Gaudi and Picasso (Sam)

Monday
Today we started the day off with a visit to the Canadian Consulate where we met more people who had been robbed. On our way to the metro stop we saw Casa Batllo, a famous building designed by Gaudi, a world famous architect and Barcelonian superstar.(click on the word "Gaudi" or the word "Casa Batllo" for more info). We took the metro to Gaudi most famous work, "La Sagrada Familia". The architecture is so advanced and so detailed that it has been under construction since 1882 and is only between half and three quarters of the way done. Every inch of the outside is covered in statues; from a distance it looks as if it is melting. The inside is not as detailed but it is vast and innovative in design. Fully worth the small fortune it cost to get in. In continuing with our Gaudi theme we went to Parc Guell. Designed to be a suburb community for the wealthy, the project was scrapped and turned into a public park. Very impressive and a nice place for a stroll.

Tuesday
We woke up to pouring rain and decided to stay indoors and visit some museums. We spent about 30 minutes looking for the Picasso Museum, so much for our staying indoors plan. They had hid it in a small alley. Despite all that it was only 9 euros for the entire family and well worth the money. When you think Picasso you think cubism, it turns out that he was much more than that and Cubism was only one of his phases. One of my favourite parts was a room full of variations of a single painting. For the rest of the day we wandered around, went to two different markets, ate Tapas for lunch and, following their 5-0 win against real Madrid, I bought an FC Barcelona cap.

Gaudi Stuff

(Lesley) Yesterday we went to the Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell, as well as toured around Barcelona.  The Sagrada was neat to see.  I preferred the inside to the outside.  The outside was a bit much for my tastes.  There was a display showing  how the building techniques and structures related to nature and  that part helped me make sense of some of the unusual or bizarre aspects to the architecture.  It was quite cold inside though.  I certainly wouldn't worship there without a down sleeping bag with foot holes. However, the same can be said of most of the cathedrals we visited in France too.  That's the thing about off season travel; it is COLD.
Parc Guell was lovely.  We enjoyed taking the bus there and had a nice walk around.  We went into Gaudi's house and saw some of the furniture he designed too.  Unusual but pleasing.  We found a great bakery that was a snack shop too and had lovely eats in a smoke free environment (very difficult to find in Spain).  I ordered a hot chocolate and we watched the lady unwrap a big bar of chocolate put it in a double boiler and melt it, then pour it into a mug.  It was delicious! Ok I may be embellishing slightly here but if that wasn't pure melted chocolate I don't know what it was.  It certainly wasn't just chocolate powder and warm milk. I may yet move to Spain.
Actually not.  We met more people today who were robbed.  I think we are counting them on two hands now and we have only been here for 3 days.  We are regretting our stupidity in having pulled over on Sunday and we miss our computer but we have our wits about us and are back on our game.  The south of France and the layed back gite life must have dulled our brains or our senses.
Today, (Tuesday) we went to the Picasso museum, saw the Barcelona Arc de Triomph and ate a tapas lunch. We also went to the market and drank more melted liquid chocolate at the chocolate museum. It was wet today, though.  Rain, but with the milder weather here, it is manageable.  We were starting to get really cold in the massif centrale in France.

Barcelona day 2 (Sam)

After that bad start to Barcelona and a bad nights sleep (the rooms were boiling hot), we were not very inclined to wake. But we had to eat and be out of the rooms by 10 am. We took the suburban train to Plaça de Catalunya. We found the Canadian consulate but it was Sunday and therefore closed. We headed to La Rambla, a world famous boulevard. It was crowded and we had heard that there were lots of pickpockets. Despite this it still retained a fun atmosphere. There were human statues all over the place and souvenir shops full of keychains, postcards and various FC Barcelona products. When the street ended at the port we took a little break, watched a boat try to park and soaked in the atmosphere a bit. We walked back up through Barri Gotic (the old quarter) and went back to the hostel to relax.

A bad start to Barcelona

(John) We decided to take the coastal road into Spain.  It was a lovely drive Sam likened it to the sea to sky highway to Whistler except a la Mediterranean.  The next part is not easy to write as we are still somewhat traumatized and embarrassed by what happened next.  We joined the motorway to Barcelona and were doing fine we were minutes from our junction to get off and head to find our beds when a seemingly nice Spanish couple urgently flagged us down, there was some problem with our tire.  NOT.  The next minute went by in a whirl.  Basically we were seriously conned.  The man got out of his car and got my attention on one side of the car while also distracting Lesley who stayed in the car with the children but was looking backward for the problem.  The next thing we knew Sam was yelling that they had taken the computer. The couple was not a couple but were 4 people, some had been hiding in the back seat ducked down.  As I got around to the drivers side, Sam was sprinting after the car and got to it just as it was screeching away.  I had somehow kept the keys in my hand and not in the ignition - just an old habit - which meant we at least were still in control of the vehicle.  We tried very briefly to follow to get a license plate but knew it was pointless.  We had lost the laptop computer.  By the time we had slowed down and pulled over to asses the damage we were well and truly lost and it took us a long time to find the hostel that we no longer had directions for, as we were using the map on the computer to get there.  We then realized that we had also lost a bag that had some of Lesley's personal effects (toiletries mainly).  We arrived and checked in and managed to get the staff person to call the police for us.  We were directed to go to the police station and give details.  We were given a map with direction and we set off into Barcelona by car to find it.  It took over two hours and by the time we got there we were hungry tired exhausted, upset and feeling very stupid.  We made our report and were told the crime was common.  We got back to the hostel where the hostel restaurant was just about still open and where the staff were very kind.  We spoke to a lovely Dutch man who helped make us feel better and eating didn't hurt either.  Unfortunately.  Lesley and I did not sleep a wink all night. We kept replaying the scene in our heads.   Today has been better but we feel jet lagged.  This morning we heard about then met a British couple who had just about the same thing happen a few days ago at the same junction on the same highway.  The only difference was their car was shunted by the criminals then they were urged to get out and check the damage.  The criminals drove off just as they noticed that their wallets and one bag was gone.  It was lovely to chat with them.  It helped made us feel more normal.  The fact is only good, decent people get conned like we did. 
(Lesley) Today we went into Barcelona despite not a lot of sleep and we had a decent day.  We saw lots of nice Spanish people enjoying their city.  It was good after our first experience.  We already miss the computer as today would have been a great day to Skype some folks back home.  Oh well, life goes on.  Bye Lesley

