Easter Sunday

Another beautiful day in Basque country.

Below is a picture of the Barbe, the family house in Bidache. Nico's dad and dad's girlfriend live downstairs. His sister and family live upstairs. It is such a nice place to visit. I should of taken a picture of the surroundings. I did take pictures of the dogs though. I will post those later.


In France the Easter Bunny does not deliver the Easter candy, maybe there is labor dispute with the European Union. Instead, the bells of Rome somehow become freed and fly over children's homes delivering high quality chocolate and other sweets. I am not trying to sound judgemental of this approach, it just seems weird to me. It is hard to think of something as weird though when "normal" for you involves a rabbit that lays eggs, owns a cute basket, usually wears a jacket, and sneaks into your home to deliver candy.



We helped hide the candy (for the Bells that is) around Vero and Danny's flat. Once the "bells flew over" Nina and Noe were told that the bells "just" flew over and dropped off some candy. Here is Nina finding another thing of super yummy chocolate with Aunt Alexis providing some not so subtle hints.

We had a nice Easter meal made primarily by Vero and Noe (Nico's sister and nephew). They were very kind to make sure I had a nice vegetarian option. I had to continue my quest to corrupt nice European children with our Easter ways- I brought out a box of peeps. I think they enjoyed playing peep wars more than actually eating them. Poor children- they haven't come to appreciate the value of eating sugar coated marshmallows yet.

The three of us took a nice, post-Easter dinner drive to the coast. We took a stroll in Hendaye where it was a bit windy and one could say even cool. There were the obligatory Norwegian tourists in their bathing suits playing in the cold surf. There was also a man walking around nude as Easter morning, except for a piece of fabric specifically placed for modesty, which was held in place with a strap. I guess we all have our ways to celebrate Easter. Mine usually involves food and sugar though.

It is always nice to face west and look at the Atlantic.

Home

I am back in Fresno as of 11:00 last night. Nothing like 24 hours of traveling......

Besides keeping friends and family updated, I have been using my blog as a way for me to journal about my trip instead the actual journal that I usually use. So I will be putting up more posts from the trip soon.

Stayed tune........

Pays Basque

On Saturday we spent time in Pays Basque (Basque Country). The Basque region is considered the southwest and northwest areas of France and Spain. We drove through a lot of the French Basque country (although we entered Spain twice).

Here are some pictures. As you can see, there is a distinctive architecture in the region. More importantly, it is just stinking beautiful and serene.

Friday

On Friday I rode one the rental bikes to Luxemberg Gardens. I unintentionally took a very scenic route. I pride myself on my sense of direction and map skills. Both skills were seriously challenged. In my defense, Paris is an old city that has a lot of complexities and the road system was created before the automobile was invented. It probably didn't help that the signage is not the best (am I blaming the city of lights?) and that I kept ending up at very busy rotaries. I do have to say that I am now a more confident and aggresive Parian bike rider (for better or worse....).

Luxemburg was beautiful. All of Paris is about to spring into Spring. Daffodils have bloomed and the buds on the trees are forming. It was great to see everyone enjoying the park. Alexis and I met up for lunch in the Rue Cler area and then went to one of her friend's pastery shops that speciallize in macroons

We were to catch the train at 5:45 and we were on time (heck, early even) and as it always happens we had to rush at the last minute. Apparently all of Paris was in our train station to escape for easter weekend. Alexis darted around the station cutting people off and sliding inbetween inperceivable spaces and some how I managed to stay RIGHT behind her. It was like the ultimate video game. Initially, she would look behind to see if I was there. Every time she did we nearly touched noses, so she stopped checking on me and became even more daring in her attempt (or as I suspect) to lose me in the train station.

We would of been JUST on time, when we found out that the train time was moved up by 5 minutes. So we had to run for about 10 train cars. We were told by the conductor to get on at car 12 even though our seats were in car 19. So we walked through the 7 other cars with all our stuff. I had a backpacking backpack on with Alexis and my stuff in it, and 2 purses. The train was so crowded and I was so overloaded that I probably ran into half of the train's occupants with my stuff. Whenever someone had to pass in the opposite direction, my only choice was to back all the way into the nearest restroom until the person or persons past. I got to know the restrooms well. Here is a picture of us once we finally got to our seats. Notice the beautiful glow.

More sight seeing

This is one of the bikes available to rent and ride throughout Paris. Don't worry mom, I took my helmet off for the photo opp.

