Paris Part Deux : Paris, je t'aimerai toujours !

Alright, we've finally found some free blogging time.  So here goes: the second part of our Paris visit.

Another site was La Cathedrale de Notre-Dame.  For those that don't know it, it's the grandest cathedral of Paris (arguably the world) with beautiful gothic architecture. It is also where Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" was set.  The place is really so overwhlemingly beautiful you could circle it over and over again and notice something new everytime.  The gargoyles are just magnificent, and on rainy days, they become efficient waters spouts, directing into the gutter.

 

La Cathedrale de Notre-Dame

 Gargoyles.  They come to life at night. 

Since we went on a Sunday we had the occasion of attending mass (je t'aime maman!).  My eyes teared as I listened to the beautiful choir voices and the exquisite melodies being played on such monolithic organ pipes. 

Another of the great sights (and I mean, so great we were fatigued within a couple of hours)  was Le Louvre.  The large, extensive, overwhelmingly vast museum-converted palace.  At over 60 000 square feet and with over 35 000 objects on display, you have to take this museum in small doses.  It would take over 9 months to see every piece (according to our guidebook) and so limiting yourself to certain exhibitions is a must.  We decided to focus on Egyptian, Roman and Greek anitquities.

  

 

I was dismayed to find out that most of these pieces were acquired by Napoleon thanks to his victorious battles.  So, I wonder, do the original sites of these sculptures and artifacts remain empty in their home countries today?  These masterpieces are the fingerprints of cultural identity. What stands in the place of where Venus de Milo once stood?  Do the Greeks get any compensation for their artifacts,  present in the Louvre?  I mean, millions and millions of people go to the Louvre every year (the most visited museum in the world) to see art that has been stolen by Napoleon from other countries hundreds of years ago.   Who gets the profit of showing these masterpieces?  Does France still own and profit today from what was stolen hundreds of years ago?  That's not right.  Just saying.

 Who owns this?

 

Ancient Egyptian mummy

"Who's a cute kitty? You are !  Wanna play....give me the ball you silly kitty"

Of course, we saw the museum's most famous pieces.....or crowds

The Mona Lisa mosh pit

Alors voila !  That's our time in Paris in a nut shell. Despite everything we saw in Paris....the thing that we appreciated the most wasn't all the world-wide renowned art, nor was it the monuments that date back to historic days that have changed our way of living. It wasn't the wonder of screwing together tons and tons of metal, nor the sounds, smells and sights that the city has to offer at no cost.  What we both appreciated the most of our time in Paris was the wonderful people we got to hang around with, laugh with and share with.  It was being part of the Parisien joie de vivre.

Aurevoir !

Paris,je t'aime !

REWIND !   Back to before we went to Nomandy, we spent an amazing 8 days in the city of sights, the city of love, the city of chic and sexy, Paris. We took the super-fast-high-speed train known as the Thalys from Antwerp to Paris.  Chris looooooved it.

Bring it on, Edmonton LRT !

The first night we went out for a walk we fell in love with the beauty. Being the founders of la joie de vivre, the French are incredibly passionate about everything. Even when they talk, they might sound angry, but they're not, they're just very passionate about what they're saying.  On the Paris streets,  street performers are everywhere and what I found surprising was that many of the spectators who were taking the time to watch them were also French.  Evreyone in Paris loves Paris and that love is contagious. 

 Les Champs Elysées.  Everywhere you look, there is someting beautiful to look at.

L'Arc de Triomphe.  Napoleon built this to celebrate his battle victories.  Unfortunetly, he jinxed himself and lost the battle of Waterloo before it was completed.  They kept building it anyway and underneath lays the body of unknown soldier, to commemorate those who died during those battles.  Here, a candle is being lit to commemorate those soldiers, hence why the lot is empty.  Otherwise, this is the most chaotic roundabout EVER (no lines, therfore sometimes its 6 lanes, sometiles its 7, depending how agressive the driver is).

Love is in the air !!!