Barcelona (Sam)

We left Languedoc yesterday and are in Barcelona. We had been warned about pickpockets and scammers before so we were ready to watch out once we got there. What we did not expect was to be robbed on the motorway in broad daylight. We were about 15 minutes away from Barcelona and nearing our junction when the car beside us started waving at us, pointing at our tire and telling us to pull over. My dad had been noticing a bit of wheel wobble earlier and was therefore not surprised. We pulled over and the man came over to us while his wife stayed in the car. He was panicked and pointing at the tire and talking frantically in Spanish. Then another man jumped out from the car (he had been hiding) and grabbed our computer and my mom s daysack. I was the only one to see this as Dad was out looking at the tire and Mom was looking back. I jumped up and screamed: they re taking the computer.
I then learnt that in situations like this, I do not stay calm and collected, but instead Adrenalin takes hold. Not thinking, I started running after the guy. He jumped in his car and they sped away with his door still open. I ran after the car swearing at the man as loud as I could. Unfortunately, I only later realised that all my efforts were lost as we are in Spain now and he probably did not understand English. When we got to our hostel we got directions to the police office and spent some time seeing the city while we looked for the station. 2 hours of time, to be precise. The streets are a maze and seem to all be one way. I had a nice blog written and ready to post about our last week in Azille unfortunately you will have to be stuck reading this one instead. By the way, does everyone like the youtube video?

Nov 21-24, 2010

(Lesley)  I mentioned, last post, something about Cathar castles.  We went to see two big ones: Quéribus and Peyrepertuse.  They sit south of us, in the Courbières (mountains).  They are both big old castles in some state of disrepair, real fixer uppers.  They are up on high rocky peaks.  I posted some photos in the last post. 

We really enjoyed seeing those castles.  They were great fun to drive up to and for each castle we also had a good walk as well.  The views from the castles were breathtaking.  I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live in them.  Not handy to anything, but that is their advantage in terms of defences.  Quéribus had one side (east) that seemed a little vulnerable because although the valleys to the north, south and west were very deep and anyone defending the castle had good views of approaching invaders, the east side didn’t have a deep valley and the peak to the east was just as high as the castle.  You may have noticed how thick that wall was that Sam was looking out over in the photo from last post, well that is protection against potential attacks from the east.

Peyrepertuse was bigger that Quéribus.  The drive and especially the walk up were both quite fun.  You can see each castle from the other though a fair distance separates them.  I wouldn’t have wanted to have to take a message from one castle to the other, not without a donkey, a warm sleeping and a pack of food. 

It was cool and rainy the day we saw both castles but there were moments of sunshine.

After seeing the castles, the next day we took a day of rest and stayed home to read.  Mhari wrote for her blog.  Sam and I went for a little wander around the village.

Then on Monday we did a big hike.  It was one of those 2.5 hours uphill, followed by 1.5 hours downhill. We left from Caunes-Minervois and took a trail to Citou (where there is a castle).  Now, we never intended to go all the way to Citou that was 20 kms through a gorge and a few valleys. Our intention was to go just over halfway then find the turn around (doing the petit boucle).  Well, we did that and a bit more because we didn’t have a proper ordinance map, just a little leaflet with a rough outline.  We ended up doing the petit boucle with a Carrière du Roy (King’s quarry) 5 kms detour.  We knew we were adding a little loop and the quarry was interesting so we were happy to add the kms.  It rained lightly all day long so we ate our lunch in a little shelter made for the lookout herder.  It was a dry stone hut, (a capitelle). It was quite small, but we fit in, had our snack and stayed dry for a bit then carried on.  We took some photos along the way and should post some because it was a superb walk.  It was nice to get some exercise after our day of rest the day before.

Today we went in search of nougat. We nearly attempted that on Saturday but ran out of time and energy after the castles.  We went to Limoux, the place of origin of some rather nice nougat we had previously tasted.  We hunted down the little artisanal shop where it was made locally and purchased some samples, not many mind because they weren’t cheap.  Then we went to Esperaza a little town we had heard was cute or quaint.  It was cold out, so after a quick walk around we headed back and lucked upon another small local nougat making operation. (They had chocolate too..) We bought some samples, tasted them in the car then Sam was sent back in to make more purchases.  The lady smiled and asked if we had finished the seven nougat bars we had just bought.  Sam assured her we had only sampled them as of yet but was picking some up for the family. He asked if they gave guided tours of their operation. She laughed, but they did not do guided tours despite how keen we were.

