The continued adventures ...

It is interesting to note that the south western corner of France looks more Spanish then French, but part of that may be owing to a border that splits the feisty Basque region into two different countries. I'm sure that climate and building materials may also play a role.

Christine and I have continued our adventures south, crossing the Spanish border, with nothing but a sign to indicate we did so. It's as easy crossing borders here as it is crossing provincial borders in Canada.

As soon as we crossed into Spain we noticed two things, the bread wasn't as good and the roads were the same speed but much windier. The windy roads of course can be attributed to the Pyrenees Mountain system we passed through, but the bread is anyone's guess. The people in Spain seem to have a feistier way about them, mixed with a very relaxed attitude ( an interesting mix to say the least). We think the Spanish culture is a good compromise for us, since Christine loves the siestas and taking a nap every afternoon and I enjoy being a night owl, which is Spain through and through. It's not unusual to see little kids staying up well past 10:00 at night.

After driving along the coast for a while, we decided it was time to pull over and find somewhere to stay for a while. We decided to alter our plans and not just blast through northern Spain, but to go a bit slower and enjoy our time. We basically got tired of being on the road at the same time and pulled over at the first campground we could find off the highway. Now I must confess it was only the very early afternoon, but Christine didn't want to miss her first Spanish siesta and I was tired of sitting in the car.

As it turns out, we happened to stop in a quaint little town called Islares on the Spanish coast, a tiny little hamlet. After getting our tent set up we decided to forgo the nap and head to the water. I don't have an accurate temperature check, but when the Spanish locals are sweating and telling us they think it's hot, you know it is. It turns out we found a campsite right next a glorious beach that stretched for kilometers. It seemed like paradise - a beautiful breeze, a gorgeous beach, lots of local Spaniards about from a small town and each other. The afternoon and evening were delightful, spent swimming, long walks on the beach and a tasty dinner of paella (man this sounds like a personal ad for a date). Paella is a Spanish dish that is a base of rice, vegetables and seafood flavoured in a frying pan with paprika for colouring. All in all it was a great day, and we were looking forward to spending another as beach bums. (Right - the beautiful beach of Islares, Left - Hovan with the Paella).

Waking the next morning and sensing rain (correctly), we packed our bags and headed south searching for more sunshine. Instead of whipping down to Portugal we decided to enjoy one more day in northern Spain. Christine had heard that Leon was supposed to be a beautiful place to visit, so we motored in that direction. Along the way we saw the Spanish landscape change to one of rolling hills to plains of wheat and other grains. Beautiful to see as we passed by. Every short distance seemed to hold another small town, centered around a towering church and steeple. The villages always looked different, but familiar, and it is amazing to see how centralized the Catholic church was in every Spanish village (this is not the same sight in Portugal). Along the way, we also enjoyed the sights of several hill-top castles and the promise of Roman ruins. The landscape reminded me very much of the movie Gladiator. Any fan who has seen the movie knows the part where he is racing home on horse to try and save his family, and the beautiful golden estate which Maximus owns (how can you get a cooler name than Maximus - if he was named Minimus the movie would have tanked).

Along the way we stopped for lunch in a tiny hamlet called Carrion, a place with three large cathedrals and a monastery converted to a hotel. It was a very quaint little town, with tiny streets and some of the tightest parking. I managed to make one of the best parallel parking jobs in my life, only to have Christine tell me that later she watched the other guy nail our bumper on his way out. I guess they use the bumper as a guide. But I digress, the town was beautiful. Christine and I debated staying there for the night, but Leon was close and beckoning. (Left - Hovan's great parking job - he's the black car)