We totally lucked out on where we were staying, at Godo's.  It was just him (Godefroy), his daughter Ornella and us in his beautiful home.  He had two extra rooms and and let us stay in one while we were there, From no on, when I think of a passionate French cheese-lover, this image will pop into my head:

On our first day there, we hit a grocery store and I came back with generic goat cheese (the goat cheese version of La Vache qui Rit).  We came back and I said "hey look !  We bought some French cheese !!".  He was NOT impressed.  He asked if I really like cheese and of course I said yes.  After a long night of drinking "Ti-Punch" (Godo's rum cocktail) we woke up extra early to hit the market.  There we visited the fromagerie. Well, 50 € later, I had 25 different kinds of cheese.  I swear, once we left Holland we thought "yes, a break from all the cheese".  Nope.  More cheese, older cheese, stronger cheese.  I found out , my tongue was untrained and had a lot of training to do. 

Hands off my cheese !  Some of these cheeses were so hard you could use it as a hammer. Some of these cheeses were so strong a bite every 10 minutes was enough.  Some of these cheeses were so delicious, I am asking my colon for forgiveness. His fridge was so full of fromage, that when we'd open it a great wall of odour would smak you in the face.  Seriously, when we sweating the stuff.  My armpits smelt like cheese.  When Godo told his neighbour about our lesson on cheese she said that he shouldn't do that because Canadians can't handle cheese like they can and that we were so cheese-sensitive, we could get sick. I love that.  Canadians are cheese wussies.

Trying some cheese.  Intense.

We had such a great stay there.  He even made us some homemade yougurt.  Which was delicious !  

             Okay, so it was better than it looks.  He told us we could the drink the milk (clear-like substance) in there.  We trusted him, we had some.  We were like his guinea pigs and he was testing our limits.

Are you sure this is okay for Canadians ?

After 8 days we did some great bonding and we were, once again; reluctant to leave.  Ornella, his 5 year old daughter, was a blast to have around.  She had contagious energy and kept us on our toes. 

Ornella and I wrestling.  She won.

And she won at the ugly-face-making contest.

Paris family.  Godefroy pretty much met my whole family on Skype.  He even did a presentation for my mom's elementary class on cheese via Skype.  He showed them and ate all the crazy cheeses while the kids were screaming "no ! no ! Don't do it!!"

I also got to visit some long-time friends.  When I was in grade 10, I went to school in France for 3 months. I got to visit with Marianne, my french sister; as well as old friends I went to school with and my french family.  Ten years have passed but we all got along just the same.  I felt like nothing had changed.

Marianne and I at Le Chateau de Versaille

    One happy french family : Les Bruno

 Me, Cécile and Marianne out for some drinks on the town.

We were also  very fortunate to catch a Lykke Li show at a very intimate venue in Paris.  She did an AMAZING show and again, it was nice to see our kind of crowd in a different country.

Sitting and waiting for the show at La Maroquinerie  

Here's a little clip of her show.  She also rapped the Fugees which was pretty sweet.

As for the sights?  Well, we saw a lot of them.  We have SO many pictures of eveything and we really don't want to load up blog with too many of them.  So here are a few.

This is the Hotel des Invalides.  It was the place where injured "invalid" war verterans stayed after battles.  It was also where they kept ALOT of arms and weapons.  When the revelution sparked, people marched to this place and broke in, stealing all the arms.  Then, they went after Louis XXI and his wife, Marie-Antoinette at Le Chateau de Versailles.

Napoleon's tomb can be found in that golden top.

"Hello?  Anybody home?"

 And then there was, of course, the oh-so-beautiful Château de Versaille, where the monarchy lived until the French revolution.  This castle is grandiose in every way. The rooms, the sculptures, the gold, the gardens.  I mean, looking at this we're thinking "Duh Louis!  Like come on! You didn't see it coming?"  (We have a gazillion pics. We'll be posting most of them on Facebook sooner or later)

It's bigger than it looks.

A view of the castle from the gardens.

 We also went to the Conciergerie.  It was the prison used during the Reign of Terror.  Marie-Antoinette was held there before getting beheaded as was Robespierre (the leader of the revolution, who, in the end, was also beheaded)

Marie-Antoinette's chamber when she spent two and a half months.  Creepy. 

Afterwards we decided to go for a walk and we got kind of lost.  Actually, really lost.  We got to this neighborhood I've never heard off and it all looked a little surreal.  Chris and I panicked a little bit but we eventually found our way back to central Paris.  Here's sole footage of the wierd, surreal neighborhood we were lost in:

We also saw (and went up!!) the Eiffel Tower.  Yep, right to the top.  We mostly made out while we were there (just kidding!)