One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to people watch. Lately, I have been observing how people pose for pictures. Since it is often just me at the sites, I do a self-portrait shot. I tend to have a big toothy grin in my pics and thought I would try to have a more subtle smile or even smirk. I tried this out in front of Notre Dame. My first picture (please see below) turned out okay but I didn't get a good shot of the church. I tried a bunch more and they got progressively worse (most of them look I just had my first round of botox accompanied with a large glass of wine)(I have a sample one below). Everytime I took a picture I would crack up looking at it. I guess I was making a scene because a nice German couple came up and offered to take my picture (which is the first one below).

On Wednesday I visited the "historic core" of Paris. I started at Notre Dame and decided to go up the tower. I had to wait in line for about an hour (which wouldn't of been so bad, but it was soooo cold and windy). Once on top I took the obligatory gargoyle pictures. You then go to the very top. As soon as I walked out of the stairwell it started to hail. There is only one staircase and they control its use so we had to stand in the hail for a few minutes before we could go down. So it was bit anti-climatic at that point.

We had a dinner party Wednesday night so I went shopping for some of the ingredients. I wish our grocery stores had the yogurt selection the stores here do. We had a nice dinner with Alexis and Nico's friends. I taught them how to play peep wars (thanks to our Sunday night dinner group!).

On Thursday I went to see Monet's water lillie's. I then found my way to Alexis's work (my phone wasn't working so I decided to go there directly). We went on a nice walk around the 6th. She dropped me off at the museum Orsay and I stayed until they closed. We will be leaving for southern France tomorrow night.

rainy day in Paris

Today I went to Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart) in the Montmarte neighborhood. Sacre-Coeur is a Basilica that is less than 100 years old. I know it best from one of my favorite movies- Amelie. It attracts hoards of tourists and therefore it also attracts hoards of merchants and opportunists. Luckily Rick, author of my guide book (Rick Steves) who I apparently am on first name basis with, warned about the friendship blacelet scam. As soon as I approached the stairs that lead up to the Basilica I was approached by multiple men trying to put the beginnings of a bracelt on my wrist. I knew to keep my hands close to me and to plow on through (especially because they were very pushy). The scam is that a man comes up to and asks you to help with a demonstration. They then make a bracelt on your wrist and tie it up so you can't remove it, they then ask you to pay for it. I watched this happen to a handful of helpless tourists.

I then met up with Sandra at a local cafe (again a recommendation of Rick's), which had veggie options. We then walked down the Champs-Elysees, in March showers (with occasional heavy rain). Parts of this street has been in existence since 1667 (when Louis XIV opened the section near the Tuileries Garden). Thomas Jefferson lived on this street (hopefully I can report this on the blog without his name being removed because he is anti-patriotic) =)

We ended our stroll with pure decadence! Sandra took me to Cafe Angelina. We both got "hot chocolate". I put it in quotes because I am not sure I would call this hot chocolate. When I think of hot chocolate, I think of swiss miss packs with hot water and stale marshmellows. This was more like heaven served warm with pillows of clouds on the side. They provided one large container of whip cream to share for 2 cups. This is probably sufices most people but Sandra and I went through it so quick you could barely say "insulin coma." This is a picture of our cups with a second serving of whip cream. (Did I mention how I walked a lot today and did kick boxing on Saturday, hence justifying my large intake of heavy whipping cream).

Tomorrow- museums. I hope there are people enjoying this blog (besides my parents)

No pictures to load

I am on a different computer so I am not able to upload any pictures, but can give a summary of recent events.

On Monday, I was to meet Alexis at her work for lunch but I couldn't figure out how to lock their door. I spent ~15 minutes trying with no luck. I kept thinking "how hard can this be?" I guess that in France it is pretty typical to have to lift the handle all the way up when locking the door.

So anyway, Alexis had to come home and get me. We rented the public bikes and went on a nice ride across Paris. We ended in the Marais area and went to a cute cafe near Victor Hugo's home. The Marais area is considered the Jewish part of town. World War I occurred before the redevelopment of this area could take place (widening the streets and making the building more uniform looking, what you think of when you think of a Parisian street). Therefore the streets are narrow and it can give you an idea of what most of Paris once looked like.

We met Nico for a drink (where I ordered a popular beer that has liquor added to it- the waiter told me that I was "courageous" to order it, not to mention to drink it). We then went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. I am off on my own today. I should be meeting up with my sister's old host-sister from back when she lived here as a high school student, Sandra.