Three Months in France March 31 – June 28, 2007

Its just past noon and we’re home in Vernon. As we drove into town both Liam and Emma cheered “VERNON, VERNON, VERNON!!”. The old saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder is most definitely true. Home sweet home.

Its 2am and Liam and I are up now. Its going to take a few days to get through this jetlag again.

Everything went according to plan today. Flights were on time, no missing bags and kids handled the long flight exceptionally well. We’re in Canmore now and we are staying here overnight and we will drive back to Vernon tomorrow. We’re all very tired.

Well, where to begin? It has been quite a journey. Though we’ve only scratched the surface of what France has to offer we feel we’ve seen and learned about so many interesting aspects of this fascinating country. We’ve eaten a variety of new foods such as duck foie gras, cassoulet, amazing cheeses and sausages; we drank many new beverages—my personal favourite is the apple brandy known as Calvados;and we have set foot within buildings whose walls, if they could talk, could tell us stories dating back many tens of generations. And even more importantly we’ve become closer to our family members that are based here in France.

This adventure was by far the longest family vacation we’ve ever attempted and as a result we are filled with a panoply of good memories. But things didn’t always proceed as we had thought they would. For example, although all of us experienced improvements in our ability to speak French, the actual level of improvement is not as significant as we thought it would be. We also did not visit as many places as we anticipated we would. But these things are not dissapointments. They are simply comparisons between what was our best guess as to how things would turn out and how things actually turned out. Financially the trip ended up costing less than we expected and thats mostly due to fewer hotel visits than we anticipated making.

We conclude with a few of our favourite moments in France:

Francois’ favourite moments:

• Visiting Nimes to step foot into a 2000-old-year old Roman arena and to walk across an equally-old Roman aquaduct.

• Visiting Oradour-sur-Glanes. It serves as a very effective reminder of the horrors of war.

• Seeing Liam and Emma’s excited reaction to visiting and climbing the Eiffel Tower.

• Walking the Normandy beaches with my friend John, who shares my enthusiasm for WW II history.

• Our almost-weekly ritual of attending the Lavaur market to acquire a freshly roasted chicken and some frites for lunch.
  

For Liam:

• Playing with Sean’s extensive Star Wars lego collection.
  
• Seeing and climbing the Eiffel Tower.
  
• Splashing around in the various water fountains.
  

For Emma:

• All the beautiful flowers
  
• Seeing and climbing the Eiffel Tower.
  

For Diane:

• The lunch we enjoyed at the Brasserie located right next to the Roman Arena in Nimes.
  
• Boat trip along the Seine in Paris.
  
• The time she was able to spend with her two sisters.
  

For Marissa:

• I loved experiencing life outside of Canada, it was of course different in some ways but totally enjoyable
  
• I really loved swimming in the Mediterranean Sea with the kids
  
• Eating, eating, eating oh and drinking too!
  
• Although, the different cities and tourist sites were spectacular, I just enjoyed our family dinners outside in the great southern weather or going for our walks to feed the donkeys and to have a panache in the town. – we’ll miss you donkeys!
  
• How could I not mention Munich!

  Although, I didn’t get as much work done as I hoped I would have, I think after a looong while of catching up I’d be ready for another adventure!
  

Yesterday’s Photos

We have only two full days remaining here in France before we board our flight home on thursday morning—hard to believe the adventure is almost over. We’re going to spend most of today cleaning and packing and if time permits we might take the kids to go see Shrek 3.

Yesterday I went over to my aunt Moniques place to help re-assemble the bookbinding equipment that we took apart and transported last Thursday. Bruno (Monique’s husband), David (Bruno’s employee) and I managed to get things re-assembled quite quickly. Both Bruno and David are very knowledgeable on French politics and history and I enjoyed speaking to them about these topics as it provided me with a chance to learn something while at the same time giving me opportunity to practice my French.

I snapped a few photos of the bookbinding equipment so you could get an idea of what this equipment looks like.

Today’s Photos

– Our last family dinner before we return home.

Today’s Photos

Marissa, Sean, Jens and I took an almost 2-hour drive to the remote mountain village of Cabrespine today to visit the giant Cabrespine cave. The Cabrespine cave is large and extends for over 17 KM and some of it has been made available to the general public.

