Photos from France (Mhari)

Minerve, France

A cold day in Carcassonne

Like my torch?

Paris metro.

More From UK (Mhari)

(Mhari)
 I have decided to update you all about how I have been doing with my leg and life in general.  I am now walking without crutches.  I can bend my knee well past 90.  My knee doesn't hurt so I think that's pretty good. Christmas was really fun and it is almost the new year  (Yay, more parties) though that means that mom and Sam will be leaving soon (wahhh).
I would also like to inform you that the time when people went to my blog the most was September ( I geuss school has slowed blog reading down) My blog was visited 450 times in one month. (crazy!).

Some photos from France (Sam)

A cave in Minerve

I love French pastries

The Pompidou center fountains were turned off for the winter

Merry Christmas

Carcassonne fire show and torch walk December 4th:

Johns folks' table before we set up for the Christmas dinner.

(John) Yes we borrowed it from the Louvre for the occasion.  It's just gone midnight here and technically it's boxing day.  As usual I ate too much Christmas dinner so now I'm planning to go for a good long walk in the morning but I probably won't because there is lots of good stuff on the telly and there are still some brandy snaps left.  Besides I'll be seeing the whole family tomorrow and that should be fun.  The temperatures are set to hit -10 tonight and I have to admit the Brits are starting to take it all in their stride.  The media are still excited but normal people are just getting on with it.  Did you know CD cases make great ice scrapers?  Merry Christmas.

Photos from Barcelona

I'm putting in a few photos from Barcelona: Characters on Las Rambla; Gaudi building; Statue at Sagrada Familia; Les enjoying the novel bench; Market stall off Las Rambla; 

The Inn/Out hostel in Barcelona: Our bunks;

Torch Walk from Carcassonne

We walked from the Narbonne gate, through the old cite, out another gate and over the old bridge to the Bastide St Louis, to some square in the old part of the main city.  It was great fun especially as we were right behind a Samba band. (Dec 4)

(Lesley) As  you can see we now have access to a computer and our pictures.  We can go online and post some.  I haven't quite figured out how to quickly shrink them for posting but I will work on that and become an expert soon enough. 

 I did the annual shortbread baking this morning.  John and I then ran some errands in town and Sam went sledding.  Mhari worked on her calligraphy and wrote labels for Christmas presents which we later wrapped with easy fill Christmas bags.  We are approaching being ready for Christmas and are all getting rather excited.  We may be too busy over the next two days to Blog so for now I will leave you all with wishes for a very merry Christmas.  Enjoy the feast and the festivities.  Take care, relax, put your feet up and enjoy each others company.  We will check our e-mail and have already enjoyed hearing news from friends and family. Bye, Lesley        

England (Sam)

(Sam)  Well, we have been having a lovely break relaxing with our family in England. I am finished my Christmas shopping and cannot wait until the big day. My sister went to a physio appointment the other day, she is allowed to take off the brace, move it around, and do a bit of walking with crutches. Generally good news. Today I went sledding with my cousin Adam, or "sledging" as it is called here. We went to two hills, the first was less crowded, but the second was twice as big and very steep and icy. At the the top of the second hill there was a garbage bin full of broken sleds, very eery. It reminded me of scenes in Indiana Jones movies where he steps into a cave or something and looks down and sees a skeleton. We have been getting a lot of snow here (a lot of snow for England anyways) and having a good time.

Behind you!

