Spring (and France) is in the air!!!: 2009

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Aix-en-Provence

Definitely our favorite place out of all the places we went during the trip. Nice quiet little town and we were lucky enough to be there for the saturday morning market. As you can see on the pictures, there was a lot of good things and the smells were amazing. Very clean and rich town. We had one of our best pizza here. They use emmenthal cheese and very tasty tomato sauce...mmmm. We spent an extra day there considering how relaxing it was...

It was an Aix-cellent stay and Aix-quisite food.

See you in Paris.
We are heading to Paris for the rest of the trip.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

May 22-23 - Marseille

Ahh Marseille....Well after one hour bus tour and a 3 hour cruise, we came to the following conclusion. Marseille is smelly, dirty, crowded and ugly. The history of Marseille is probably the main reason why this city can probably be considered as the dump of Europe. However, we did enjoy the scenery during the boat cruise. Marseille is a big stinky melting pot. It is definitely at the bottom of our list of cities we visited so far. Food sucks, people are not friendly, garbage everywhere to a point that one of the partie for the election is promissing to clean up the city.

Next stop... Aix en Provence

Saturday, May 23, 2009

May 21 - Cannes

Today we arrived in Cannes during the Film Festival. Apparently, this is the 2nd largest media event in the world behind the Olympics! Crowded would be an understatement! The beaches were much nicer here and this is a place you just stroll along the water. At the Hotel Martinez, the hotel where most of the big stars stay, fans were waiting outside all day long just to get a glimpse of someone getting in or out of their car. Unfortunately, the only stars we saw were some group of African actors with papparazzi following them.

Since we dropped off our rental car, our schedule has changed a little. So, next stop...Marseille.

May 21 - Nice

Our last morning in our lovely bed and breakfast. Also, we changed our plans and decided to drop off the car in Nice to continue with the train. So far, we have traveled France by plane, car and train. We have a boat cruise planned in Marseille later. Nice is a medium size city....not Dan's favorite but there are still certain 'Nice' areas to visit. During our little tour of the city, I was able to test our new camera with a 12x zoom. The 'random' picture I took of the beach clearly shows that I could qualify to be a papparazzi....

Next stop...we will arrive right in the middle of the Cannes Film Festival

Thursday, May 21, 2009

May 19 - Vence

Bon, pour ne pas confondre nos fidèles lecteurs, j'étais trop excité de parler de Monte-Carlo et j'ai sauté notre journée à Vence...Un petit endroit charmant et plein de petites ruelles. J'ai eu le plaisir d'essayer les joues de cochon tandis que Michelle a prix le saumon pour notre menu du souper.

Comme l'une des photos le montre, cela faisait un bout de temps que je n'étais pas allé me confesser alors j'en ai profiter pour m'asseoir sur cette Bible format de poche pour quelques minutes. Tout à côté de cette Bible se trouvait deux pierres qui dataient du temps des romains...l'an 236.

Encore une fois, température de 27celsius. Notre Bed et Breakfast de 4 étoiles est excellent. Nous prenons le petit déjeuner autour de la piscine à tous les matins avec vue sur les collines. On peut voir une villa géante dans l'une de ces collines. D'après le proprio, Brad et Angelina ont séjourné dans cette villa et les papparazzis dans le bed and breakfast ou l'on se trouve...

ENGLISH VERSION

Well I was too excited to talk about Monte-Carlo so I skipped our visit to Vence so hopefully our faithful followers won't be confused. Vence is a nice little town with a lot of history of course and very small and narrow streets. For our supper, I took the plunge and went for the pig cheeks...it's like the filet mignon. Michelle went for the salmon. Amazing dinner.

It had been a while since I went to church to confess myself so I took the opportunity to sit few minutes on this pocket size Bible. I felt better. Near this Bible, there were stones which apparently dated from the time of the Romans....year 236.

Again, beautiful weather....27 celsius. Our bed and breakfast which is the equivalent of any 4 stars hotel anywhere in Canada is amazing. We have our breakfast around the pool with view on the hills. A giant villa is located on those hills. According to the owner, Angelina and Brad stayed there a couple of years ago. Helicopter were brining them there. And the paparazzis stayed at our bed and breakfast to try to take some shots at there.

