Silly & Funjeev: Overseas

#Hashtagging the globe

[sillyandfunjeev]

Good morning Nu Zelund. They let us back into the country. First things first: flat white.

[sillyandfunjeev]

Cruising Alaska

We flew from Prague to Vancouver where we met up with the rest of my (Sanjeev) family. From here we all got on a cruise ship that took us along the southwest coast of Alaska.

Alaskan Sunrise

Going on a cruise was a little different to the style of travel we have been used to for, most of, the past 21 months...

Unlimited free food, 24 hour room service, chocolates on our pillows every night - it was pretty ridiculous.  

Oh and the ship was big.  Really big.  Close to 4000 people on the ship big.  

Another plane taking off from a lake in Misty Fjords

Our first stop was Ketchikan, where we went flightseeing in a floatplane over the Misty Fjords National Monument.  

Misty Fjords from the air

The next day we visited the capital of Alaska; the thriving 32,000 strong city of Juneau.  We were lucky enough to see a LOT of humpback whales on a whalewatching trip there.  And we were even luckier to see them bubble net feeding. It was a bit of a fluke (whalepun).

Juneau Whale Tail

Next up was Skagway, where we jumped in a van and crossed back into Canada to visit the Yukon. 

Emerald Lake - Yukon see from this photo it was pretty nice

We also saw some bears on the way back.  6 black bears.  3 cubs and 3 adults.  Not all at once.  It was pretty awesome.

Until this point we hadn’t seen much ice.  And I expected that Alaska would have more ice.  But the next day we found ice in a not-so-unexpected place; Glacier Bay.

Glacier Bay

Glacier Bay was pretty incredible with massive glaciers coming right down into the sea.  One of them calved in front of us. That is, a large chunk of ice fell off (it didn’t have a baby cow).

The next day we went to a place called College Fjord.  We didn’t really know what to expect from College Fjord.  It was supposed to be scenic and have some glaciers; but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be as impressive as somewhere called Glacier Bay.  But it turned out that College Fjord was probably more impressive than Glacier Bay... There were 5 glaciers in a row coming down to the sea.  And they were bigger than the ones in Glacier Bay. 

In front of an unexpectedly large glacier.

We then left the cruise ship and had a potentially epic final day planned.  Flying to Brooks Falls where brown bears go to catch salmon at certain times of the year.  We were right at the start of the salmon season, so weren’t sure how many bears would be around.  But we timed it perfectly; there were lots of bears, and apparently a whole lot less people than in the middle of the season.

Brown bear Mum and cub being cute (Philie took this on her iPhone - they were pretty close)

And then that was the end of our trip... About 21 countries in about 21 months...  

Hello again NZ.

[sillyandfunjeev]

Our last stop in Europe: Prague

Continuing with the delayed updates, our next stop after Austria was Prague for 5 nights. We arrived in Prague feeling a little sad at the knowledge that this was our last stop for Europe. We're not quite sure where the last 7 months have gone. 

Within an hour of arriving, Sanjeev and I found ourselves at a pub enjoying a Czech beer (consoling ourselves maybe?). But do as the locals do, they say. And boy do the locals drink some beer. The Czechs consume the most beer out of any country in the world. 

Prague as a result seems to be the place to come for any alcohol centred celebration. Or just for drinking alcohol. Unfortunately for Sanjeev, this meant his usually peaceful 5am photo taking sessions were instead interrupted by drunk people walking past on their way home from a night out. 

Some highlights from our time here was seeing La Bayadere ballet at the Opera House (so incredible it has inspired Sanjeev to attempt ballet) and taking a tour out to Terezin (a former concentration camp). Our guide for the tour to Terezin liked to count. Like, REALLY liked to count. Before we'd even left Prague on the train, he had counted the group 12 times. And that was within 30 minutes. And yes, we started counting how many times he counted us. Fun times. 

And then it was time to leave Europe. Or try to leave Europe. When we were trying to pass through immigration, the Immigration Officer was suspicious of the length of time we'd been in Europe for without a visa. After he double checked the accuracy of New Zealand's bilateral visa waiver agreements, he told us if non-Europeans stay more than 3 months in the EU without a visa, they are criminals. But... not New Zealanders.... We felt like he was inferring we were criminals. Reluctantly, he stamped our passport. Phew.

Like father like daughter... I too pulled the curtain down at our accommodation in Prague. Oops.

Like father like son.