Other news…

·      -We had mustard potato chips today.  Yes, paprika ones were new for us in Iceland and today we stumbled upon mustard ones, so we had to try them.  Not bad. 

·     - We found a scorpion today.  It was on our couch.  We think that it came in with us from the hike yesterday as it was with our stuff from the hike, that or it came in with the wood for the fireplace.  It was a small scorpion, Mhari picked it up thinking it was a bit of balled up string.  She dropped it once she realized it was alive. What excitement!  I don’t know how common they are here or if all scorpions sting and I didn’t test it out or play with it too much.  John chucked it outside after capturing it in a jar.

·      -Mhari washed and brushed her hair.  This is the first time it has happened on the same day! WOW!

·      -Sam is learning to multiply and divide fractions.

·      -William and Kate are engaged!  Uk news from our British telly.

·      -We have booked beds in Barcelona. 

Wed Nov 24th

We did another hike today.  Just 10 kms with less ups and downs.  It was the Sentier des capitelles. (those dry stone herder huts providing a dry spot to sit and watch the flock while sheltered from the cers: the cold wind from the north) It was basically a hike to see all the capitelles around Villeneuve-Minervois.  There were lots on the hike at least 25 of them.  The views were pleasant but less spectacular than those from the other day. 

Cathar Castles

We have been touring around in the car, visiting Cathar Castles, going on hikes, hunting down fantastic nougat and generally enjoying life.  No one has done any blogging, except Mhari!!! I will however put up a couple of nice photos so you can see a bit of what we have been doing.

 Queribus Castle

 Peyrepertuse Castle

Sam on top of the world.

Castle bits through castle bit. 

Other cars that drove up the steep winding road to Queribus.

Youtube (Sam)

I figured out the Youtube thing now.
I have my first video on. It is of the Pompidou center fountains.
Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAuvlGs_HqE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Queribus (Mhari)

Today we went to Queribus (Q)  and Peyrepertuse (P) castles.

Queribus  was the smaller castle but also the more important one historically; it was the very last castle where Cathars (Bons hommes) could roam, at all. The first known documentation of Q was in 1020. From 1162 it was the north gate of Aragon! I didn’t know Aragon really existed! In 1255, the French crusaders took the castle in their hunt of the Cathars. I think that Queribus fell because Cathars ran out of water, but I’m not sure about that.

Queribus and Peyrepertuse are both on rocky/cliffy mountaintops. 

The drive up to Q was on a small switch back road with amazing views.

It was a short walk to get to the castle from the parking lot. The walk and the castle had great views of the surrounding area. From the castle we could see the Pyrenees (with lots of nice snow on top). The castle sits at 728 meters in altitude.

Queribus Castle was in better condition than Peyrepertuse. We walked up a few stairs onto a viewing platform where we could see for hundreds of miles! Not that you couldn’t see for hundreds of miles from Peyrepertuse too, but you could not climb up stairs inside a building to get to the special viewing because the hole of the upper stories were in ruins.

We found a staircase in Q that led down to a dark passageway that went to a little room down the mountain. From there you could fire arrows and such at enemies that were still out of reach of the castle.

 

When we went to Peyrepertuse the road was even better than the Q one in terms of very sharp switchback roads. We had been warned by guidebooks that the walk from the parking lot to the castle was very very windy but there was actually no wind at all. Unlike the walk to Q it was sheltered most of the time and the views were short and sweet.

I will put stuff about Peyrepertuse later.

Hopefully.

Aude

(Lesley) We are in Aude!!  Yipee.  And the weather is a little better.  We arrived after a great drive through the rest of Auvergne, some Haut Languedoc and bits of Midi-Pyrenees.  The views along the drive were really a treat.  I did most of the driving through the Massif Central and quite enjoyed the ups for their great views and the downs just for the fun of the drive.  We saw paragliders flying off cliff faces.  Not an everyday sight for a prairie girl.  I drove over the Millau Viaduct though not until we had stopped to take some pictures, climbed around and thoroughly checked it out.  It is quite the structure: looks very delicate. 

Once we drove over the Millau Viaduct, the land changed immediately - more arid.  There was no longer the lush vegetation we had hiked through in the Massif Central, the hills were less steep and we saw more sand, more beige and grey.  We started to see vineyards as we drove into Lauguedoc-Rousillon.  For the last hour of our journey we were never far from vines.  Nearer Carcassonne, we saw olive trees alongside the road (with olives!!) I’m sure the kids have never seen olives growing on trees.  What a great sight.  Some grow across the road just down a bit from the house.  Today, we tasted some off the trees at the olive cooperative up the road, yuck!  They really do need the salt. 

The place we have rented here in Aude is fabulous.  We know we are going to enjoy ourselves here.  The house is spacious and clean.  The bedding is provided; so no sleep sheets for the next two weeks.  We have big windows that look onto the street and Sam and Mhari each have their own room!  There are English books to read, and UK TV! John appreciates that.  We all do actually.  The kids and I manage fine with the French TV, but John, although he gets the gist of it, prefers to disappear and read a book when we are watching and laughing.  The house is very nicely decorated and comes with everything we might need, including two bikes.  John has been out two or three times already.  The house is for sale in fact, so Sam and Mhari have asked us about purchasing it.  (Mary- you might want to mention it to David’s friends who were looking to buy in France) We can vouch for it and the owners too; they are very kind, friendly, helpful and live just up the street.