As we drove into Leon I have to tell you that I thought Christine had picked a dud, what a crumby looking city. You never would know that it was the former medieval capital of Spain. Right around the time we were thinking that we had made a horrible mistake, our driving took us to the heart of the city, leaving crappy layer after layer of city behind us, into what was a stunning spectacle of old world development. Think of all those old books you have read of cobblestone streets, winding alleys leading in endless loops and charm over every square inch, and you have the centre of Leon. The squares seem to have been made for chivalrous dueling, and the main Cathedral is one of the most spectacular we've seen (and between the two of us, we have seen a lot). Our accommodations were pleasant and the afternoon and evening were spent discovering the inner city and inspecting several of the cathedrals. We enjoyed a lovely dinner dining in one of the main squares, people watching and soaking up the lively Spanish late night energy. Everyone should know that the Spaniards eat very late, and when I say late, I mean the early arrivers start at 9:00 in the evening. We knew this (thanks to Dave Hatherly!), acclimatized to this and managed to eat our dinner in the thick of the activity and not be the typical westerners who rush in, eat and leave right away. Now any of you who know Christine, knows it's an incredible feat to delay dinner until 9:30/10:00, but she managed it very well, given a few afternoon and early evening snacks. (Left - the beautiful Cathedral of Leon. Right - walking down the streets of Leon).

Early this morning we rose, crept out of the hostel as most late night revelers were still sawing logs, and started our journey to Portugal. The difference in the landscape and villages is more slight between Spain and Portugal, but still there. It took us a while to realize that many of the villages do not have towering churches in them, definitely a big difference. We have traveled through the north of Portugal and plan to work our way down the coast slowly. We were heading to Viana do Costelo, when I lead us astray down a country road that took much longer than anticipated. This diversion did allow us to see some amazing little mountain villages. We also took a detour through a town with a road so narrow we barely scraped through. We were seeking some Roman ruins the sign promised, but when the road got really really potty and the car started to bottom out, we decided to turn around and eat lunch on the river instead. We did get out and hike around a bit to see if we could find the ruins, but were alas, unsuccessful.

We have arrived at our destination and plan to stay here for a while and tour the surrounding area before heading south to be near Lisbon. The campground we have found is very cosy, 3 Stars and will allow us to relax in comfort. There are some beautiful sites in the area and we are going to also take a bit of break from driving, having crossed so much territory already.

The trip continues to go fabulously and we will touch base with you all soon.

Yours,

Christine and Hovan

Driving in Europe

After a week on the road, we have had an interesting time driving around Europe. Of course the vehicle is small by NA standards, but over time we have organized things quite nicely and have a pretty good system going. By the time we are done our travels, we may have sorted out a washer and dryer back there :) .

Driving in Europe has some strong similarities to back home, but also some strange differences. The traffic isn't quite as crazy as we have seen in other countries, but then thankfully we won't be driving in Greece or India or other countries where we would be way out of our depth. Here the people move fast, use the horn sparingly, and there is a general sense of rules to the road. However, there appears to be few to no traffic cops on the highways, so the speed limits of 120 km/h are not thoroughly observed. We have been passed as though we were standing still, even though our speedometer read 140 (yes we have joined the speeding crowds - our parents always taught us to go with the flow of traffic ;)

We have now passed through three different countries and to our surprise the signage is pretty much uniform. We probably have the European Union to thank for that, in addition to no border crossings. One difference is in the frequency of signage - in France it was pretty good, but the further south we go the more sparse it becomes. We have to rely on heading the correct direction from the last sign to make it to the next, a feat not always accomplished. So far we have avoided any driver/navigator arguments, and perhaps our "oh well, we can take the next turn off or stay wherever we wind up since we're on holidays" attitude may be making it a little less strenuous. We have also enjoyed and put to full use the glorious traffic circle. In Canada when you get to an intersection, you have one chance to turn the right direction or you're hooped. Here, we can just circle around and around as long as we need to figure out (or make our best guess) as to our next heading. I think our current record is 3 times around a circle, and the beauty is all the regulars come in and out, so nobody stays to see our endless circling. We still have challenges figuring out some of the etiquette of a two laned round-about and when you move from the inside to the outside lane. It also becomes more complicated when a series of traffic lights are introduced, but we manage just fine.

Today we had a bit of an interesting trip through the back country, accounting to my interest in shaving off some distance and so I thought time. When looking at the lines of our European map, there are several gradations of colour. I decided to navigate Christine off the super highway (avg speed 130 km/h) onto a road system that looked like a major highway, just not the really big highway system. As it turns out in Portugal, the second largest road line is a far cry from the super highway. The trip was incredibly windy, one of the worst I have ever driven on, with an average speed of 60 km/h if we weren't stuck behind a big truck doing much less. The diversion allowed us to enjoy some of the pleasant Portugese back country, but instead of saving us a half an hour, probably took about an hour and a half more. Another lesson learned for us - if we want the really scenic tour, get off the super highway, if we want a still very scenic tour, stay on.