(John) 4 days until Christmas and we are now starting to laze around.   I thought I might try and fill in some gaps from the last couple of weeks.  Our journey back to England from the UK was only complicated by Mhari's accident. We had reviewed the forecast and decided to take an earlier ferry.  This turned out to be a good decision as the snow returned to northern France on the day we were due to leave.  The Uk then got hit quite badly with snow and sub freezing temparetures on friday and saturday.  So we did well to miss the chaos on the roads that inevitably happened.  In fact we had a great trip form Dunkirk to Leamington.  We almost missed the ferry because we turned the wrong way out of Dunkirk and were halfway through Belgium before we realised.  Lesley and I had been rowing about something and we had missed the turn to Calais.  Then passport control at the terminal took an interest in our lifestory and asked a hundred questions.  I think they needed something to do.  We also had our trunk/boot searched three times.  The ferry was fun with our invalided daughter.  We let the ticket taker know at the terminal that we had a passenger who could not handle stairs easily and who would need to be able to open the car door wide to get out.  We were given special consideration and able to drive on at the head of the queue with our warnings lights flashing indicating that we needed to be in the handicapped zone.  We then had lots of room and were parked right outside the lifts.  Inside the ferry we put Mhari on a couch in the bar and told her not to go anywhere while we went in search of really big cups of tea and coffee - it's funny what you miss. 

The weather in the UK has been very cold - for the UK - and snowy - 4 inches fell on saturday.  Needless to say chaos on the roads and in all public transport networks.  Our carols at Warwick castle were cancelled but last night my parents treated us all to the Pantomime - Cinderella at the Coventry Belgrade.  It was an absolute classic, all the usual panto conventions were used - oh no they weren't - oh yes they were. My favourite joke of the night was - He attacked me with a pound of butter and a pint of milk - How dairy!  Bu dum dum tshh.   But the star was the costume designer.  The ugly sisters dresses were fantastic, as good as anything you would see in Rio at Mardi Gras.  Mhari managed OK with her leg.  Although I'm not sure how the lady in front of her felt about having a leg on her shoulder.  What was fun is that everyone in the audience knew exactly what to do, as in when the villain hides behind the hero and we all shout "behind you".   As at all panto's there is a spot at the end when kids get to be invited up on stage and interviewed by the comedic star of the show.  One little girl was asked if her mummy drank a lot - she admitted that she did. 

Leamington and the NHS

(John) It is nice to be back in Leamington and soaking in the festive atmosphere.  It was quite attractive this morning in the new fallen snow.  Mhari saw another doctor this morning, that will be the fourth.  An MRI is being scheduled for three weeks from today and the advice is too start to move the joint slightly to keep her knee from siezing and to otherwise keep using the brace unless she is intending to stay in one place for a while.  They think she has an injury to her ACL (Anterior Cruceate Ligament) and the swelling will take a long time to go down.  She will certainly not be able to fly as planned to India.    At this stage we won't know the extent of the injury until the MRI scan is done, but it will be at least six weeks before she can travel.  So we might decide that she and I stay put in Leamington while she recuperates and Lesley and Sam will continue on to India where hopefully we will be able to join them in February.  Or we may come up with another plan altogether. 

UK (Mhari)

I am writing this from a couch which is quite very nice.  The only setback is that my leg is in a brace and I have a pair of crutches beside me.  Our last week in France was nice, other than the last few days, which I suppose you know about already.
Since we have arrived in England things have calmed down a bit.  It is still Christmas time so there is that excitement to contradict the calm. 
I just beat my dad at Gin Rummy.  I was winning by almost 300 points.  Yeah!  In the end I won 7 hands and he won two.  I won with around 200 points.  He got better and I got worse as we played.

Back in the Uk

(Lesley) We are back in the UK, at John's folks', enjoying the comforts of home.  We are done eating French pastries and back onto healthy, lovely, home cooked meals.  Mmmm.  Mhari is resting up, as she has injured her knee and can't put any weight on her left leg.  She has seen two French doctors and will see a specialist tomorrow, here in the UK.  We are hoping her injury is muscular in nature and not something involving ligament damage or a bone fracture. She is wearing a brace and has crutches.  Ann and Stanley even managed to find an old wheelchair that used to belong to Nanny, so Mhari can be pushed around a bit if needed, although she is sticking pretty close to home these days.  We were skating in Arras, France, which went well, but after the skate while changing back into her shoes Mhari stood up with the skates on, but undone, and she did a big flip, turn, lurch style fall blowing her knee out in the process.  It hurt.  Needless to say that after that everything slowed down a bit and we came back to the UK a day earlier than planned. 
Mhari is in fine spirits here and is not complaining in the least.  She has pain pills if needed, a warm cozy bed, as well as lots of attention.  John and I are sorting out plans: what to do next and reimbursement claims.  We also went out and purchased a small notebook computer to use.  It is nothing like our dearly beloved Mac, but it will suffice for now and well, quite frankly, it is cute.  It is blue! ... and small, portable, and far less valuable.
Sam is taking everything in his stride.  He went out in town today for a little shop, he is enjoying the break from the hard core travelling and…well, I think he misses the Paris Brest pastries but...
John will probably add something soon to the blog as he had been taking some notes our last few days in Paris