Pics: View from the bedroom window in early morning; Living room; John cooking in kitchen.

Sunday morning there was a big garage sale out our front door.  It was the town’s “vide greniers” (Empty your attics) sale day.   The whole town was full of people and their “junk”.  It was great fun to wake up at dawn to the sounds of people setting up to rid themselves of their stuff.  We saw lots of locals laying things outside their houses, as well as the weekend warriors, who travel from town to town, selling stuff every weekend.  We didn’t buy much at the sale: a couple of old keys (Lesley), a book (John), a shirt (Lesley for Sam), and some deep fried doughnutty things (Mhari).  Despite having not spent much, we did spend a lot of time wandering around the town having a look.  In France, people have no shame selling off their old stuff.  I’m not meaning to sound critical.  I think it is great to use and reuse and keep reusing.  I did notice however that there was a lot for sale that would have been chucked in the bin long ago in Canada.  Things like dead digital watches, used binders for school etc.  We re-use our old binders, as do many of our friends, but generally kids have new ones each year that tend to fall apart after a year of use.   I had noticed this trend with respect to used books earlier in our “tour de France”. Used book sellers sell, or try to sell, old, out of date, road atlas, maps etc. maps not out of date enough to be worth anything, but out of date enough to be rather useless. I’m sure they wouldn’t have sold in Canada. 

Seeing the old road atlases in the shops reminded me of a family trip to Prince Edward Island in my early teens.  There were antique shops around every corner and as kids, our fun was to find all the antiques we were still using at home like mom’s button tin, our egg beater, the thermos in which we took our hot drinks among other things.  We would find a few things in every shop that we still used everyday in Winnipeg.  It was our plan to return, sell our stuff and be rich one day.  Five years ago, when my parents gave me the last bag of frozen brussel sprouts from their chest freezer, I did try calling to see if the antique shop took frozen food.  No such luck, but I thought the Dominion packaging and its price tag must have been worth something.  I think I put the bag in our chest freezer to bequeath it and its contents to one of the kids. Maybe one day it will net them a fortune.  (For those not familiar with Winnipeg, our last local Dominion store closed from Confusion Corner when I was probably about 10 years old.   I am nearly 44 now so those brussel sprouts have been in the family for quite a few years.) (John) there are no brussel sprouts or any other out of date food in our family.  I threw them out years ago after she phoned the antique store.

vide greniers sale

Back to France…

We saw the Med!-la Mer méditerranné!  It is huge, no surprise.  It was fun to see it.  Mhari is pleased to see it at 11 years, knowing I hadn’t seen it before now.  She figures she’s got something on me now, as she has seen it at a younger age.  

(Bruce, you can sing your favourite song, the one your kids learned at Sacré-Coeur so many years ago:  It était un petit navire. I did.)

We also saw the Pyrenees.  Wow, they are high.  Again, no surprise, but it had to be said.  When you compare the view with the Montagnes noires that we see from our gîte, the Pyrenees are noticeably huge and dramatic.  My eyes are pulled toward them when they are within sight.  I cycled to a little town north of here and got an awesome view of the Pyrenees in the early morning light.  They are spectacular.  I’m not sure how far into them we will go.  I imagine we would have to drive over some high passes to really be amid them and without snow tires or chains, after our experience at Mont Dore, I’m doubtful we will head to the heart of them. 

People in this region have a different accent.  They are a little harder to understand.  I noticed it because I was finding it all super easy, and I was surprised how well I understood and how well I was understood. But now, in this region, when the grocer tell me how much I owe at the grocery store I have to listen carefully.  The accent is harsher.  Maybe more Spanish, though it is clearly still French.  I suppose it is influence from the Langue d’Oc of the area. 

 More great news!  The nougat here is fantastic.  Oh, we have only just sampled some local stuff and wow, what a delight.  I can’t wait for a full tour of a nougat making operation.  I have visions of sampling all different kinds and lingering to learn trade secrets.  I’ve never attempted to make nougat, but I have certainly tried sampling as much as possible.   I’m not sure when we will dive into the nougat, but I will put it on our list of things to try while here. 

We are having rabbit stew for supper.  John is working on that now as I write.  We figured since it is available in all the Épiceries we should give it a shot.  John and I have had rabbit before, but I don’t think the kids have.  We did have Kangaroo sausage last month in Bretagne.  It was from Auvergne where we went later.  In fact we rented a gîte just a few kilometres from the kangaroos, whose parents or siblings we had already consumed. 

Rabbit stew

 (John) Our visit to Carcassonne today was not the way I had imagined it.  I had envisaged a cloudless sky, a warm breeze, expensive parking, and crowds of tourists jostling to get the best shots and the best positions on the ramparts for the amazing views.  We got none of the above.  We could have parked in any of the expensive tourist parking lots, but we didn’t have to because there was free parking available on the street just below the cité walls.  Most of the time the rain blew in sideways from the north.  There was virtually nobody there and very little was open. 

However, the chateau was and so was the Basilica.  There were no line-ups and we were able to get a good idea of what it would have felt like to live in a medieval city in the middle of a cold wintery day.  There were some highlights for us.  We were aintereste to read the Catholic Church described as a cult and Sam noted that guys with potbellies were not allowed in the church.

We had all read the Labyrinth by Kate Moss that focussed much of its storyline in and around the Chateau and the walled city of Carcassonne, so it was fun to be there walking on the hourdes (wooden structures hung over the battlements from which to defend the castle) ...

