyed the World War II exhibit and, like always, the architecture of the building was amazing.

 

 

This afternoon we spent some time in the Marais district near our apartment.  We had lunch at Dame Tartine and LeederD got to try his first Croque Monsieur (the French version of a grilled cheese) and I had a delicious duck breast filet and goat cheese sandwich.  After enjoying our long lunch, we went to the Centre Pompidou, a modern art museum in a very unique building.  The structure is basically inside out...the pipes, heating ducts, and escalator are on the exterior.  LeederD is not a huge fan of Modern art, and I admit that some of it was a bit strange, but I did enjoy the Picasso and Matisse pieces.

 

Sylvestre, one of my best friends from Angouleme, now lives in Paris and we are going to have drinks with him and his girlfriend tonight.  I haven't seen him in 6 years, so it should be fun!

Miles walked: 10.5

Bisous!

First 2 Days in Paris

We arrived yesterday morning and managed to have a long day despite the jet lag.  Our apartment is in le Marais in the 4th arrondissement and we have all of 360 square feet (although it feels like about 100) to live in for the next week.  Here's a photo of the outside.  We're the highest window in the center.

In the afternoon, we headed over to Sainte-Chapelle (gothic cathedral with amazing stained glass windows) and then visited Notre-Dame.  We climbed all 400 steps to the top and hung out with the gargoyles.  The detail of Notre-Dame was very impressive.

Miles walked: 7.25

This morning we went to a local market and picked up a whole chicken and potatoes for dinner tonight...and stopped to get a pain au chocolat at a bakery for breakfast.  Yum!  The rest of our day was busy with visiting the Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Avenue des Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. 

Miles walked: 10

 

 

We're both pretty tired...especially after walking all day and drinking 2 bottles of wine for dinner. :) Oh, and despite our distance, LeederD managed to keep up with the Pack tonight.  (Dear Jodie... your ViQueens didn't look so good today...Favre with 2 TO's.  ViQueens may be in for a beating next week, Pack has won by a combined total of 57-3 the last 2 weeks...).

Bonne nuit et bisous.

And the journey begins!

I am writing from the Van Galder bus as we make our way to O'Hare.  I still have that pit in my stomach...the one you get when you feel like you forgot something.  I tend to stress a little bit (yeah, like everyone didn't already know that), but that pit should go away by the time we reach the airport.

I've spent the last two months making a list of things to pack for this trip (I know, such a huge surprise coming from me), so I couldn't possibly have forgotten anything.  Clothes? Check. Travel books? Check. Band-aids? Check. Clothesline and laundry detergent? Check. Extra camera battery and a backup for the backup? Check.  You probably get the drift.  This is probably why so many people were in disbelief when I told them that all I was taking for luggage was a carry-on suitcase.  So just for the record, I did it!  LeederD and I each have a carry-on suitcase with room to spare.  Mine topped out at 34 lbs., including 4 lbs. of Fannie May chocolates and candy corn for my host family.  It feels great to travel light and makes it much easier to maneuver your luggage through the metro.

I checked the weather for Paris this morning and the next week is looking gorgeous!  Low to mid 60's the whole week and only one day with a chance of rain so far.  We really couldn't ask for better weather than that.

See you in Paris!  Bisous.

5 days, 3 hours and 58 minutes

But who's counting?  On Friday, we leave for our much anticipated trip to Europe.  If you are familiar with my traveling style, then you already know that I love to be disconnected from the world when I'm away.  I boycott technology and refuse to be connected.  No cell phone.  No email.  No Facebook.  No blogs.  Until now...

I finally decided that I'm going to give this blog thing a shot.  I don't know how it's going to work out yet, so you may or may not hear from me during our trip. :)

And for a sneak peek, our itinerary goes like this: 6 days in Paris, 5 days in Angoulême, 4 days in Amsterdam.  LeederD has never been to Europe, so it is going to be such a treat to share it with him.  During our time in Paris, we'll visit some of the typical tourist spots, but I'm also looking forward to spending time off the beaten path in neighborhoods like Oberkampf, Butte aux Cailles and Canal St-Martin.  There is nothing better than experiencing a city by just wandering and hanging among the locals.  After Paris, we'll take the train to Angoulême, the city where I lived as a foreign exchange student 12 years ago.  We'll be staying with two of my host families and I am so excited to be going home!  And finally, we'll take the train from Angoulême to Amsterdam for the final leg of our vacation.  Believe it or not, we don't have a lot planned for Amsterdam.  I'm sure we will visit the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house, but other than that we will probably spend most of our time just wandering.

Hopefully I can pull off this blog while we're away.  Until then...bisous.