Three Months in France March 31 – June 28, 2007

An interesting thing has occured in the last little while, which I didn’t think would happen so soon. We’ve begun to really look forward to returning home. We have even discussed the possibility of changing our flights to return early and our personal reasons vary slightly.

For me, I’ve grown a bit tired of visiting places and would simply prefer to enjoy a somewhat normal life in our immediate surroundings. We are planning a trip to Germany soon but my motivation for actually following through with it fluctuates on an almost daily basis. Early on in our voyage to France I was eager to drive and explore every nook-and-cranny that France has to offer but now I somewhat dread any sort of voyage and prefer to stay near to our Giroussens home. I think this reaction is probably normal. I think that no matter how exciting an activity is, one needs a break from it after a while and I’ve now reached that point with my France travels. I recall, when I cycled across Canada, that I needed time away from my bicycle afterwards, and that after a sufficient break, I was once again enamoured with cycling.

My mom, Marissa and the kids are also experiencing some of these feelings.

I hope that this post does not convey a sense of misery as this is certainly not the case. But at the same time I do no wish to make this blog a sanitized version of our experiences. If it is to serve as a accurate souvenir of our voyage then it should include the ups as well as the downs.

At the end of the day we have to remember that we are very fortunate to be able to be here in France and to experience its many wonderful facets.

We’re happy to report that the internet service is working again at our home in Giroussens. Its been quite a frustration to have to find alternate places to work from.

I’ve just added a post below of our visit to a few towns in the Pyranees mountain on May 22nd so please have a look.

Today’s Photos

We took a drive into the Pyranees mountains today. Our first stop was Prades, a small town of around 6000 inhabitants. We arrived during the weekly tuesday-market and after parking we enjoyed a walk through and purchased a freshly roasted chicken, some rice and some baklava for a picnic lunch. It can very expensive to eat out at restaurants in France so the picnic approach has become our preferred method of sustenance when we are away from our home-base in Giroussens. We have found that our family can eat like kings for about 20 euros per day by buying pre-made food from markets and grocery stores, compared with 50-100 euros per day using the restaurant approach.

Our next stop was the town of Eus which is purported to be one of the most beautiful villages in France. Eus is built on the sunny side of a relatively steep rocky cliff and sports impressive views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. The top of the town is crowned by a church whose single front tower appears as if it belonged to a fortified castle. Here’s a short video on Youtube which shows Eus.

We concluded our Pyranees visit by stopping briefly for ice-cream in lovely Marquixane before returning to Argeles-sur-mer to give the kids more beach time–which the really enjoyed as you can see from the photos.

Today’s Photos

The day started off less than ideally when we awoke and discovered that the high speed internet access in our room no longer worked. The staff at the hotel were puzzled by this and were unable to resolve it. Marissa had some work that she needed to get done so we were in need of a solution. We checked out of our hotel and went to two other nearby hotels but we unfortunately discovered that neither actually has internet access despite the fact that the booklet we picked up from the local tourism office claims that they do. At this point we decided to abandon our search for another hotel in Argelès-sur-Mer because the only other hotels that “might” have internet access were priced well out of our price range.

So we drove to Perpignan and checked into an Etap hotel and at 45 euros per night the price is just right. We’re within 30 minutes drive to many beaches from here so its not so bad.

I forgot to mention that the weather wasn’t cooperating this morning; in fact it was raining. While Marissa did a couple hours of work in the hotel I took the kids to a playground at a local fast-food place called ‘Quick’. It was still raining by the time we picked Marissa up so we decided to explore Perpignan instead of going to the beach. We parked in the downtown core and walked around for a couple of hours, the highlight of which was a visit to the Palace of the kings of Majorca.

By the time we finished visiting the palace, the sun had begun to shine and so we headed over to the beach at Canet and the kids played in the sand while Marissa and I relaxed. So the day turned out to be very enjoyable despite a bit of a rough start.

We’re not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow. We might take a drive into Spain or we might head up into the Pyrenees or we might even do both.

Bonne nuit.

Today’s Photos

We left the clouded skies of Giroussens today in search of sun and beach. As we travelled south towards the Mediterranean sea the clouds seemed inescapable. But as we neared Perpignan the clouds vanished and we felt the wonderfully hot Mediterranean sun upon us.

Our initial intentions were to base ourselves in Perpignan but in the end we decided to stay closer to the beach in Argelès-sur-Mer. After a brief search we located a suitable hotel within walking distance to the beach and with high speed internet access.

The kids played on the beach for a while but the very strong winds eventually encouraged us onto other activities. We jumped back in the car and drove along the coast to the town of Port-Vendres and then returned by way of Collioure where we stopped for an hour-long hike along the rocky coastal cliffs. I’m hoping that today’s photos will reveal some of the stunning scenery that we enjoyed today.

Good night to all.

Today’s Photos

We took the train from Bordeaux back to Toulouse today and I’m now completely sold on the concept of rail travel. I love the fact that there are no security checks to go through and that there is no luggage check-in. You simply show up and board 5 minutes before your train. And trains here are almost always exactly on schedule. The seating is comfortable – we had two pairs of seats facing each other with a pull out table top between us which the kids used for drawing and colouring. And best of all, the train stations are right in town so when you arrive by train you are usually right where you need to be, not 30-60 minutes away like most airports.

Prior to boarding today’s train we did manage to do a bit more touring of Bordeaux. Bordeaux has a great tram system in place and we used it to get from our hotel over to the 230-year-old opera house known as the Grand Théâtre. The Grand Théâtre is quite a lovely building, and as is often the case, photos do it no justice.