...admiring the skill of those who built the cité over 800 years ago. 

...and looking over the ramparts trying to imagine the thousands of crusaders
camped below the walls laying siege to the fortress.

Hopefully, the weather will change and we can return on a nicer day and enjoy some company. 

Languedoc (Sam)

On Saturday we left the cold and rain in Auvergne in search of warmer weather in Languedoc. The Motorway was amazing. It hugged cliff sides as it climbed up gorges, and then crested hills with views over the plains for hundreds of miles. On our way south we got to cross the Millau Viaduct: one of the tallest bridges in the world, and certainly the tallest in France (although it was designed by an Englishman). Our gite here is great. It is really big, in a nice town and only a short walk from the bakery. Since the owners are British, we get British T.V.   As I write I am watching the England vs France football (soccer) match on i.t.v. So far it’s not looking good for England.

Sunday was the town’s “Vide grenier” kind of like a big town garage sale. People had set up shop right outside our window, and since the main floor is at ground level, with no front yard and the house has a big “For Sale” sign on it, there were people looking in our window all day long. It was very weird.

Later that day my dad and I went for a bike ride with the bikes that came with the gite.

Well, our attempt to find better weather seems to have been futile as today (Monday), was wet, windy and cold. Luckily our destination today was nice even with the rain. We went to the medieval city of Carcassonne. The city is on top of a hill and it is surrounded by not one, but two rings of ramparts with a combined 52 towers. It was so well built that no one dared to attack it. What a shame seeing as they built the second ring of ramparts and thickened the walls to defend from the Spanish who never came. With the weather as such we had the place to ourselves, (not even the shop owners to keep us company). The French store hours are very hard to understand).

Where we are staying there are vineyards everywhere and olive and almond trees growing on the side of the road. It is very strange.  Although I do not recommend eating raw olives off the tree because they taste so bitter I thought they might be poisonous. They are much better after soaking in whatever they soak them in. They’re also good on bread, and in pizza (mmmmm…)

On Wednesday we went to a pretty town called Minerve. They had a big gorge and in the side of the rock was a giant entrance to a cave that passed under the cliff to the other side of gorge (The gorge does a U-turn).

Auvergne (Sam)

Sunday 7th of November 2010

We’ve left Paris and are now staying in the Auvergne, a hilly, sometimes mountainous, region in the middle of France. It is a traditional area famed for its cheese and sausages.  We have a nice gîte in a small village near St-Nectaire.  Today, we explored the town of St-Nectaire itself. The town is a popular tourist destination in summer but it seems that everyone has gone on vacation for this week; we figure they have all gone to Corsica, as it is the only place in France where it’s not raining. The bakery is closed half the week and most of the sites and attractions are closed also.  Luckily, they had a nice Romanesque church for us to see.  It had very ornate, colourful pillars.

Monday the 8th of 2010

SNOW!!!!!!!!!

We wanted to go to Mont Dore today, to do some hiking. Somewhere along the 1400+ meter mountain pass, it started to snow. By the time we got to the top, it was so snowy and windy that we could barely see where we were going, luckily, we could see enough that we knew we were at the edge of a big downhill. We pulled over to the side of the road and got out to look around. The wind was blowing so hard that as soon as I stepped outside my jeans were frosted with the cold, blowing snow. When my sister tried to get back inside during a particularly strong gust, her door would not open. We decided not to continue and instead we went back to the gîte and sat around in front of the fire and read all afternoon.

Tuesday the 9th of November

After our failure to hike yesterday, we decided not to give up and to try again. Unfortunately it was still slushy. We went for a 3 km hike around a lake then decided our feet were too wet and we returned home.

Wednesday the 10th of November

After two failed attempts to hike and knowing it was going to rain we gave up on that and went to Clermont Ferrand, local metropolis and home of the Michelin tire empire. When we finally parked our car, we walked through the old town up to the “Lord of the Rings-esque” black volcanic rock cathedral. Since it, along with everything else was closed till 2 pm, we went to the tourist information office and watched a movie about Romanesque architecture, very interesting and educational too.  When 2 O’clock came we went to the Michelin Boutique in the main square. They had all sorts of interesting memorabilia, including Michelin Man keychains (known in France as “Bibendum”), Michelin Bags, Michelin t-shirts, Michelin postcards and a little Citroën C3 with the Michelin Logo and pictures of Bibendum all over it. Since the C3 was less than two Euros, I decided to ignore any discouraging comments made on my blog, (Janet!) and add it to my collection of little Citroëns.  Then we visited the cathedral and another small church too. On our way out, we drove past the city’s huge Rugby stadium “Stade Marcel Michelin” (Clermont Ferrand are reigning French champions), The Michelin Adventure museum, and many Michelin warehouses and factories.

Thursday the 11th of November

Happy Birthday to Mady and Christy, our cats! They are 5 today.

Well, our first sunny day yet. We took advantage of it and headed out on a sixteen km hike. Three hours, tons of amazing views, a few big hills, one muddy road and one cow with giant ears. A hike worth waiting for.

Friday the 12th of November

It turns that the nice weather was too good to last. Another rainy day. Despite the rain we had a good day. The snow had melted on the road and we made it to Mont Dore. Although the snow was gone it was still gusting with wind and pelting with rain. The highlight of the drive was when we saw someone in the distance whom we thought was on a motorbike. When we got closer we realised it was a scooter. At this point we were blown away by the fact that it had not been blown sideways on the road up. When we passed it, we looked and saw that it was an elderly women bringing her groceries home. We still do not know how she managed to do it.