[sillyandfunjeev]

Delayed updates: Austria

Lakes District near Salzburg

So we've been too busy cruising around with Sanjeev's family to update the blog. And now we're home in like four days. Two days out of which will be spent flying. So we need to whip out a few delayed updates. 

Here goes... 

At the start of June, we spent 10 days in Austria. It's a pretty stunning country. I think the country is about 97% mountains. Or at least some other crazy statistic close to that. 

Sanjeev's prediction of the weather cooling the further north we moved continued to prove wrong. It reached 30 degrees most of the days we were in Austria. 

Innsbruck Mountain Sheep

Our first stop was Innsbruck. It's a small town which becomes a huge ski resort town over the winter. We bought a tourist card that gave us free entry to 40 odd museums. We smashed out a few museums one day (it was a good way to avoid the heat) and then used the card the next day to take us to the top of the Seegrube mountain on one side of the town. The views were pretty nice. But Sanjeev decided to lie on the ground and take photos of the little flowers instead of the views. The best part was when 2 or 3 other people came over and copied him because they figured he must be taking a photo of something good. 

View at the top of Seegrube

We hired a rental car for a few days to explore the Lakes District near Salzburg. This district is beautiful. It has 76 lakes with lots of lovely wee villages. 

Sunrise in the Lakes District

We finished off in Vienna. There are lots of remnants of the massive Hapsburg empire throughout the city with many large and impressive buildings as well as many monuments. We visited the Hofburg Imperial Palace where amongst many things, you could see the Royal Silver Collection. Out of all the silverware, our favourite piece was a napkin. Yes, we are weird. But this napkin was pretty special. It was folded in a way that is so special and secret that only two people at any one time are allowed to know how to fold it in this way. It is a closely guarded secret and this method of napkin folding may only be used at formal state dinners. Obviously napkin folding is a very important art. 

So that was Austria. Mountains, lakes and napkins.

[sillyandfunjeev]

More Italy: Milan, Lake Como, Venice

We left Rome behind to head up north to Milan. 

My prediction of 'Rome will be the hottest place we have left on our trip' turned out to be completely false, (and has continued to prove more and more false as time goes by), and we got off the train in 30 degree heat, to make the journey to our apartment. By the time we got there we were definitely ready for a rest, but were greeted by the apartment owner who jovially informed us that he was locked out. Good start to Milan... 

Milan Duomo

Aside from that, (and the part where he said he left us towels - he didn't, so we asked for towels and he proceeded to come back with bath robes, bath mats, and tea towels over various occasions - we needed Mat for his Italian), Milan was great. The duomo/cathedral was incredible; probably the most ornate exterior of a church we have seen (and after 8 months of travelling Europe we have seen a few). And there were shops everywhere. Pretty much a Prada on every corner.

Philie and I spent most of a day shopping, but I made sure to avoid the shops which had doormen. If they can afford to pay someone to open a door for me then I can't afford to buy their things. I probably can't even afford to look at their things. And I can open a door myself. Unless it is really heavy. Or I am confused by whether to push or pull. Which only happens a few times a day. So thank you Mr Doorman, but no thank you.

Varenna

From Milan we made our way up to Lake Como where we stayed in the quaint village of Varenna. We spent the days taking the ferries and trying out the local gelati at each village. 

Birthday Lunch

Lake Como

And then there was Venice, our last stop in Italy.  

Venice - Grand Canal

Venice is, as imagined, a romantic island; permeated by canals and the occasional fleeting odour of sewage. Despite the occasional smell, and the overwhelming number of people in the daytime, Venice was a stunning city.  Especially when being out early/late; before/after most other people. 

Gondola Ride

Saint Mark’s Square

Philie fell head over heels for Venice... Or more accurately, Philie fell head over heels IN Venice... As we were walking on the steps over one of the 409 bridges, (a Venice bridge fact for you there), Philie spontaneously nose dived at the ground.  The bridge was pretty busy at the time, with people walking over it, sitting and chatting, selling things... But the quiet murmur of the crowds instantaneously became a deafening silence, and Philie was met with the concerned stares of people that weren’t exactly sure what to do.  But Philie calmly picked herself back up, looked around for the thing that she tripped on (there was nothing there), and slowly continued on her way.  About 50m later, once we were away from the main crowd of people, Philie noticed the massive grazes, that were quickly becoming bruises, on her knees.