Paris and back to England (Sam)

Well if you have read my parents' blog you will know that we had a hard time getting into Paris. I'm not going to talk too much about it, but basically there was a big snow storm and we were stuck in the worst traffic jam in the history of Greater Paris. Read my parents blog for details. Other than that our time in Paris was good. Some of the highlights were, visiting the Louvre, the Museum of Modern Art and the Christmas market on the Champs Elysees. With a few days to spare before our ferry to England we headed to Arras. If you have been following the blog you will know that the last time we were in Arras we did not have the best time. It was no different this time. We tried to find a computer to use but were told we had to come back with our Mastercard in 2 hours. So we went to the Christmas market and decided to go skating on the rink that they had set up. The skating was fun but when we were done and undoing our skates, Mhari forgot that her skates were undone, stood up and hurt her knee. At first it hurt a lot and then it slowly got a bit better she could put a bit of weight on it during the walk to the car but then it just slowly got worse. That night it was so bad that we took her to the hospital. The doctor said that she thought it was a fracture but she had to come back tomorrow to visit the specialist. He said that it was not a fracture but that she had popped her knee out instead and should imobolize it for three weeks. Then he looked at it further and said that in three weeks time she should get an MRI because of possible ligament damage. Luckily, we are in England now, safe and sound with our family.

Return to Paris

(John) So after a fun packed few days on Carcasonne including the amazing torch walk through the medieval cite at night with half the townsfolk and then ice skating the next day in the central plaza, we headed north to Toulouse.  We hit the city during rush hour and ended up in the middle of a Christmas market so we parked and explored.  Later, we found our hotel which was great and cheap with a superb concierge. 
Next day we toured through the Dordogne region and went to Rocamadour.  This gorgeous town built into the cliffside was all but empty of people and being fixed up in many areas but we still got to see the Black Virgin in the church.  After we left Rocamadour, the rain started.  It poured all the way to Brive where we had booked into the youth hostel.  The rivers all along were swelled and many places were obviously flooding.  However we arrived dry and safe and the hostel was not bad.  We had a small balcony off our room and a view into the broad windows of the local public baths if it hadn't been for the storm we might have been fooled into thinking we are at a resort.  The kitchen was all but outdoors but we used it anyway. 
In the morning, we took our time leaving Brive and explored the town.  We arrived in Vierzon around 5:00 and met our old friends, the staff, who had looked after us so well the last time we were there. It was fun to be back in Vierzon.  The hostel was not quite so empty this time there were two other residents.  One was a rather sad Frenchman who complained that the French have a bad attitude at this time of year, and the other was a young woman who we saw using a translating to device to try and figure out how to cook her prepackaged dinner.
The next day the fun began.  We drove north toward Paris in heavy rain.  We stopped for lunch for an hour just 40 miles south of our eventual destination - the Clichy Hostel.  It should have taken us 1:30 hours from there.  It took over 7 hours!   What happened?  Snow happened.  The weather started to deteroirate right around 2pm and did not let up until around 8pm.  We found ourselves stuck in traffic and at one point stuck and spinning our crappy tires trying to drive up a gentle slope.  Lesley and Sam pushed us up past many other wheel spinning, stuck and abandoned and cars and trucks.  Mhari wanted to help but was ordered to stay in the car.  We found a parking lot, parked and went in search of a hotel knowing that if we encountered any more hills we were truly screwed.  We tried four hotels; they were all full.  So we sought advise from some friendly locals and decided to keep going.  The roads had improved as salt had been put down and we were told to take the autoroute.  At this point we had 20 miles to travel and it was 4:00 pm.  We arrived at the hostel at 9:15pm.  We learned later that it was the worst traffic jam in Paris' history. Thousands were stranded and thousands more spent the night in their cars.  All hotels were full.  The trains and buses were not running and the metro was very slow. 
The rest of out time in Paris has been great.  Lesley had a birthday, amongst other things we went to the Louvre and got our Visa's for India - yay!