The town of Mont Dore was not that great as everybody was away and most of the stores were closed. Besides we could only see a couple hundred metres in front of us. We went for a three km hike between three waterfalls it was all very nice, but wet. On our way back to our gite, we stopped at some caves that used to be Roman baths and are now a major tourist attraction. We had to wait for 45 minutes and pay a bit but it was all… not worth it. A couple of years ago I went to two amazing caves in South Dakota. They had all sorts of Amazing stalactites, and the walls seemed to be covered in snowflakes and diamonds. These caves had some cool limestone stalactites but nothing that amazing, there were only a few “rooms” you could go into and the Romans seemed to have left without a trace. They just used the pools as they were, No columns or statues like in Bath.

I rate it a 1 out of 4 fountains in our new rating scheme.

St Nectaire

(John) November 6

Back on the road and we had a small problem.  To find our gîte in St Nectaire today we needed the phone number for the gîte owner’s daughter, which was only on an email.  The computer was very low in power, as we didn’t plug it in properly last night to recharge.  Plan A: find a MacDonald’s and the relevant email correspondence, then use our cell phone to call the lady in question.  Problem is, when we eventually found a MacDonald’s it was already 1:00 pm and we were supposed to call around noon.  Then the Wi-Fi at MacDonald’s was not working.  We managed to plug in for a while though.  We also discovered that our minutes in the cell phone had timed out.  In the end, we pulled up to the Mercure Hotel in St-Nectaire and Lesley turned on the charm once again.  We got to use the hotel’s Wi-Fi and their phone and were able to contact and arrange a rendezvous with the gîte owner’s daughter.  All’s well that ends well.  We are in the gîte in St-Nectaire.  Wi-Fi would be a bonus but we will hunt some down to check e-mails soon.  If you are reading this, we have found Wi-Fi.

(John) November 8

So we are in a gîte – nothing new there.  This one is not bad.  It has everything we need and there is plenty to do in the vicinity.  

St Nectaire is a bustling spa resort full of happy holidaymakers taking in the sights, relaxing in the spa waters, sampling the local cheese and generally enjoying life -Except in November.  In November, St-Nectaire is dead.  Not completely dead though.  There are still things open, but we do seem to be the only people here. 

We tried to drive to Mont Dore today, a big hiking and ski place.  We got to the top of the first major pass and encountered a blizzard.  The road was covered with snow so we pulled into the parking lot of a bar.  Sam said “I can’t believe they put a bar on top of the mountain”.  Then I walked down the road to see if it got any better the other side of the pass.  Mhari tried to follow me but was turned back by the blowing gale.  She had trouble getting back into the car for all the fighting the wind she had to do to open the door.  When I turned around to come back to the car, which was about 15 metres away it had disappeared.  Luckily, I could just make out the bar and headed for it.  Thankfully, the car and my very excited family was where I had left them.  As these roads are on steep slopes and we only have summer tires we chickened out and drove back.  Man that was fun! 

November 9

The weather has been horrible - cold and wet - but we were determined to go for a walk.  Even through the driving sleet it is obvious that this is a stunningly beautiful part of the world, and we aren’t going to stay indoors hiding from the rain and snow.  With some info from a very pleasant tourist office lady that Lesley met and a nice new map, we drove to find a place called Lake Pavin.  We encountered more snow and wind but with a dwindling gas tank we eventually found the start of the short hike.  Like St-Nectaire, Lake Pavin is a hive of activity, usually.  Today – not so much.  The bar and restaurant alongside the Lake, that tantalizingly advertised a special meal that included a bottle of Tour de France wine from July 10, 2008, was closed for the season and the row boats for hire were obviously not.  

We donned all our clothes and our most sensible shoes and we completed our stroll with nothing more than wet feet to complain about.  Not that we were.  It was a beautiful tour of a deep volcanic lake, with high cliff sides just beyond our lovely but wet, and snowy trail.  It was very Banff (off season).

On the drive home we noticed signs saying that the roads to Mont Dore could only be driven by cars that have the ‘equipment obligatoire’.   Which basically means if you don’t have chains for your tires, you can’t go.  

“But we’re Canadians” said Sam. 

“Yeah” said Mhari “this is nothing”. 

Still unless the weather changes and the road is cleared, Mont Dore is out of our league.  I am confident the weather will cooperate in a few days and we will get our chance.  Now we just need to have some mulled wine and dry out in front of a roaring fire.    

(John) November 10, 2010

More rain in the forecast and probably sooner rather than later.  We took ourselves off to Clermont Ferrand, the big city in these parts.  We wanted to answer email and post blogs so were in search of a MacDonald’s.  We kind of drove straight to one and two hours later we had accomplished what we wanted to do and went to explore the city.  We found the big gothic cathedral and the adjacent tourist office (they are always next to the cathedrals). 

Notre Dame (the gothic one)

It was excellent and we were able to view a forty-minute film in English explaining how and why Romanesque cathedrals were built.  This area has five particularly good examples and we had already visited one in St Nectaire.  We learned a lot and even got to put our learning to use in the Notre Dame de Port church. 

