Canada Day

It took me awhile to clue into the fact that today is a holiday in Canada. Everyone will be heading to beaches and parks today and watching fireworks tonight. In France, it's just a Monday. It has me thinking about what I miss about Canada. The first thing that comes to mind are barbecues. During the summer I want to cook and eat outside. Next is Clamato Juice. It would be nice to have a Caesar while eating outside. I also miss Ketchup Chips. They have Roasted Chicken here and they are pretty good, but Ketchup is better.

It goes both ways though, there are things about Canada that I don't miss. Gargantuan SUV's and pick-up trucks, chain restaurants and bland cheese to name a few. Canada will always be my home, but I'm not ready to come back yet. I'm having too much fun over here. Have a great Canada Day and have a couple of Caesars for me.

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Reims

We had a fun day yesterday. It wasn't perfect though. Every bus trip I've ever been on, there has always been that one group that everyone hates. They are always late or obnoxious or they complain about everything. Occasionally you get a group who is all three and that was our luck yesterday. Anyway, we still had fun in spite of them.

The town of Reims is lovely. It has a population of about 200,000 and is home to the Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral. Before the revolution, French kings had their coronation in this cathedral.

We had some time to wander and grab lunch. We came upon this very cool water fountain.

It was very interesting to learn how champagne is made. I always knew that true champagne had to come from the Champagne region and everything else is simply sparkling wine. I did not know that they use three types of grapes to make it; Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Here is what we came home with.

I find the French appellation laws fascinating. A particular type of wine can only be made in a certain region with a specific grape. These grapes are also further classified based on the soil type, exposure to the sun and how sheltered they are from the wind. The rules are very specific and detailed. The same goes for cheese as well, yet something as important as driving seems to have no rules or regulations at all. Driving in Paris fluctuates between chaotic and anarchic, but they don't mess around with their wine and cheese.

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Champagne

We were looking for a quick getaway this weekend but we didn't want to go too far. Lori found a great bus tour that leaves early Saturday morning and take us to Reims and returns the same evening. Reims is roughly an hour and a half from Paris and it's the capital of the Champagne region. We will tour the Mumm cellars and the Moët & Chandon cellars. It's not a question of if we will come home with bottles of Champagne, but how many. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll talk to you on Monday.

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Weekend

After a couple of busy weeks, Lori and I had a quiet weekend at home. We spent time on Saturday mapping out our travel plans for the next year. We broke down our destinations into Definite, Probable and Maybe columns. Then we slated those into months based on weather and availability. We are very excited.

The weather has gone back to cool and wet, but I'm not going to complain about it because it's nothing compared to what everyone in Southern Alberta is going through right now. I've had a few people ask about our condo back in Calgary. It is close to the river but it never fell into the evacuation zone. It stopped about 5 blocks east of our place and directly across the river as well. The height of the bank where we are must have helped. We were concerned about ground water seeping into the foundation, like it did in 2005, but we have a large sump pump in the basement and as long as we didn't lose power, it should be fine. We hope to hear more today.

Of course we've been following online and it's made the major news networks in Europe as well. Some of the pictures from Calgary and our old neighbourhood in High River, have been unbelievable. I think one of the most powerful pictures was from inside the Saddledome. To imagine the water up to the 8th row is unreal.

I can't imagine The Calgary Stampede starting in 11 days, not that it matters. There are more pressing issues for the city and the people right now anyway. I hope everyone stays safe and life gets back to normal soon. I also hope that the South Saskatchewan river spares Medicine Hat. Good luck.

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Cap d'Agde

Just like that and two weeks are gone. We sent Lorraine off to the airport this morning on the shuttle bus. Hard to believe I took the same bus two weeks ago to pick her up. We got back to Paris last night from our vacation to the south of France. We stayed in a small cottage in the resort town of Cap d'Agde.

The weather was fantastic and we took full advantage of the pool at the resort.

We also spent time on a couple of the many beaches in the area. The first one was a traditional beach that was shallow and had fine white sand.

The other beach had black volcanic sand and was deeper.

The rocky coastline reminded us of Newfoundland.

We had a great weekend with lots of sun, sand, swimming, great food and drink. On a side note, last week's Mommy/Daughter Day didn't go as planned. The girls were soaked and frozen by the time they got home. They did get to the top of the tower and took some great pictures though.

It was sad to say goodbye but we had a great time.

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Lorraine's First Week

Lorraine has been her for a week already. I can't believe how fast time flies while we are here. We have been busy exploring the city. Lorraine tried it by herself one day and ended up so lost, Lori had to get in a cab and go get her. Since then, we've kept her close. We met friends of Lorraine's from St. John's for lunch one day and I took her over to the shopping mall by Lori's work on another. Lorraine shopped while I watched a movie. As a side note, Vincent Vega was telling the truth in Pulp Fiction, you can get a glass of beer at a Paris movie theatre.We went to the Jardin du Luxembourg. It's a great place to sit and read a book or eat your lunch.

We stopped into the Great Canadian Pub for a Caesar (the only place in Paris you can get one).

Last night we took a dinner cruise on the Seine. The food was great and the sights were incredible. The Eiffel Tower was lit up by the time we finished. It is so beautiful at night.

Today is Mommy-Daughter Day. Lorraine and Lori are touring around the city on one of the Hop On/Hop Off buses and then are going up the tower this afternoon. If you plan ahead, you can buy tickets for a specific time and you won't have to wait in the enormous line.

Tomorrow we are going to the south of France for a few days. We are staying at a resort near Montpellier. The weather forecast there is much better than Paris. Sunny and in the high 20's all weekend. We are looking forward to it.

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Good News & Bad News

You often hear someone say they have good news and bad news but rarely is it the same piece of news. We woke up to competing offers on the cottage this morning and we are accepting one of them. We've only owned the cottage for five years but it seems like we've accumulated a lifetimes worth of memories in that time. It will be sad to see it go but it's the right thing to do. To be honest, we were both shocked to get an offer, let alone two at the same time. It's definitely a buyers market right now. I guess Lori's vision and my hard work with the kitchen renovations paid off. I'm sure we will return to that area one day, but for now we'll have to rely on photos and memories.

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Lorraine

Lori's mom made it to Paris without a problem. She was tired the first day, but after good nights sleep she felt great. I think she brought some good weather with her. We went out for a walk yesterday to show her the neighbourhood and it was actually hot. We will explore the city this weekend on one of the many tour buses. Should be fun.

Old Friends & New Friends

We had a great weekend. The weather has finally improved and I was able to catch up with my buddy Adam who had a seven hour layover between trains on Saturday. We met for lunch and a few beers. We were both raving about the weather but for very different reasons. I was happy because it was finally warm enough I didn't have to wear a jacket. Adam, who had just spent three months in Cameroon, was so happy because it was cool and comfortable.

Then on Saturday evening, Lori and I were invited for supper at a co-workers house. Ryan and Natalie are both from Canada and Ryan works at Total now. They live in the suburbs of Paris with their three boys. We had a great meal and it was so nice to be able to talk with someone who is going through the same thing we are. It's good to know I'm not the only one who has battled with a European washing machine.

Sunday we went to a local market and picked up some great food. There was so much choice and everything looked so good, it was hard not to buy everything there. Here are a few of the things we picked up.

The chicken was the size of a small turkey. We also bought some great bread. Most Parisians buy a baguette every day and they are really good, but what we like the most is Pain de Campagne or country style bread. We had some of that with cheese, some sliced meat and a few radishes for lunch.

Lorraine will be here on Wednesday, but I doubt any of this food will be left by the time she gets here. Perfect excuse to go back.



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