The view from the top.  Unfortunetly, it was a little cloudy that day.

Well folks.  We're running our of time on the internet here.  We're on the road now, so we have limited access.  Every chance I get, I'm on it.  SO I will leave you with that for now.  I guess I'll have to make a sequel for Paris...the Louvre, Cathédrale Notre-Dame. Like I said, so much to see in Paris.  I have a lot of catching up to do as well.  Driving in Cider country (mmm....), Mont St. Michel, the middle part of France.  It'll come sooner or later !

A Day to Remember : The D-day beaches

We spent a very memorable Remembrance Day this year.  I'm going to fastforward a little bit and leave Paris for our next post and skip right to the beaches of Normandy; being that it's appropriate for the holiday recently celebrated in Canada.  Chris and I have been renting a car for the last few days and we will have it for the next week.  Despite the chaotic traffic, it has been very nice having our own wheels and the independence of going where we want and when we want.  We've been taking the little roads everywhere to avoid the toll-paying autoroutes.  With this being said, we've had the opportunity to pass by many small hamlet-like towns with houses and farm barns dating back to the 18th century.  Chris is the driver (and has been kicking butt behind the wheel) and I am the navigator (which is not that easy.  Consider taking every road in Canada and condensing them in an area the size of Alberta.  No sleeping passenger for me.)  Driving is smooth, expecially with the constant round-abouts.  Round-abouts are our friends since they allow us to just go round and round when we're trying to figure out what turn off we should take.  To avoid dizziness on the round-abouts, I try to stay on the ball in terms of where we should turn off.  I think I might write a whole post about our travels with Norm (our car).

Driving through small towns.  Hey look, it's century 21 !

So; let's just go straight to the D-day beaches or else I could go on and on and on.  War artifacts are everywhere on the Normandy beaches, it's a very regular sight. Bunkers, trenches, you name it.  Our first stop was at Juno beach, where the Canadian troops landed.  We set flowers on the beach to commemorate the thousands that died.  Being that we are travelling during low-season, the beach was virtually empty.  The mood was dreary.

A regular sight on the beaches of Normandie

The German defense wall overlooking Juno Beach.

A place of courage

Then we visited  Omaha beach, the oh-so-popular Bloody Omaha where over 9000 American troops landed and died trying to free Normandie from the Germans.  The beach was quiet, somber and right away brought on us a sombre mood.  The sheer thought of what these soldiers were going through: fear, panic, sea-sickness, knowing very well their fate to come.  The US suffered one casualty for every 10m they advanced;  We set flowers there also.

Omaha Beach

 

The old harbour where troops arrived on D-day

And then we saw, what was for me, one of the most overwhelming sights I've ever seen : the American War cemetary.  Graves as far as the eye can see.  Every cross the same, except for the engravings and the star of David for those that were Jewish.  Over 9000 graves and 41 sets of brothers.  This makes your life feel insignficant.

And then there was La Pointe du Hoc.  This is an area that the Germans deemed inpenetrable as it was atop huge cliffs.  It was a very strategic point as it stood between Omaha and Utah beach.  Thus, they could easily defend both beaches without the risk of being taken down by the Americans (or so they thought).  Nevertheless, the Americans bit the bullet and sent men climbing up the cliffs to the unattainable German strategic point.  They sent 250 men to climb the cliffs despite how vulnerable they would be climbing cliffs, surrounded by enemies.  Only 90 survived but they did finally capture the point, which was a key role to obtaining Omaha and Utah beach.  To commemorate these soldiers, the point was given to the Americans.  It has been left untouched and here you can really see the true destruction of war.  Bomb craters, barbed wire, concrete gun emplacements, scarred by bullet holes and blackened by flame-throwers.  A true war zone.  

Bomb craters everywhere

A complicated network of underground bunkers

Big guns

Antwerp

From the farm to a big city with a bigger culture mix than New York!  Take that big apple. For the first time this trip we have finally left out the Netherlands.   It was a whopping 30 minutes drive from the farm. Thanks to Rien and Sjors for rocking the tunes and breaking some street rules to get us to our hostel.  The streets were very busy and the sheer amount of different people walking around was actually a little overwhelming.  That might of had something to do with 10 days on the very quiet farm where Marc, Renee's cousin, was the only guy walking around.  