Christine and I have been taking fair turns driving on the trip, but I often get the shift right after lunch, usually when Christine is feeling it's time for a siesta. All in all we have covered more than 2000 kilometres, but seem to be finding a good balance between travel and restful sightseeing.

A friend once told me that a car is "packaged freedom" and isn't that the truth. Christine and I were planning to stay two nights in this beautiful little town. When we woke up the next morning it started to rain and looked like it was going to do that for days. So we simply packed up the car and took off for sunshine. We're not held to any schedule or account.

Our recommendation for anyone travelling to Europe for an extended period is to get a car, we are simply loving it!!

The Loire Valley

We have spent the last two days camping in the Loire Valley in a city named Amboise. We had chosen this particular village because it was well situated in the Loire valley and was in close proximity to most of the castles and chateau’s we wanted to see. Also, the village only has a population slightly over 10,000, and we were looking forward to a quieter place to stay.

In leaving Paris, we had to start driving again, and this time it was Christine’s turn at the wheel. Giving some poor directions to her, we finally managed to navigate onto the right road. However, shortly thereafter I mis-read a sign and poor Christine was off down the wrong track. Now while I am more than willing to do u-turns, back down roads and stop in between interstates (among other poor and illegal driving practices), Christine is a bit more of a rule follower on the road and much the safer for it. Since we were lost, I encouraged Christine to pull off the wrong side of the road so we could turn around. No sooner did she do that, than we saw a pretty blue light and a Gendarmerie (police officer) hailing us from his car. After a comment of “Vouz ne pouvez pas faire n’importe quoi madamesoille” (Translated: You cannot do whatever you want) and a “Pardon, je suis perdu” (Translated: I’m sorry, I’m lost) from Christine, he was off. I suspect that if it had been a hairy Armenian driving the car instead of a pretty young damsel, that there would have been a ticket issued. After not more than 20 minutes of driving Christine has had her very first encounter with the law.

On our way south to the Loire valley, we decided to stop at Versailles for several hours. The castle is absolutely massive and very ornate, with some of the most beautiful and well manicured lawns you could imagine. The French dominance over nature was on full display here. We had a wonderful time wandering through the palace, and the visit was made all the more pleasurable when a friendly French gentleman gave Christine a spare ticket that we got (a 2 for 1 visit to Versailles – what a coup). I can’t help but comment that the gentleman didn’t offer me the ticket.

As promised, we shifted away from the hotel and chose to camp in Amboise, having found a 2 Star campsite for only 2.5 euros a night, nice and cheap. The campsite had a surprising number of included amenities, such as hot showers and in theory a washing machine (though that was broken – what can you expect for a 2 Star).

We spent the last two days touring through the Loire valley, visiting different Chateau’s and castles. We discovered that the difference between a chateau and castle is that the castle is built for defense, while the chateau is built for comfortable living. This made sense as I kept commenting to Christine how so many of the castles were in a horrible position to defend themselves. But surprisingly, the chateaus also had defensible walls around them, probably to keep the common riff-raff out. Apparently the walls weren’t so successful since Christine and I had no problem getting in J

The most splendid chateau we visited was that of Chambord, located close to the city of Blois. This particular chateau is absolutely stunning and apparently the largest in the Loire valley. We both instantly fell in love with it, and if it was located with the Ocean out front and lake in the back, it would be perfect. Christine considers this to be her new home, however, I had to break the news to her that my government salary isn’t quite enough to cover the mortgage on a 500 room house with a 13,000 square feet of property in Central France.

One other Chateau of note that we visited was Cheverny. This particular place was made popular by the French Tintin comics, as it was the authors model for Captain Haddocks manor called Marlinspike (Mark you may want to tell Rudy to pay the place a visit). The Chateau is beautifully adorned and was a pleasure to visit. We were surprised to discover that the owners of the Chateau still lived on the inaccessible top floor. I’m not sure that we could handle having hundreds of strange visitors in our house everyday, but c’est la vie.

