I miss home. Maybe I should just go back there and stay.

It has been almost a year since my last post, and what a year it has been. I can't even begin to describe everything that has changed.

Sometimes, I feel like a mix between this Penfold song and this Kids in the Hall skit where two different explorer's try to claim a human in the name of their homelands, but maybe that's just the exhaustion talking.

18 days until I am where I belong.

Day 5: I heart Paris, Part 1

I finally made it to Paris. I have been longing to go since I was very young - something about Paris always intrigued me. It seemed so beautiful, so artistic, so romantic, so French! There were so many things I wanted to do, and we had so little time, so we had to hit the ground running our first, semi-rainy day.

Our first stop was Notre Dame, famed church/cathedral, which was completed around 1345, after it was started in 1160.



The architecture was really beautiful and all of the facades have much more detail to them then I imagined - not just the flying buttresses and gargoyles but all the artistic carving detail is amazing.



From there, we followed the Seine and just took it all in while on our way to our next destination. Even though it was rainy, I couldn't help but be excited to see all of the historic buildings and architecture.



Our next major stop was Les Invalides, a building dating back to the late 1600's (initiated by Louis XIV) that was built as a military hospital for aged and unwell soliders who needed a place to live.



Napoleon is buried there, which is why I wanted to go, even though I wasn't able to see his tomb, or his stuffed horse, which I hear is pretty gross. He's buried under that gold tomb.

From there, we went to the Eiffel Tower, which will have to wait till tomorrow, because I have SO many of them it is ridiculous.

<3

Day 4, Exploring the Ardeche

The day after the party, we explored the Ardeche a bit, driving from St. Christol to Le Cheylard, a cute little town nestled at the bottom of some mountains. It was quaint, and we couldn't go into many shops because it was Sunday and most things were closed, but I liked just walking around any way.



On the way, we stopped and took pictures here and there, including this one, a sign-post, because I love European sign-posts.



It was kind of exciting to drive on the mountain roads because not only were they beautiful, but many of them were on the route of the Tour de France, which would be passing through that region later in the week. Actually, most of our trip followed closely the bike route, which is neat, even though we didn't see any riding ourselves.

We eventually wound up in some little town, I have no idea what it was called, to go swimming in a mountain river pool in a popular bathing area. There is a calm pool area with a small beach that many people go to, or you can be more adventurous like we were and hike a bit into the woods and up to the cliff diving rocks. I didn't dive myself, but I did go swimming, and boy was that water cold!



The Adreche was a nice, quiet, relaxed area and it was refreshing to see some European countryside and take it easy for a few days before we hit the big cities. Coming next - our two days in Paris!

Day 3, Party in the Ardeche, Part 2

After the day portion of the party, most people took a breather to freshen up and change their outfit. Erica and I drove down to the Moulinage with Jackie and Dominique, and after a frightening ride, made it down, changed and made our way back for the second round of the party. The organ grinder man had packed up, and a DJ was in his place, playing all sorts of crazy music. I played a game of boules, or petanque as I was taught to call it from my high school French Teacher, but these 15 year old boys kicked my ass terribly.

Cousin Tom plays an intense game:



The party was fun and needless to say pretty crazy, full of drinking and dancing, and of course, food! It just kept coming! So many deserts, and they were all sooooo good.

The older folks were crazy, and they all had much better dance moves than I do:



But, the best part of the night was spending time with so many wonderful people, from near and far - some I knew pretty well and some I knew barely at all.


Me and cousin Tom.



And of course, as most parties are, this one was no exception, but a good place for me to wear a silly hat.

I'm off to Upstate, NY for the weekend!

Day 3, Party in the Ardeche, Part 1

On Saturday we had a great big party for Mary's 50th Birthday at her house.



Her birthday isn't actually in July, but why not pretend for the sake of a great party? One of the best parts for sure was the food. You know me, I love good food and lots of it. As gross as this may be for some, one of the things I enjoyed the most was the Pig and Lamb, which they roasted right there (here come the gross pictures).

Lamb



Pig



But, besides all of the dead roasted animals, I ate lots of other fun stuff, and the cheese/desert selection was fabulous. The soundtrack of the day portion of the party was provided by this guy, and his old time French organ grinder thingy. It was amazing.



Everyone at the party was really friendly and a lot of fun, and I met a lot of great new people. We took a short break after this and when the sun went down a whole different party began!

Day 2 - The Ardeche portion begins

By Friday we finally reached the Ardeche, a region in Southern France where my cousin Mary has a second home. It's mostly a mountainous area that the Rhone River flows through as well it borders the Alps. Our journey started off a little hairy, as our mapquest directions to Saint-Christol weren't exactly the best route, and we found ourselves in our British car climbing and descending some scary-ass mountain roads while other cars whizzed by. I won't lie, there were a few times I thought we might die. But, then again, at least we had views like this:



In St. Christol, we stayed in this cute little bed & breakfast type of place Le Moulinage. It was super cute and the landscape around it was beautiful.



Since my cousin's house was built in the 1600's, I venture to guess that the Moulinage was as well, and if not, well that's the story I'm going with.

Soon - more from the Ardeche.

Day 1, Part 2

The ferry landed in Calais, France and from there, we were hoping to make it all the way down to Dijon, so that our trip to the Ardeche was shortened the next day. Unfortunately, about 3 hours into our drive, we all began to feel the whole being up for 36 or so hours thing and decided we needed a rest. In the end, it was a great idea, not only because we were tired, but because we got to spend the night in Reims, a cute little city in the heart of Champagne country.




This is a picture of Porte de Mars, the oldest monument in the city. Believed to date back to the 3rd or 4th Century, it was one of four original Roman gates to the city that was once occupied as part of the Roman Empire. It was pretty big, I must say.

All in all, Reims was a nice little town for the short amount of time we spent there, and the food was fabulous, definitely a good place to stop and pull over for the night if you're driving around that part of France.