Philie: “I just don’t know what happened” Sanjeev: “I do... walk walk walk... Kabooom”

[sillyandfunjeev]

Rome - Kennards’ departure and Deos’ arrival

The Pantheon

At the Vatican

The Kennard family holiday finished with everyone in Rome. It was also where we met up with Sanjeev's parents for our travels with them for the following few weeks. 

Surprisingly for the Kennards, the family holiday had not as yet involved a lot of shopping. Not wanting to let our reputation down, the family made up for it by filling their already full bags with shopping from Rome. Even more surprisingly, it was Dad who took out the title for the most purchases when he attempted to buy out the men's section of Hugo Boss. 

Sanjeev and I decided we would make the most of Mum and Dad being able to take home another bag to get rid of items which we were no longer going to use. As Dad bought so many shoes (yes, you read correctly. Shoes!) he offered to share the purchase of a suitcase with us to fit our stuff and his. Even though we split the purchase of the bag, Sanjeev and I filled most of it up with our extra things. He probably should have remembered how good us Kennard girls can be at filling suitcases. Sorry Dad! Hope you still got all your shoes home! 

Roman Sunrise

We met Sanjeev's parents in Rome for the start of our trip with them. Before the Kennards left, we all went out for dinner together, recapping our awesome family holiday and discussing our plans with the Deos for the next few weeks. 

Castel Sant Angelo 

St Peter’s Basilica

Our time in Rome with the Deos was mostly spent trying to avoid the crowds. We would head out super early each morning to get to the sights and then return home to rest away from the crowds in the middle of the day (soooo many people. I don't like people). We visited the Vatican including the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica; the Colosseum and the Roman Forum; the Pantheon; the Borghese Gallery; and we went to see the opera La Noce Di Figaro at the Rome Opera House.

Colosseum

Philie and Sanjeev

[sillyandfunjeev]

#kennardsareontour Part III - Tuscany

For the third week of our “family” holiday, we all went our separate ways (I guess two weeks at a time together is more than enough...).  

Manarola

Us kids went to the Cinque Terre for a few nights, staying in Manarola. The Cinque Terre was a very beautiful area with five villages along the coastline of Italy. 

Riomaggiore (one of the other five villages)

Amanda and Mat then travelled to Milan, Verona and Venice; we travelled to Lucca and Livorno; and Hayley wasn’t sure exactly where she went (she only realised she’d passed through Florence after we told her). Mum and Dad, meanwhile, lived it up without kids in Monte Carlo and Portofino. 

Morning in Lucca

Livorno sunset

Between Lucca and Livorno we had a stop in Pisa to check out the tower.  It was pretty crazy busy, so we just sat down and watched everyone pose.  We had to use all of our self-restraint to not run around high-fiving everyone...

People waiting for a high five at Pisa

I’m pretty sure you are doing it wrong Sanjeev...

For the fourth week of the family holiday, Amanda arranged a rental house for a week in the Tuscany region. And by house, I mean mansion. It had 6 large bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, three dining tables, two lounges, two kitchens and a huge outdoor area. We needed walkie talkies just to keep track of where everyone was in the house. For the first two days, Dad continually found new rooms, new balconies and new bathrooms. Although sometimes it was just the same room but from a different angle. Confusing.

The mansion was decorated in quite an old fashioned, classic sort of style. There were beautiful old wooden cabinets all through the house; ornate duvet covers; and decorative curtains across the windows. Late one night, a few of us were sitting in the lounge as others slowly drifted off to their rooms for the night. Dad was up past his bedtime so headed off to sleep. However, he returned a few minutes later, looking very sheepish.

Dad: “Um, I have a slight structural issue.” (presenting what looks like a sheet in his hands) Us: ”What do you mean?” (as we slowly realise he is holding one of the decorative curtains) Dad: “I tried to close the curtain. But it came off...” Us: “THEY’RE DECORATIVE! THEY DON’T CLOSE!” Dad: “Oh.”

Peaceful Sunrise in Tuscany

Yep... pretty peaceful

For our week in Tuscany, we again made the most of having a vehicle and visited lots of the villages around us, including Pienza, Montepulciano, Cortona and Siena. We also went to Florence for the day to do an Italian cooking course. We cooked so much delicious food: bruschette, pizza, tagliatelle ragu, roast pork, tiramisu and gelato. Mat made the brave move to attend the cooking class with his genuine 5euro Italian cooking hat and proceeded to be chosen for every demonstration.