Sadly, we didn’t actually drink any Bordeaux wine while in Bordeaux. But Bordeaux is now officially on my list of places to return to, so this oversight will eventually be corrected.

Today’s Photos

We spent the day with my aunt Carole and her family at a very interesting place called Cap’Découverte. Cap’Découverte is basically a massive gravel pit thats been turned into an adventure park complete with a Summer ski hill, wake boarding, a crazy zip line and much more. The interesting thing is that the public doesn’t really know about this place yet so its almost empty and the price for unlimited use was only 10 euros. The kids had an absolute blast at this place and so did we. They even have a hotel there and I would have moved into it for a week if they had high speed internet access there.

Happy Mother’s day to those Mothers located in North America. Mother’s day here in France doesn’t occur until the last Sunday in May.

With a long drive ahead of us we awoke early today and we were on the road by 0830 heading towards Rennes. We dropped John and Anne off at the train station in Rennes where they took the high speed TGV train back to Paris.

The 733 KM drive from Rennes to Giroussens went relatively smoothly except for an allergic reaction that I had due to something I think I ate. At first I had a stomach ache then my eyes started swelling, and finally it started getting difficult to swallow. I had a similar incident about 18 years ago and I knew that a hospital visit would be in the cards so shortly after passing Bordeaux we stopped in at the emergency room of the Centre Hospitalier Pasteur. They immediately took me in, injected some drugs directly into my vein and then monitored me for about an hour to ensure that the drugs were having the desired effect. The drugs worked wonderfully and I began to feel normal again. When it was time to leave I had to pay the bill and I was very shocked when I learned that the price was only 23 Euros (about $35 CA). So at this moment I have a great deal of respect for the French medical system. The emergency room did not have the huge back-log of patients that I’m accustomed to seeing in Canadian emergency rooms. It was a very efficient pleasant experience if one can ever describe a hospital visit as such.

Anyway, after the hospital detour we continued on and reached Giroussens around 7pm. Long day, long drive!

Today’s Photos

In case you didn’t know today is VE Day, aka Victory Europe Day. On May 8th, 1945 the allies officially celebrated the surrender of Nazi Germany and although we didn’t plan our current Normandy visit based on this date, I’m very glad it has worked out that we are here on this day.

Today we visited the Musee du Debarquement in Arromanches. This is a museum dedicated to explaining the logistics surrounding the building and operation of the artificial harbour, known as Mulberry ‘B’, that the allies created here back in 1944. This harbour, during its 8 months of service, became the largest in the world in terms of gross-tonage-per-day. Quite amazing. After a very interesting tour of the museum we walked around the lovely town of Arromanches and we especially enjoyed the waterfront boardwalk which is flanked on one side by the English Channel and on the other by beautiful homes. After a quick lunch we then departed towards Mont St Michel.

Mont St. Michel is a tall rocky island, located in Normandy near Avranches. It is apparently the third most visited attraction in France after the Eiffel tower and the Palace of Versailles. In modern times one can reach the island using a causeway but prior to the causeway’s existance one would have to walk across the sand during periods of low tide. Mont St. Michel contains an impressive assortment of very old buildings, the most prominent of which is the Benedictine abbey which effectively crowns the island. The lowel levels are filled with tourist shops, hotels, and restaurants. We explored the island, enjoying the lovely views, the impressive ramparts and the interesting architecture. Many of the buildings appear to be homes so I assume that there are people who actually live there. I wonder what a house there would cost?

We have a long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow. We’re going to drop John and Anne off in Rennes where they will catch a train to Paris while Marissa and I continue south back to our home in Giroussens. What a week it has been and from it we will hold so many special memories.

Today’s Photos

Marissa and Anne began the day by visiting the Michel Cluizel Chocolatrium located in Damville about 20 minutes south of Evreux. John and I decided to attend to more pressing matters, namely breakfast. Damville had several restaurants and bars but none of those dam places actually served any breakfast. We thus made do with some bread products obtained from one of the town bakeries. We actually asked a few people in the town if they knew of any restaurants where we could eat breakfast and it became clear very quickly that such a thing would not be found here. Oh well…

John and I picked up Anne and Marissa from the chocolatrium at the agreed-upon 1 hour after we initially dropped them off and we thus proceeded to Caen to check-in at our next hotel. After dropping our luggage at the hotel we proceeded North to the Juno Beach Centre located in Courseulles-sur-Mer where 14000 Canadian troops landed on June 6, 1944. The museum at the Juno Beach Centre has been open only 4 years and was started by a group of Canadian veterans, who upon visiting Juno beach a few years ago were saddened to learn that no museum existed to explain what had taken place there during the second world war. Through their efforts and many donations this wonderful museum – whose board of directors are based in Burlington, Ontario, Marissa’s home town – became a reality.

After visiting the interior of the museum we opted into the 45 minute guided tour of Juno beach. Our guide, who happens to be from Quebec city, showed us remains of German bunkers and described the events that took place on Juno beach on D-day, 1944.

After Juno beach we travelled west to the cliffs overlooking Arromanches to see Gold Beach and the remains of the WW II artificial harbour known as Mulberry. On D-day soldiers and tanks were carried to shore in landing crafts. However, within 3 days, the allies had assembled Mulberry which allowed much greater efficiency in bringing soldiers, tanks, and the other requirements of war, to the Normandy beaches.

As a side note I wanted to mention that I had some ground horse for dinner today. It tasted pretty much just like beef though it was much leaner. I also enjoyed a locally-made apple brandy known as Calvados and I found it to be very tasty.

Tomorrow were planning to visit Mont St. Michel.