(Oh boy, Here we go)

Once we got to the hostel we got our bags in the room and got the grand tour!  ABhostel was a pretty sweet place.  That is, as sweet as a hostel dorm can get.  I'm not sure if it's my age, disposition,  or the lingering cheese cold (snot pouring out of my nose and lungs for two weeks straight.  I'm convinced it was gouda related.  Just saying!) but so far, I don't like hostel life as much as I used to.  Okay, maybe this I'm quick to judge on my part as we've only stayed in two hostels).  Don't get me wrong, the hosts where really cool  and we had some good conversation with fellow travelers. Heck we even watched a movie!   But we did not luck out in our 10 man dorm, as we were stuck in a room with a group of 5 drunkards. And you know what they bring...loud conversations at five in the morning.  Not to mention the stench in the morning.  Waking up in it isn't so bad, you're used to it. You don't realise its there until after your shower.  Thanks rooms with no ventilation!  A plus is that everything seemed to be constantly damp which added to the aroma.  I had a few bitter morning that Renee had to endure.  I was getting these headaches as well which I thought was part of the coldm but we'll get back to that detail later! 

Enough shitting on hostel life because we did enjoy the easy come and go location.  Renee also rocked the kitchen and made some mean meals that really picked us up after long days of walking.  Vegan a GoGo rocks (wicked recipe travel book).  We also tried an army of different beers at the hostel at night as it seemed to be the right thing to do in Belgium. 

Central Station

Antwerp is a pretty cool place and it didn't take long to get used to it after the initial stress of a drastic change of pace from life around us.  The streets can be pretty crowded and we where staying in a Moroccan part of town.    As you might know, Belgium has the same two-language rivalry that is all too common to Canada (although not everywhere !).  They have the northern Flemish part that speak Flemish (dutch dialect) and are known as the richer part of Belgium and the southern, French speaking part.  Antwerp is the big Flemish city, Brussels, the French one.   Actually, when Renee explains the hostile feelings that you sometimes get between the Franco and Anglo parts of Canada, Europeans say "ah, the Belgium effect !" 

The people that we talked to were very nice and  we always had good experiences with the locals.These experiences usually started with a language barrier (even when we try!) and when we said we only spoke English, there was always a smile and giggle.  Nobody was ever offended (and you DO feel kind of bad only knowing one language, whereas they know 3 or 4). Then, sometimes with cherades if need be, we would find a way to get each others' point across.  They were  never rude which made me very comfortable walking around and going about life. 

The physical city is beautiful! So many churches and towers as well as shops where you could buy the fanciest clothes, chocolates, toys, waffels..... etc.  Everything has style.  It was really mind blowing.  The people walking around were all good looking with flare.  It was no wonder we got mistaken for locals so often !  It was hard not to buy things. 

The honest truth about Antwerp is....we went to see CocoRosie.  (which was an amazing show).  Wierd gypsy opera with kids' toys and a beatboxer.  Union Jack did the opening act and did a crazy set with his beat box lips, Mac book and vest that he used for a drum and sound effects.  He did Prince's "Kiss" without missing a beat or a word.  As for CocoRosie, it was really beautiful.  Two Sisters with a piano player and a drummer who played a kit that was crazy, but without very many drums on it at all.  Also, the beatboxer provided beats.  One of the sisters sings opera (she studies at the Paris conservatory) while the other has a wierd soft voice, think old lady.  If you don't know CocoRosie check em out. Thats the best way to know what I'm trying to describe.  This all took place in a very old opera house from the 18th century.  Unfortunetly, we couldn't get a good picture of the inside due to all the smoke they blew in for effects.  On the net you can google Bourla Theatre. I guess they only have 3 music shows a year here, so we really lucked out !  It was the highlight of Antwerp for us.

CoCo Rosie played here!

Other than that we cruised around and ate.

I ate a phat stuffed potato.

Renee ate Belgium waffles.

After that we blasted off to Paris for a week. Mmmm....l'amour, le fromage ! Stay tuned and see what happends next!