Notre Dame de Port (romanesque)

(John) November 11, 2010

Remembrance day.  Finally the weather broke and it stopped raining.  We grabbed our chance and went out hiking.  We chose to stay in the local area around our gîte and within 1 minute were out of the village and in the hills.  We had a lovely walk of about 16 kms taking in a few small hamlets, cow pastures and superb views of the nearby mountains framed by ominous skies and autumn colours. 

We were home just as the weather started to get horrible again so ate lunch and drank tea while we watched a special show on TV called ‘Tous les idols que j’aime’.  It featured French pop stars from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.  We were introduced to Pascal Danel singing La plage aux romantique; Fabian Thibeault with her hit song Les uns contre les autres and Marie Myriam who sang her Eurovision winning ‘L’oiseau et l’enfant.  But our favourites were Gilbert Montagne (who was obviously a huge star and sang The Fool as well as a rendition of Bob Marley’s Is it Love and other snippets); Jairo sang Les jardins du ciel and had the best teeth and the tightest facial skin in the business; Marcel Amont who sang L’amour ca fait passé le temps and did an awesome robot dance; and the incredible Nicole Croissiere with a powerful performance of Une femme avec toi.  I for one had never heard of any of these artists and it is a shame as they were truly fantastic. 

Ma semaine en Auvergne (Mhari)

Pour quelques jours on fait des feux le soir, dans la cheminée de la gite.  Un sac de bois coûte 6 Euros.  On a brulé 3 sacs en tout. 

Hier, on a fait une randonnée de 16 kms.  Par-ce que pendant les premiers kilomètres on a monté, les dernières 10 kilomètres étaient faciles car on descendait.

La pâtisserie préférée de Sam est un Paris-Brest, mais après avoir gouté un pain au raisin, il ne peut plus décider.  Moi je pensais que je n’aimais pas les pâtisseries comme les croissants mais après avoir essayé un Saint Christain qui ressemble un croissant, sucré avec des noix,  j’ai fait un exception.

THE PARIS METRO (Mhari)

The Metro…

Well, almost every time we went into the Paris Metro we saw someone jump the barriers. Every station had an info/ticket-buying place at one of the entrances with a staff who, though it wasn’t his/her main job, looked over the gates when not busy to ensure people didn’t jump the barriers.  But most Metro stations had two or more entrances so people that jumped the gates didn’t have to be that determined. This was very different from London Tube stations which had one entrance to each station and not only an info/ticket-buying staff but another staff standing right beside the barriers whose job was to watch the gates and to help people like me whose ticket got soaked and ripped in half.

One Metro ride was very very crowded…

When we got to a station where most of the people got off we listened/ watched an older woman yell at a young guy for trying to snatch her purse. Later, on the same metro ride, we might have transferred a guy with a dog got on the bus and said

“I’m not going to give you a normal speech because if I did that I would only get enough money to feed me and my dog, but I also want money for alcohol and drugs to not only feed our bodies but our spirits too.”

Or something like that, that is what I understood.  Then he walked down the car and someone gave him a cigarette and he got off.

One evening, we split up.  Mom and I went back to the hostel, while Sam and dad stayed out.  On the way back, we had the choice of taking line 6 or line 4.  The 6 was a shorter distance to line 13 (our way home) but both the lines would have got us there.  After about two stations on the line 6 train, we were stopped at another station where both lines 4 and 6 stopped.  We were told that there was smoke seen at Montparnasse-Bienvenue station where we were going to make our transfer.  There was to be a delay on line 6 while they checked it out.

2 minutes later, they told us that line 6 would be temporarily closed and that we all had to get off the train! THANKFULLY the line 4 stopped at that same station so we walked to the line 4, got on and rode the train to Montparnasse-Bienvenue and walked the longer distance across the whole M-B station to line 13.  We had a few other options planned out in case we stopped again.  I was disappointed it was so easy.

We had lots of other fun times on the Metro and Sam and dad had a –not so fun- time as Sam explains it.

Paris was really fun but there is too much to write about so I will leave that up to Sam and my parents – they are a little more determined then me with this blogging thing.

Paris, days 2,3,4,5 (Sam)

Monday 1st November 2010

Today we woke up early and went to get our Indian visas.   When we got there, we asked the guy at the desk for papers to fill out.  He told us there were a few copies at the back but we had to photocopy them ourselves at the 20 centimes a page photocopier.  12 sheets later (3 pages each) we filled them out and managed to hand them in.  We were told it would take two to three weeks for them to process the applications.  After that we went to Père Lachaise cemetery and saw famous dead people such as Chopin, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein and Molière.  The cemetery was beautiful with graves inches apart all over the place.   Jim Morrison’s grave was the first I’ve ever seen with three security guards and a barrier in front of the grave. 

We also went to see the Louvre courtyard and its pyramid.  It was beautiful in the afternoon light and our pictures don’t do it justice.  Although we decided that we would rather forego the hour and half long line up to enter the museum.  On our way back to the hostel we stopped at Centre Pompidou, a building with all the pipes and vents on the outside rather than in the walls.  The building was cool but the fountains were better. 

Photos: Père Lachaise; Grafitti near Jim Morrison's grave; Pompidou Center.