Tuscan Fields

Vitaleta Church

Through our time in France and Italy Mum developed a minor obsession with the poppies that were scattered throughout the countryside.  Unfortunately, most of them were on the side of motorways, so did not make for convenient photo locations.  As time started to run out, the quest for that poppy photo became increasingly frantic.  One day we even made a one hour trip out to an Abbey that was supposed to be surrounded with fields of poppies. There was one dead poppy in the corner of the field.  Slight fail.  Luckily the abbey was very impressive and the drive was pretty scenic as well!

[sillyandfunjeev]

#kennardsareontour Part II - South of France

For the second week of our Kennard family holiday, we decided to rent a house in the south of France, along the Côte d'Azur, in a small town called Les Issambres. What better way to get there than by cramming the 7 of us, plus all of our suitcases, into a van for the 12 hour trip from Paris?

Port Grimaud

Tourettes sur Loup

At the house, we were met by Jean Claude (could we get a more french name, please?). Jean Claude did not speak any English and the only version of French he spoke was the lightning quick version with zero pauses. This was difficult for me to translate in my post 12 hour car journey state, but fortunately we had our new family translator, Mat, to help out. (Side note: Mat’s version of French involves wearing a beret and placing a ‘le’ in front of every English word...).

Unfortunately, I missed a key detail of Jean Claude’s spiel about the house. Reading through the book information, I noted that there was a cartoon picture of a pig on the page about the rubbish bins. I thought this was a bit odd and then wondered if this meant we had to be wary of pigs. I mentioned this to everyone and everyone else was quite sceptical. On our first night there, Amanda had a restless night as she kept hearing a banging noise outside. When we left the house the next morning, we noticed the rubbish from our bins had been strewn across the road. Pigs? But how would pigs get the stuff out of the bins?

We returned home that night and after dinner we were sitting around chatting. Dad suddenly shushed us and said, “I can hear a banging noise. It must be the pigs.”, to which Mum responded, “Don’t be silly, it’s not pigs. It’s just someone bouncing a basketball.” A few minutes later, we heard the noise. Dad went outside on the balcony to investigate and ran back inside (well, the kind of run you can do when you have socks on and its slippery tiles) exclaiming that it must be pigs. The boys decide they have to go downstairs to the front gate to investigate, while us girls decided we’d just watch the action from the balcony. 

As the guys reached the bins, we hear Dad yell, “Look at the SIZE of them. It’s a whole f*#$ing family!” A huge mummy pig, plus four piglets had been ramming our bin, tipped it over, and were feasting on our leftovers.

View from St Paul de Vence

St Paul de Vence street

Aside from the incident with the pigs, our week in the south of France went very smoothly. We had an excellent week touring all over the Côte d'Azur. We visited St Maxime, St Tropez, Port Grimaud, Cannes, Antibes, St Paul de Vence, Tourettes sur Loup, and Nice. I think the family favourite was probably the quiet little Port Grimaud with its wee canals and lovely cafes/restaurants.

Captain on the Port Grimaud canals

That small boat in the distance is Amanda, Mat and Hayley.  They were a little behind after getting stuck in a tunnel about 10 metres after they set off...

Driving around seemed to be relatively easy, except when we ran into trouble trying to get back onto the motorway from Cannes. Dorris, our GPS, was taking us in circles and, very helpfully, several of us were giving conflicting instructions to Dad. Amongst all of the confusion Dad tried to exit a roundabout on the wrong side of the road.  Suddenly all of our instructions were in sync as we all yelled in chorus, “NOOOOOO!”.

Antibes

And the obligatory selfie... this was about the 20th attempt after 10 minutes of driving around a parking lot to get the right light in the van.  Committed to the cause.

[sillyandfunjeev]

#kennardsareontour Part I - Paris

Paris by Night

The Kennards slowly gathered together in Paris, France for our 4-5 week family holiday in France and Italy. 

The first to arrive was my older sister Amanda and her husband Mat. We went to the airport to meet them but things didn’t get off to the best start. After meeting them at the arrivals gate, we made our way to the train platform to catch the train into the city. We stood there for a while chatting away to each other and slowly noticed that the board said the next train would be in 5 hours. Slightly odd, but maybe the board hadn’t updated? We kept chatting away then I heard the end of an annoucement in french. I thought it had said something about a fire but because I hadn’t heard it very well (and it was in french) I thought I must have heard wrong. Two minutes later, the annoucement came over the speakers again and I heard much more clearly. There had been a fire at another train station, the trains had stopped and we had to take a bus. 