May 20 - Monaco

Ahhh Monaco..... We arrived right in the middle of the preparations of the F1 Grand Prix this weekend. Let me tell you that the recession has not hit this area. The rich are still rich....and the poor are just poorer. Just a crazy city! Fortunately, we took the train to get here and just walked the town. We saw a couple of F1 drivers wondering around. As you can see, we were able to get right at the track. We made a quick stop at the casino. It seems that our luck even works here. Michelle won 80 Euros. Just an amazing area to see. I tried my talent of Paparazzi but all I could get is few people on a 75 foot yacht probably talking about how much money they will put in their RRSP this year...

Oh I forgot....We made a quick stop in a terrasse just above the racetrack. Two fruit juices for $24 Cdn.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

More pictures - Annecy

May 18 - Annecy

Annecy is located in Alsace.....which I believe stands for 'meat lover' in english. This is the best place for a protein cure. Nice little town located at the bottom of a mountain which looks like the mountain on the Coors Light Rocky bottle. Also at the bottom of this mountain is a big lake. Because of the elevation of this lake, the excess water of the lake flows through a canal in the old part of the town.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Dimanche en Alsace - Colmar

Sur la route des vins en Alsace, nous nous arrêtons dans cette charmante petite ville appelée Obernay. Une autre ville remplie de café-terrasses. Puis, nous nous sommes dirigés vers Colmar. Une ville typiquement historique avec des maisons de bardeaux de toutes les couleurs. Avant d'arriver à Colmar, nous avons croisé une fête de village. Au menu, probablement un boeuf tué la veille avec saucisses sur baguette et assez de viande pour augmenter votre pression sanguine à un niveau critique. Un genre de gros BBQ pour les non-végétariens.

Lors ne notre petite promenade en mini-train dans Colmar, nous avons croisé la statue de celui qui a créé la statue de la liberté....Sa statue a même une version format de poche de la fameuse statue.

Dans le quartier historique de Colmar, à l'époque, les proprios ne pouvaient pas avoir une maison de la même couleur que leurs voisins. Les couleurs permises étaient le rouge, bleu et jaune. Alors ce quartier ressemble un peu à un sac de Smarties. Heureusement, la palette de couleurs s'est étendue au cours des années.

ENGLISH VERSION

Since I get the bilingual bonus at work, I might as well try to translate....hey !!!

One the wine route in Alsace, we did a quick stop in Oberney. Nice little place full of cafe-terrasses and shops. Then on our way to Colmar, we ended up crossing some sort of neighbordhood BBQ. On the menu, meat, meat and meat. Enough meat to raise your blood pressure to a critical level. Vegetarians....keep out!

Colmar is of course, a small city full of history with multi-color old houses. During our little train ride around the city, we learned that back then, house owners could not have two houses with the same color side by side. The only colors allowed were yellow, blue and red. So this old part of Colmar look like a big bag of Smarties. Fortunately, they have expanded the palette of colors since then...

Saturday in Strasbourg

We absolutely loved Strasbourg! and the weather...it was sunny and 22. Strasbourg is a beautiful city to walk around and we even took a cruise on the river. Holy geez....people like to eat here!!! You should have seen the plates of food piled high at lunch time. These people are definitely meat lovers...sausage, pork, ham and even pigeons....poor little things!!!! We knew that the French love bread...but, breakfast, lunch and dinner and even snacks!! Carb overload!!!
It's great that Dan can speak French.....my experience ordering a tea and a coffee was horrible....un the et un cafe...how difficult can that be???? Pretty tough, obviously!! I think I am just going to stop talking! Unfortunately, Dan had a very hard time ordering some butter for our bread.....du beurre, comprenez-vous? Again, not as easy as you would think!!!
Here are a few pictures....

Thursday, May 14, 2009

We're all set to go!

I have a feeling it's going to be a very long night. And Dan is already experiencing jet lag and we haven't even left!

When we entered the airport there was a swarm of teenagers who were also traveling to Paris!!!!! Luckily, we're not booked on the same flight as were the group of students.....phew!!!

Soon, we will be having our last meal at Tim Horton's for the next 2 weeks!