After stopping at a few more Chateau’s in the valley, we returned to our campsite before our big evening. We had purchased tickets earlier in the day to a large event being held in the castle of Amboise, which is incidentally the resting place of Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci spent his last 3 years in Amboise before passing away. The spectacle was quite an event, and the performance involved more than 500 people from Amboise and the surrounding villages. The costumes were exceptional and the show quite splendid. It was a re-telling of the history of Ambroise surrounding the development and completion of the castle and the various kings and royalty that played a role in it’s development. There was a bit too much of the old medieval dancing, which can be a bit slow when there is more than an hour and half to sit through. The event was well attended, as it was the final night and the bleachers were packed. It was a fun event, sitting inside the castles walls, watching a medieval performance unfold.

This morning, after two nights in Amboise, we packed our tent and traveled south in an attempt to get close to the Spanish border. The day has been relatively uneventful, as it was mostly driving, including a few accidental as well as intended detours along our travels. We made some excellent time, passing Bordeaux and then heading out to the ocean. We decided to try our hand at a 4 star camping in an Oceanside town called Mamizan. The town is quaint and the hotel quite nice. The apparent difference between a 2 and 4 Star hotel is the amenities. This place has a couple of pools, nice restaurants, a theartre and a shower with consistent water flow and temperature. Apparently the price of the campgrounds also dropped just today, and we will assume this is the end of the popular European camping period. The price drop was considerable, by almost half, making this 4 Star campground almost as cheap as our 2 Star from the last couple of nights.

Tomorrow we will most likely strike out for Portugal, but may spend one night in Spain en route. So far the trip has been absolutely fantastic and it is nice to spend so much quality time together.

I have to mention that my French is passable and I can get around with minimal stares, but Christine’s French is amazing and we have had no problems wherever we have gone. Unfortunately neither of us speak Portugese, so things should get more interesting from here on out.

Best to all of you,

Christine and Hovan

A Fancy Dinner - with a twist

Christine and I decided to enjoy a vey nice, fancy dinner in Paris, thinking all the while of Lumiere from Disney's Beauty and the Beast: "After all this is France, and dinner here is never second best!"

We did a bit of research to find a restaurant that was romantic, delicious, and very well reviewed, eventually settling on a restaurant that serves purely French cuisine. Not only did the dinner turn out to be a fantastic evening, but also a bit entertaining as we broke a number of "rules" along the way - perhaps alienating the staff along the way.

We started off the evening by making a reservation. A simple task, one would think, but never the less, our very first mistake. Since we had arisen at 3-4 in the morning, we were a little ahead of the typical Parisian who seems to sleep in and get a late start to the day (I knew I was born in the wrong culture :) We tried to make our reservation for dinner at 6:00 in the evening, much to the shock and dismay of the Maitre D. Apparently the restaurant isn't even open that early and it's insulting to think that civilized people would eat dinner that early. We agreed on 7:30, a much more proper and fitting time to eat.

Upon arrival to the restaurant, spot on 7:30 and completely famished, we realized that we were the very first people to arrive. So we definitely stood out. After being seated a lovely table in very comfortable chairs, we made our second mistake. The waiter gave us an appertif menu to order some drinks to start, but being thirsty and used to traditional Canadian restaurants we asked for a couple of glasses of water to start - with ice. What ensued was a minute of Christine trying to say Glace (thinking Ice as Hovan loves very cold water) and the waiter saying Gas (thinking fizzy water). Finally breaching the cultural and linguistic barrier, it was agreed upon that we wanted water with Glacon (the proper term for ice). Much to the dismay of the very well attired, stiff waiter, he assumed the "barbarians" from North America (probably assuming we were American) just wanted free ice water as an apperitif. After getting our water we were finally in a happy postion to be able to order an appertif, cognac for Christine and Indian Tonic water for her teetotaler husband.