We walked out to wait for a bus, along with 500 other people. No buses came. Another 500 people arrived. Still no buses came. Our situation was looking pretty poor. We gave up and headed for the taxis. But this didn’t want to be straight forward either. Once we got in the taxi, we found out there had been a big accident on the motorway into the city and the traffic wasn’t moving. 100+ euros later, we finally arrived in the city. 

Luckily we arrived just in time to save an old man’s life. We held the door open for him as he was walking up the step into the building. He didn’t quite make the step and slooooowly started falling backwards. But thanks to my lightening quick reflexes (and the backup support of Amanda) we stopped him from falling. Just. Phew. 

Next to arrive was Mum and Dad. They were clever and pre-organised a transfer from the airport. So we met them at our accommodation next door to the Eiffel Tower; well, basically next door. As Dad said, it was close enough to hang our washing on. 

Paris by Morning

We spent the first part of the week getting oriented and checking out the main sights and foods of Paris. Hayley arrived part way through the week and we all went out to the Palace of Versailles for the day. The Palace was incredible; with the exception of the bus loads of tour groups squishing through the small hallways of the palace rooms. 

Palace of Versailles

As a belated birthday celebration for Mum, we all went to see a French cabaret show at Le Paradis Latin. Sanjeev and I were expecting something along the lines of what you see in Moulin Rouge (the movie). It wasn't anything like this. I don't know if I'd even call it French. There was probably only one song which was French. The rest were American songs. But the show itself was good (just not what we expected) and we had a very yummy meal. 

Bike Tour

The rest of our time in Paris was incredible. We spent it wandering some of the many lovely streets/areas like Canal St Martin, Place des Vosges, Rue des Francs Bourgeois, Le Marais, St Germain, Rue Cler, and Rue Mouffetard. Plus we had fantastic weather while we were there. And Paris was beautiful in spring time bloom. 

Pont Alexandre III

Luxembourg Palace

Our week went very fast and we were off to pick up our rental van to take the 7 of us down to the south of France. Dad went to get in the wrong side of the car to drive, realising halfway around and muttering to himself, "that's a good f***ing start". 

And it was.

[sillyandfunjeev]

Annecy

You may have noticed that we've been a bit slow at getting blog posts up. My (Philie’s) family are currently over here with us so we hope you'll forgive us for spending more time with them than on the blog. 

When we last left off, I was upset about dropping cake in Chamonix. 

To make up for this, we went to Annecy where they had a beautiful turquoise lake (turquoise is my favourite colour). 

Our accommodation had bikes so we thought it might be nice to bike the perimeter of the lake one day. We hadn't actually seen the bikes though. When we went down to get them, we found that one of them was a ladies vintage bike; the type of bike you might use to go to a Saturday morning market. Not exactly ideal for a 40km bike ride, as it turns out. 

Despite the less than ideal bike situation, we headed off around the lake. There were cycle paths most of the way and the paths followed the edge of the lake for the majority of the trip. It was pretty beautiful. 

The town of Annecy was just as gorgeous. Canals run from the lake through the town making it very picturesque. They also had a lot of gelato shops. And Sanjeev was careful not to hit the icecream out of my hands. 

From Annecy, we caught the fast train to Paris to await the arrival of the family.

[sillyandfunjeev]

Chamonix

Chamonix Valley

When we told our friend Lucy that we went to Chamonix she said, “I don’t know what that is. It sounds like a trashy child’s name.”

We didn’t go see a trashy child.  We went to a spectacular area of France in the French Alps.

Aiguille du Midi, 3,842m (view from the backyard of where we were staying).

We stayed here for 4 nights and explored.  We were there towards the end of ski season, but decided not to ski.  Instead we wanted to see if we could do some day hikes.  The Chamonix Tourist Office was a little helpful, and also recommended that we visit the mountaineering office for advice. They were unhelpful.  Fortunately the owner of the BnB (who happened to be a kiwi) was awesome and helped us find various routes in the area.

Philie happy about finding snow!

Philie took on her fear of heights and we went up the cable car to Aiguille du Midi.  It goes from ~1000m to 3842m in about 20 minutes (over 2 cable cars).  After she conquered that she decided that she loved heights and we went up another couple of cable cars.