The main area accessible to the public is over 200 metres in height and its bottom is barely visible. A walkway has been created approximately 100 metres above the bottom and it is from here that we and the general public can enjoy the cave. Those who are more adventureous can book ahead for a 5 hour excursion deep into the cave with experienced spelunkers. Have a look at today’s photos to get an idea of the interesting formations created by the dripping water over the course of thousands of years. It apparently takes around 100 years for a stalagmite to grow just 1 cm.

We made a trip out to the Toulouse airport today in order to better plan our upcoming return-trip home. I wanted to specifically find out about bringing my bike on the plane. I looked online and discovered that Lufthansa does indeed allow bicycles—I would normally assume that this is the case but here in France I have found it best never to assume anything—but their website did not make mention of how the bike should be packed and wether or not they would provide any packing material. Usually the airlines will typically provide you with a large plastic bag or a box to place your bicycle in but I didn’t feel comfortable assuming that the same would be true here. At the airport I spoke to Lufthansa and they confirmed that they do allow bikes—excellent!!!—but that they have no plastic bags or boxes to provide me. Instead they suggested that I ask Air France if they had bike bags or boxes. So I waited in line to speak to Air France and they did indeed have bike boxes for sale for about 5 euros but unfortunately they could only sell them to Air France customers. Ok, this is all good to know ahead of time instead of discovering all this on the day of our flight. And fortunately I did keep the original plastic bag that Air Canada gave me back in Canada. The bag is in poor shape but I can tape it back together I think.

While at the airport, I also verified the location of the Peugeot Open Europe parking lot so that I would know exactly where to return my rental vehicle on the day of our departure. I also verified what time they open (0600) as our flight is at 0725.

I had some small frustrations when leaving the airport parking lot. The parking system at Toulouse airport is setup in a way that is similar to the system at Vancouver International Airport. Just before returning to you car one pays for their parking at one of the payment machines located next to the terminal. The bar code on the ticket is then registered into the computer as having been paid and you then have about 15 minutes to reach the exit gate with your vehicle to present your ticket to the automated machine. At Toulouse airport there are two groups of payment machines: one that accepts cash and one that accepts credit cards. Both groups of machines had lineups and I started with the cash lineup. After waiting in line and attempting to pay with cash I discovered that the machine will only accept coins and 5 euro bills. I only had 10 and 20 euro bills. Ok, no problem, I will wait in the lineup for the machines that accept credit cards. When it was finally my turn at the credit card machine I discovered that the machine does not accept Visa or Mastercard cards from Canada. Nice. Did you know that France is the most visited country in the world? It receives over 75 million visitors per year. Our visa cards from Canada work in most places in France without problem but they certainly do not work at the airport parking machines and at the train station automated ticketing machines and at many gas stations. Sometimes I think that the French build their systems to be as difficult and non-intuitive as possible for tourists. But then I realise its probably just me and that I have a different perspective on how things should be built. For example, I have this crazy idea that if I were in the most visited country in the world that I would think to accept foreign credit cards in places where travellers might be like at the airport or train station. I’m smiling as I type this but I wasn’t laughing earlier in the day…I lost it and actually cursed and vowed that I would never return to this country. Clearly untrue words issued in the heat of the moment by a frustrated, partly inflexible Canadian accustomed to conveniences not found in some parts of the old world.

Anyway, todays trip to the airport was worthwhile and will make our departure on Thursday much smoother.

My mom and I went to Béziers today to help move a bunch of old bookbinding equipment that my aunt Monique purchased. The equipment was purchased from an energetic 82-year-old lady whose family was once involved in bookbinding. There were many pieces, all of them large, heavy and made of solid iron. This is the type of equipment that will last generations. My aunt took a full year off of work a few years ago to take a course on bookbinding and she would like to take up the craft once she retires from her current job.

We had to dismantle the equipment as much as possible in order to be able to move it. On the way home one of the legs of a cutting machine went right through the floor of the truck. Fortunately this occured less than 1 KM from our final destination and didn’t end up posing much of a problem—the truck was still driveable and the bookbinding equipment wasn’t damaged at all.

On Monday I will return to my aunts house to assist in re-assembling the equipment and I will bring my camera along to take photos of it.

Here are a couple of interesting facts about Béziers:

• it was the birth place of Pierre Paul Riquet, the fellow who built the Canal du Midi.
• it was the first city to be sacked in the Albigensian Crusade in 1209. When one of the crusaders asked how one should distinguish the Cathars from the Catholics the response from the Papal legate was “Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius”, which translates to “Kill them all! God will know his own.”