Now knowing and speaking french well enough, and knowing french to read fancy language about unique food dishes is a completely different story. We were able to understand what the essence of the dishes were, but not the finer details of the sauces, glazes, etc. We each ordered a 3 course meal. Christine received a tasty small dish of zucchini and other vegetables with a sharp cheese. It looked nice and tasted delicious. I received a lentil and bacon salad, and here is where portions started to become interesting. The waiter brought the lentil salad in a giant bowl, scooped some out and made a fancy design on my plate, looked good. Then he set down the bowl on the table and left. So here Christine had a nice petite salad, and Hovan had a serving bowl that could feed 4 people as an appetizer. It didn't help that they continued to deliver fresh bread with goose liver pate as soon as we finished off a previous batch. In the end between the two of us we hardly made a dent in the lentil salad.

The main course was a bit confusing as Christine ordered a duck dish only to have it turn out to be a fancy steak in a tasty glaze. My pork dish was served cold with an interesting cucumber sauce. Both were delicious, but neither was what we were expecting. The flavours of this restuarant were very good, but incredibly unique, I guess that's what we should expect from fancy French chefs. The main dishes came with these huge helpings of mashed potatoes, and I use the term potatoe lightly. The mashed potatoe was infused with butter, garlic, and a healthy portion of some cheese. The side dish was absolutely marvelous, but there was probably more cheese than potatoe and it was incredibly filling. Did I mention that it was a ridiculously large serving. In the end we couldn't even finish it all.

Meanwhile, as we are eating our meal, Christine keeps refilling her wine out of the wine bottle in the ice bucket, much to the dismay of the waiter. Apparently it is insultin his service skills that we don't think he is doing a good enough job paying attention that she is taking matters into her own hands. This did not endear us anymore to the staff at the restaurant.

Finally when we are finished with the main course we are ready for our 3rd course, dessert. We decided to leave some mashed potatoes on the plate so we had room. Apparently this is only slightly better than being sacriligous and now they think we are insulting the cooking. Looking around, everyone else is having no trouble eating all 3 courses, I thought Christine and I had healthy appetites.

For dessert we order some creme caramel and chocolate mousse. The waiter nods his acknowledgement that we have chosen correctly and brings us our dessert. He sets down the creme caramel in from of Christine, 3 dainty little dishes with fantastically unique flavours. In front of me he sets a plate, brings a huge bowl of chocolate mousse and scoops out a portion onto the plate. Perfect. He then proceeds to set down the bowl, one designed to feed 5-6 people and leaves the table. Are you kidding me. What is up with the serving sizes, one salad is small the other enourmas, one dessert is tiny, the other ridiculously large. Both desserts were fantastic and the chocolate mousse must have been made almost entirely of melted chocolate it was so dense. Apparently we weren't the only people to be chastised for not eating the 12 pounds of chocolate mousse as I heard the waiter giving the gears to others for wasting the dessert.

These portions were so big that I don't even think my brother in law Mark could eat everything on the table, and that man has an appetite you wouldn't believe.

On our way out, we decided to give them one more thing to think about. Christine had her credit card on the table and when he came by for the pin number and handed it to me, I passed it over to Christine. The look on his face was astounding, and even when I explained politely in French that it was the same card and bank account he was not mollified in the least.

In the end not only the food, but the experience have made that lovely meal memorable, and I am sure we will be joking about it for some time to come.

Cheers

Christine and Hovan

Paris - Day 2

We have had a lovely second day in Paris, which started out at 3 in the morning for Christine and 4 in the morning for Hovan. Up early and out the door to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived at the tower a bit before sunrise and about 3 hours before the lifts opened. At that early hour all we saw were machine gun toting military men, lots of Parisian joggers and one guy hawking his crappy tourist souvenirs with only two suckers to annoy- us. Since Christine and I have both been to the top of the tower before, we felt it unnecessary to wait around to go to the top.

After going for a nice early morning walk and breakfast through the side streets of Paris, we decided to head to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica for the morning. I had already been there once before, however Christine had not. The building itself is stunning and the view from the front is a spectacular sight overlooking Paris. Following some advice Allison posted to the blog Christine and I looked into going to the top, and also into the Crypt. We mis-read the sign and thought that the crypt was 300 steps into the earth - really excited about a crypt that was so deep. Turns out it was 300 steps to the top and not the bottom. Allison, you were right, the view from the top of church dome was spectacular. A 360 degree panoramic view of all Paris. Absolutely stunning and very peaceful up there. As we were leaving we noticed hordes of tourists arriving, so thankfully we beat the rush. On our way out we enjoyed some delicious crepes as Christine promised Courtney she would - especially the nutella one.

