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

Thursday, May 21, 2009

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!