Brevent Cable Car

I did my usual thing (that Philie finds a little bit crazy) and got up early most mornings to go find some places to take photos.  It was fun, and cold, but I found these places:

Milky Way over the Chamonix Mountains

Stream

The low part of the week for Philie was when I accidentally smacked a box of cake out of her hand as we got off a bus. She may have screamed an expletive in shock (to a bus full of school children). All was good in the end and I’m sure that it tasted the same (although Philie disagrees and is now telling me “all was not good Sanjeev, all was not good!”).

[sillyandfunjeev]

Easter weekend: Tours and the Loire Valley

Chateau Villandry Gardens

We spent Easter weekend in and around Tours with our friends Ashleigh and Andy. 

I think your camera is larger than regulation selfie size.

Within minutes of them arriving, Ash and I nearly got ourselves killed crossing the road. We were so busy nattering away to each other at full speed, we didn't realise we were walking across the road in front of a bus. The bus driver let us know though. 

Chateau Chenoceau

Easter time at Chateau Chenoceau

We hired a car for a couple of days so set off on some adventures to find castles and wine. Luckily, these are both in plentiful supply here.

Admiring the hunting lodge.

...

DNA staircase from the inside. (it’s a double-helix)

We got lucky with a winery we went to for tastings. After agreeing to taste their full range, the lady brought out a few bottles. Then a few more. And a few more after that. We ended up tasting 10 different wines. We had no idea their range was so full. Wine tasting win. 

Spring flowers! It’s finally warm!

We hired bikes on our day without the car and cycled along another part of the Loire Valley cycle route. The sun was finally shining, but we had a head wind most of the way. So once we arrived in Amboise, we rewarded ourselves with deliciously rich hot chocolates and cake.

Ready for cake

[sillyandfunjeev]

Bayeux and Amboise

Spring is here!

We had a brief stay in Bayeux: a gorgeous old village near to the north coast of Normandy. Sanjeev deleted the few photos we took while we here so you'll just have to imagine what it was like. Bayeux was one of the first towns to be liberated by the allies in 1944 after the D-Day landings. 

We visited the museum to find out more about the role of Bayeux during World War II. The town is also famous for a 70m long tapestry made in the 11th century. It's still so hard to comprehend things that are this old, given New Zealand's minuscule history. 

 We made our way to Amboise in the middle of the Loire Valley from here, another cute old French village. The town is dominated by the Chateau d'Amboise; just one of many magnificent castles in this area. 

Chateau d’Amboise in the early morning (well before most normal people think about waking up)

There is a great cycle trail running through the Loire Valley. Our accommodation had bikes so we headed off on a biking adventure one day, through some rural areas and along the Loire river.

Loire Valley field

Lunchtime

After a day of cycling we found a little shop that did free wine tastings.  Nice weather for biking, and free wine. Win.

[sillyandfunjeev]

Workaway #2

After making our way up the west coast of France we once again decided to stay put with a workaway placement.

When we were choosing somewhere to apply for Philie’s conditions were: 1. In France. 2. Has dogs. 3. Has multiple dogs. 4. See (3) and then multiply by 2.

I only just managed to convince her not to apply to a place with 10 dogs (as it was pretty much in the same place as our first workaway).  But we ended up choosing to help out a couple who have 4 dogs.  Unfortunately we were unable to stay with them, so that kind of sucked.  But they did make up for it by having us stay in their chalet, on a hill, overlooking a lake.

Chalet

View!

We spent 2 weeks there helping finish off/tidy up a different, recently renovated, chalet.  That went well.  What didn’t go well was having to put up with an incredibly annoying man who turned up to ‘help out’ a day after we arrived.  He spent most of the time complaining.  So now I will try not to spend most of my blog post complaining about how he complained...

But... he loved to make ridiculous broad statements about corruption, religion, health systems, law (those last two went down really well), and then if we disagreed he would: 1. Say we don’t understand 2. Make random statements that are completely unlinked/have no logical basis and then say “you know what I mean”. 3. Say to Philie “you are just acting as a defense lawyer”

He also thought that someone was probably sitting in the French Alps with a laser; and that is why the plane crashed....

...

Lasers... yep.

So onto positive things. The couple who hosted us were extremely kind and bought us lots of food and wine.  The lake was really stunning.

Sunrise at Lac Dathee

Milky Way over Lac Dathee

And we got to see an area of France that we would not have otherwise.