Brive (Sam)

Last night we stayed in a hostel in Brive. Today we were driving out of Brive, when I opened the Lonely Planet and read that Brive had a big market today. When we turned our heads we could see the market just over the river so we decided to go. We didn't buy much, just some pears, some apples and two pain aux raisins. Then we went to the centre of town and my dad and I walked around a bit while my mom and sister bought slippers.

Toulouse (Sam)

Before we left Carcassonne, we went to the skating rink downtown for an hour of skating. Despite being Canadians we were not the best skaters there. That afternoon, we drove to Toulouse, the fourth largest city in France. We went to the huge Christmas market that was full of people and had lots of tasty treats. I got a hot chocolate that was super thick, and a hot sandwhich with lots of onions. Later we went to the Capitole which had tons of paintings on the ceiling and lots of paintings by Henri Martin which were good too. There was a huge romanesque basilica that I wanted to see but it was getting late so we went back to the hotel. Today we drove through the Dordogne and stopped at a town called Rocamadour that is built into the side of a cliff. My parents said that when they went before I was born and there were tourists everywhere and you could barely move. We had the place to ourselves.(By the way, I have put a new recipe on the recipes page)

Carcassonne

(Lesley) Well, well, well we are back in Carcassonne.  We were still undecided as to which route we were going to take to go north so the news of snow storms helped us decide to stay south a bit longer.  We thought of going up via Toulouse and that afforded us an easy stop in Carcassonne.   So we drove by Queribus and Peyrepertuse and got permission to re enter to take some photos after explaining that we had lost our recent unsaved ones that were only on the stolen computer.  We ran up those cliffs, as it was just after 2:00 when we got to Queribus and we wanted to get all the way to Carcassonne that night.  It was fun going back; we were pleased to get the opportunity to do it.  We took a different route out and drove through another awesome gorge.  I ll add the gorge name later.  And of course photos too. I ll add those once we replace our computer.  Boy, I m going to have new appreciation for a querty keyboard. The Azerty is hard to use.  We caught some festivities here in Carcassonne.  The torch walk last night was a lot of fun.  I can t imagine getting away with that in Winnipeg, fire hazard or what?, but people were very careful.  I can t wait to post some pictures of it but that may take us a few weeks as there is no way I m buying an azerty keyboard computer here in France. 

Barcelona to Carcassonne (Sam)

Last day in Barcelona
Today we went to the science museum. They had all sorts of cool stuff and I am not even going to try to explain how they worked. The section on illusions was good and the section about Issaac Newtons laws was nice because I understood how it worked.

Goodbye Barcelona
On our way back up through France we were passing through Languedoc anyways so we figured we might as well stop and get back some of our photos (they are on the computer). We stopped at Queribus and Peyrepertuse and had a quick visit (read about Queribus and Peyrepertuse on my parents or my sisters blog. I had a blog about them all typed out but it is on the computer that the baddies got).

We stayed the night in Carcassonne and found out that they were having a big festival this weekend so we booked an extra two nights. Last night there was a big torch walk. We and about 1000 other people held big torches and walked through the city. Lots of people were dressed in Medival costumes and we got the best spot, right behind the percussion band playing samba music. It was tons of fun. Today we will see if we can go skating on the rink they have in the center of town. Of all the things I thought I might do in southern France, skating was not one of them. There was also a fire show last night. There was one guy who just walked around with a flaming torch and every once in a while he would fill his mouth with gas and spray it on the flame creating a big fire ball. I couldn t believe he was doing this, especially at 1.50€ a litre.