We hopped back on the subway and returned to the centre of Paris, starting the remainder of our day at the Arch de Triumphe and then wending our way down the Champs D'Elysees. The day was quite lovely at a nice relaxed vacation pace that included a very slow walking pace, coffee shops and a nap (for Christine). Paris is a city with too much to see in such a short time, but thankfully we had seen so much before, so there was no rush or pressure to get in so many sights.

We ended to day with a visit to Notre Dame, another beautiful church built in a very different style from Sacré-Cœur. While we were touring through the church a service began. It felt very intrusive to have hundreds of tourists wandering around taking pictures while all these Catholics were trying to conduct their service. I couldn't imagine attending a church service with so many gawkers looking on.

After relaxing at a bench on La Seine river, listening to a music performer and watching the boats go by, we went off for a nice dinner at a fancy romantic Parisian restaurant to end our time in Paris. I will post the dinner in a separate blog, as the whole meal is worthy of it's own write-up.

This is the end of our stay in Paris, our next stop is a tiny 10,000 person town south of France as we start making our way to Portugal. From hear on out it is more camping and making our own meals instead of fancy hotels and lavish meals, but we have truly enjoyed the start of our vacation.

While I am writing this, Christine is out doing the truly European shopping experience getting fruit, cheese and bread from 3 different stores before we climb back into the car to fight our way out of the city.

From here on out, the internet access will be a little less consistent, so our posts may become a bit more irregular.

Wishing you all the best,

Christine and Hovan

French Military, Napoleon's Tomb & Hotel Acropole

Well it's 4 AM here and I can't sleep anymore so I figure I might as well post some pictures!

The view from our room in "Hotel Acropole".
Friendly machine gun wielding French military in the airport during the bomb scare.

A shot from the inside of Napoleon's tomb. The tomb was incredibly beautiful.
The outside of Napoleon's tomb. Can you find Hovan in this picture? :)

I've posted more photos in the Paris gallery and more will be coming! Enjoy. :)

Baguettes everywhere

Hello everyone,

So it turns out that flying long distances is exactly as we remembered it, long. It turns out that I have not gotten any shorter and the leg room has not gotten any bigger. Add to that a French couple who refused to understand my explanation that if they put their chair back all the way, they were going to get a pair of knees right in the back. Christine as always my darling wife offered some of her space, but unfotrunately my body has not gotten any more flexible than our last flight and all the contorting in the world didn't produce a wink of sleep.

Tired and bleary eyed, we landed in Paris at 8:15 in the morning, a full hour ahead of schedule. This was a positive turn of events, and we rushed to the car rental counter to find we were first in line to get our car and get the heck out of the airport. It turns out our luck couldn't last for more than a few minutes as a bomb threat was announced and very serious looking French troops swarmed the airport to conduct a thorough search. We kept getting pushed back further and further from the rental check in counter as the search dragged on for what seemed like hours in our sleep deprived stupour (it was actually about an hour and half). By the time the ban was lifted we arrived 5th in line back in the counter and had to 45 minutes for our next crack at getting our car - a brand new VW Golf!

Now we enter the start of 6 weeks where we will alternate driving and navigating each other through Europe. We have an agreement up front that we are going to get lost a lot, yelled at and honked at by locals, and yes probably even a little annoyed with each other over poor listening/following direction skills.

Groggy as we were, Christine did a magnificent job of guiding us to the hotel, and we were able to see a bit of Paris as I drove around the outskirts of the city (we will definitely NOT be driving around the Arc D'Triumphe). Unable to check in because we were too early, we went out for a bit of sightseeing and have already spotted more under the arm baguette wielding individuals that we can count. We visited Napolean's tomb at L'Hotel Invalide and the Ecole Militaire surrounding it. Who knew that such a short guy needed such a large and imposing tomb -p but very beautiful.

On the Subway ride back to the hotel we had to take turns poking each other so we would not fall asleep and miss our transfers and stops. We have now checked into the hotel, got a 2 hour nap to try to tide us over to sleep tonight and are now ready to go and get our own baguette to stuff under the arm.

That's all there is at the moment.

Talk to you all soon!