Tuesday 2nd November 2010

Today was day three in Paris; first we climbed the staircase up the Eifel tower.  The views were amazing and we could make out all the Parisian landmarks.  My favourite view was that of Sacré-Coeur on top on Montmartre.  When we got back down I bought some key chains from one of the many street vendors.  We then took the bus 69 to Ile de la Cité.  We had lunch beside Notre Dame then joined the crowds inside the Cathedral.  The inside was nice but not that amazing because for one, it was full of tourists like us, and also I have seen more Cathedrals in the past two months than I have in my entire life.  The outside was amazing though.  Especially, the judgement day Portal, the carvings of the devil torturing the newest editions to Hell were interesting, but very gruesome (boiled alive, starved, fed to the alligators).  We then went to Ile St-Louis and bought some world famous Berthillon ice cream; it was delicious.  On our way to the Latin Quarter we walked over a metal bridge with padlocks all over it.  When couples start dating they put a lock on the bridge.  If they break up, one of them goes and takes the lock off the bridge. 

In the Latin Quarter we got some frites for a snack and my Dad bought some new hiking shoes, which he is very proud of.  Then we walked up to the Pantheon and sat on the curb in front for 15 minutes doing nothing but watching students from the University of Paris faculty of Law and take pictures of Dad’s new shoes. 

Photos: Sacré-Coeur; Notre Dame judgement day portal; Lovers' Locks; Students outside the Pantheon.

Wednesday 3rd of November 2010.

Today I was very reluctant to get out of bed, luckily I was hungry enough to make myself get up so I could have breakfast. The breakfast at the hostel was great, they have a granola cereal with coconuts and raisins.  When we had fuelled we went to Montmartre a famous artist neighbourhood.  We saw Sacré-Coeur, a marble Basilica, with views over the city.  There was a mime there but he was not very good.  In the streets it was very touristy and there were artists everywhere asking to sketch you.  After a while it got annoying so I was tempted to start asking if they wanted me to sketch them.  There was also a guy who grabbed my finger and started weaving a bracelet onto it with the intention of making me buy it when he was finished.  We decided that we wanted more good views so we went to the Tour Montparnasse the tallest building in Paris proper.  It was so unpopular that just after they built it, the city made a law restricting building heights within the city.  It has the fastest elevator in Europe, 56 floors in 38 seconds.  The views from the rooftop were amazing.  When we got hungry we went to the market and bought a French specialty – Falafel!  Next stop was the catacombs.  Deep underground tunnels with walls made form the bones of millions of dead Parisians.  They were built because cemeteries were poisoning the water so the city told the Priests to move the bones underneath the sewers into abandoned mines.  The bones were neatly stacked and they had even made hearts and crosses out of skulls, creepy, but cool.  The tunnel went on for two kilometres and that is only the tiny section that they have open to the public.  It is impossible to describe how many bones there were.  You were allowed to touch the bones if you liked.  A fun game to play is to guess the name of the person you are looking at and his or her life story.   With time to waste, we relaxed at the Jardins de Luxembourg.   Then my Dad and I went to La Defense, a modern skyscraper district.  The main attraction there was gargantuan arch(basically a big hollow cube).  I felt completely dwarfed.  It is probably taller than the Richardson building for all you Winnipeg folk.  If you ever go to Paris avoid riding the RER.  It is like going to a rock concert in a labyrinth full of people and impossible to navigate.  The metro is fine though. 

Photos: View of the Gare from the Montparnasse Tower; View of the Luxemburg Gardens from the tower; Thats Jim in the centre, he was a plumber; More bones; Grand Arch de la Defense; Notice the guy on the steps.

Thursday 4th of November

Our last day in Paris...  We had two more things we wanted to see today, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musee Rodin.  The Musée d’Orsay is the national museum for impressionist and post impressionist art.  The museum is housed in an old train station but it looks more like a palace.  There are carvings on the wall and an ornate gilded clock in the main hall.  The best parts of the museum were the Van Gogh section and a special exhibit on an artist named Gerome who painted historical paintings.  He had one painting that was set in the coliseum that showed the Christian prisoners in the middle and the lions and tigers coming out from underneath the ground.  In the next painting, the guards were bringing the cats in and slaves cleaning up the mess.  Very Gruesome. Later, while we were waiting at the bus stop to catch a bus to the Musée Rodin, a parade of soldiers in their ceremonial outfits came by on horseback.  They were a brass band as well and they played us a tune while trotting along. While they past us one of the horses stepped out of the line and stopped to have a pee, the soldier’s face turned bright red, it was hilarious. A street cleaning crew followed the horses, they managed to clean up the street quite effectively.  Later we found out that the parade was to welcome the Chinese president.  We got our bus across town and stopped for lunch in a small park, where a homeless person was ripping branches off trees.  A woman notified the park officials and 10 minutes later security had arrived and threw him out of the park.  Paris is never boring.  Anyway, when we finally got to the museum after those couple of delays we found out it was well worth the wait. It was dedicated to Auguste Rodin, a famous sculptor.  We saw lots of well-known works including the Thinker and the Burghers of Calais (City Official). 

Later that night, while my Dad and sister stayed home, my Mum and I went back out to the Latin Quarter for supper. We found a Greek place and we each got gyros with frites for four and a half Euros a piece. They were delicious and, by the end, we were stuffed. Then we went to the Champs Élysées. While we were walking by we saw a Mc Café, yes a café run by McDonalds. We went in, but just to look and sneak a photo.  We were too stuffed to buy anything.

Photos: The Thinker; Statue of Victor Hugo; The Brass Band; How embarrassing; Playing with the exposure (no tripod);  The Troubador; Oh oh, he's noticed us.

 McPatisseries