London

Hi all, on Thursday, May 28th, we hopped on the train that goes through the chunnel from Brussels to London. It is only a 2.5 hour trek. Once in London, we hopped in one of those big fat cabs and headed to the "flat" in Chelsea.

However, nobody was there to greet us and we waited outside for 4 hours. Thanks to the construction guy who was working in the flat next door, he managed to get through to the owner and found the key to let us in. The flat was beautiful -- the nicest of the trip but bad bad customer relations. We could see there was wireless internet but were not given the password -- but that's a minor detail.

In the end, we didn't see anybody although someone did clean the flat while we were touring. Touring we did on the "Big Bus" -- name it, we saw it.
Mme Tussaud's....The Big Eye....Harrod's.....Hamley's Toy Store.....lots of fun.
My cold was getting worse and worse...but thanks to medication, managed to keep going!Nice to be home now and to have one day before return to reality....minus one blackberry which was likely stolen at the security clearance area....

From Paris to Brussels

Tim says: The last day in Paris we went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa. As I had promised Rosie, it is really a fairly small painting and not quite as awe inspiring as some of the other paintings and statues that are there. But she can cross off "seeing the Mona Lisa" from her list of things to do in her life.

The Louvre itself is really interesting and big. We did our regular see as much as we can in 2 hours and then we headed to les Galléries Lafayette for some speed shopping before racing back to the apartment to collect our luggage and head to the train station. I had forgotten how crazy the traffic is in Paris especially the traffic circles such as the one around l'Arche de Triomphe. The other interesting thing is the way motorcycles wind in and out and between the cars.

The taxi driver from the apartment to the train was quite interesting. He had come from the Congo twenty years ago and he spent the whole time on the way to the train station swearing at and telling us how lousy the other drivers were.

Great cars in Paris, lots of everyday cars that we don't see in Canada as well as pretty some exotic cars. Sunday when we were shopping on the Champs de Elysées, there was a Lamborghini that kept going up and down. The driver made a point of stopping at every red light so he could rev his engine and take off fast. There was also an Aston Martin that was parked on the Trocadéro that lots of people stopped to look at.

The TGV train was fast . We were in Brussels 1.5 hours after leaving Paris. There we found out we had made a rather bad mistake in not pre-booking our train from Brussels to London. As a result we paid a rather large sum for tickets for Friday. The best deal was to buy a return ticket rather than 1 one way ticket. So if anybody knows someone who want 2 first class one way tickets from London to Brussels, to be used before the middle of August let us know.

!st day in Brussels


There was a big thunderstorm last night around 3am that woke Francine and I up. Rosie slept thru the whole thing. This has really cooled things down, today is much more pleasant than the heat in Paris.
This morning Francine took off for her meetings and Rosie slept in till 9 a.m. We went to breakfast and then she and I headed out into the wilds of Brussels.

We even took the subway to the shopping center that I remembered from my last visit. We walked the whole outdoor shopping mall and ended up in the Grand Palace square.

The highlight of our day however was the traffic accident that we saw. While wating for the traffic light to cross the street a police car was coming our way. A truck ( about the size of a Postal Truck in Canada) was trying to get out of the way to allow the police to pass. As he did he did not notice the car beside him. The result - the whole front fender was torn off the car. He was only going 5 miles per hour but just the weight of the truck was enough to pull the fender off.

We were like 20 feet away. After we got back to the hotel room I thought we were perfect witnesses, perhaps we should have stayed and gone to court as witnesses. That way we may have been able to use the overpriced train tickets we bought yesterday.
SEe you tomorrow

Sunny and hot Sunday in Paris

Wow, the sun was out and the temperature was high as we hopped on our bus and got off at la Cathédrale de Notre-Dame de Paris. What a beautiful building. Added bonus was a full mass with organ music and the choir. It was amazing walking on the old church floor tiles, wondering about the generations and generations of people before me.


I seem to remember reading in my family tree that my ancestor on the Filion side, was baptized in this church in and around the 1600s before heading to Quebec City circa 1640. I also remembered the films and plays based on this church -- the Hunchback, Notre-Dame de Paris. There were thousands of people in the church walking around, even though a mass was being conducted in the center part.

Next, was les Champs-Elyssées -- high end shopping. Rosie and I went to Sephora for make-up and beauty products. The trends are very colourful this year for eye make-up. Next, we went back to the apartment and I had a long snooze while Rosie surfed the web and Tim read. Then we went to the Place Victor Hugo nearby, where Rosie had a home-made cheeseburger, Tim, a croque-monsieur and I had a salad. All this with this great French beer called Desperados which is beer and tequila -- with a little bit of lime. Very nice. Then we headed back home and hoped to catch a dessert at one of the fine boulangeries along the way. Alas no, they were closed earlier as this is Sunday night.

Sorry folks - I won't be able to show you our pics yet because I don't seem to be able to download and install the camera driver properly on this laptop which uses Vista as an OS. Bummer. Later, I will post these, upon our return, likely. In the meantime, here are some photos of our visits today, copied from the Web.

Paris at day and at night

Bonjour tout le monde -- we arrived a bit late in Paris this morning because Air Canada had to switch planes -- from a big big Jumbo Jet to a regular Jumbo Jet. The big big Jet had major engine issues. So when going to a smaller jet, that meant 72 people could no longer board. They read out the names of the passengers who would not be boarding, promised them to cover their hotel and meals, gave them a $500 voucher for the next trip, informed them that they would fly to London, the next day and then to Paris. Meanwhile their luggage would remain on the original Paris flight. Needless to say there was alot of shouting and angry comments coming from the passengers who didn't make it. We thought for sure that our names would be among the 72 people but greatly relieved when we were not! A big phew!

Great in-flight service and entertainment all the way to Paris. When we arrived at our bachelor apartment on Victor Hugo street, we were impressed with the location and proximity to Eiffel Tower and all the great sites. There is a wonderful bakery nearby, bank machines nearby (important details!), and cute chocolate shops. The apartment is okay, bare bones but the chap renting to us is very kind and helpful. We are his first "tenants" so the beds are new, the tv is new as well as the wireless internet. He brought us croissants and water to welcome us here. It's neat to be living like some of the folks in Paris. We crashed for a 4-hour snooze and then began our exploration of Paris.

We took the hop-on hop-off bus tour (similar to the one in NYC) and saw all the main Paris sites. Will be uploading pix once my camera battery is recharged. It is a lovely city! Rosie wants to move here, she says. Lots of scooters and mini-coopers. Hardly any North-American cars.

Had a nice dinner tonite -- pâtés, french bread, pickles, steak, home-made fries and Tim had this huge boiled egg walloped with mayo along with steak and fries -- never seen that before. I had a nice glass of Beaujolais to wash everything down - then in my excitement being in Paris I sprayed the whole family with the wine! Oh well, we are baptized now! Tomorrow, we will get on that bus again (pass goes for 3 days) and then go shopping aux Champs d'Elyssés. Nighty night....

hello

hello everybody. We have arrived in Paris after almost loosing our seat on the flight from montreal and after alomost losing our computer at the Paris airport.
more news to come later. All is good :D

Getting ready and packed

Less than 24 hours away from the departure on Friday, May 22. Our flight leaves Ottawa to Montreal, then a few hours wait before we board an Air Canada flight to Paris. There we have a little apartment reserved for us on la rue Victor Hugo. After Paris, we hop on our train to Brussels where my meeting is being held for a couple of days. Then after the meeting, hop again on a train through the chunnel en route to London, England. Follow our footsteps and amusing mistakes along the way.