Farm under the stars

Frosty morning around the Lake

[sillyandfunjeev]

Nantes and Rennes

Shopping centre in Nantes

We stopped for a couple days each in Nantes and Rennes towards the end of our two week ‘break’ from our workaway-ing. Obviously, after ‘working’ for two and a bit weeks, we needed that much time to recover (I have no idea how we are going to cope once we return home to real life later this year).

View from our apartment in Nantes

We had a fantastically located, but supremely small, apartment in Nantes. It was right in the centre of the old city. It had gorgeous views over a park lined with old French buildings. But it was 25 square metres, i.e. small, with a roof sloping to the floor, effectively cutting it in half.

We arrived at about 7pm on a Sunday evening in Nantes, when everything is closed in France, including most restaurants. We left our apartment and tried to find somewhere to get some food. After wandering for 20 minutes, all we could find was nasty takeaways, which we relented to for the sake of having some food. Then when we walked back, we found some open restaurants only 2 minutes from our apartment. Really, Nantes? Really?

The following morning, we went out to try and find a bakery. Again we wandered in vain for 20 minutes before returning to our apartment, where we then found a bakery a mere 2 minutes away. Why Nantes? Why?

Chateau de ducs de Bretagne

Now that we knew where the bakery was, I made Sanjeev go out the next morning to get us some fresh bread for breakfast. When he came back, he told me I shouldn’t let him out on his own. Apparently, as he was coming back into the building lobby of our apartment, an old lady commented to him in French. He did his best French to explain he didn’t understand a lot of French. She tried again, saw his obvious confusion and asked if he spoke English. She then told him in broken English that he had a pretty face. I'm keeping my eye on the old french ladies now.

Urban Wildlife?

The sites in Nantes were an interesting mix: the huge cathedral in the city centre which took 457 years to build; the Machines of the Isles of Nantes which has gigantic mechanical animals; and the sad memorial dedicated to the abolition of slavery, highlighting Nantes dark past as a key slave trade port.

Nantes Cathedral

Just some casual dragon choking in Nantes Cathedral

We finished up in Rennes, before starting our next workaway placement nearby. Rennes has a crêperie every third shop along the street. Not kidding. Faced with this many crêperie options, we did some research and chose one which is reputably the best in Rennes. Oh my fricking gosh. Best crêpes EVER!

In some uninteresting news, I got my haircut in Rennes, all in French. Go me.

[sillyandfunjeev]

Bordeaux

The next city we explored was Bordeaux.

Swoon.

Sunrise in Place du Bourse

Bordeaux was beautiful. As you all know, I’m slightly manically obsessed with France. And through studying French at school and university, an area of France which always stood out to me in my French obsession was Bordeaux. And then I was there. Yay for me.

Early Morning

We spent the good part of a week wandering the many alleys of the old city, strolling along the river waterfront, admiring the beautiful Bordeaux architecture (both old and new) and drinking some of Bordeaux and its surrounding regions’ infamous wines.

Saturday afternoon at the riverside

We took a day trip out to one of the wine regions and a medieval village, St Emilion. It was a beautiful sunny day, finally, so we sat in one of the courtyards overlooking the town and the vineyards eating our picnic lunch. We tried to visit some of the wine estates close to the town, but at the first one we stood around for 30 minutes waiting to taste some wines before leaving and the second one wasn’t doing tastings (downside of being here in the low season). Wine tasting fail.

St Emilion

We made up for this by visiting the Maison du Vin (Wine House) back in Bordeaux. This bar has many wines from the region which you can taste for 2-3€ a glass. Yay for yummy French wine.

La Porte Cailhau

[sillyandfunjeev]

Bayonne and St Jean de Luz

More French travels. Yippee!!!

Next on our adventure was Bayonne, part of the Basque country in the south west of France. We had heard that Bayonne was a nice town to visit as it is quite different to most other places in France. What we hadn’t heard, unfortunately, is that this is the region of France which gets the most rain. So what happened while we were there? It rained. The whole time. 

Bayonne

Because it was raining, we decided it would be lovely to head out to the cute beach town of St Jean de Luz for a day.  

Philie loving rainy St Jean de Luz

It was raining here too. We imagine it would be a lovely town in summer, but we only managed to last an hour before getting back on the train to Bayonne, where, surprisingly, it was still raining.

St Jean de Luz beach full of sunbathers