And we’re off. Not sure when / how often I’ll be blogging, especially for the first few days. I’ll try to post updates here now and then, maybe with some pictures. Twitter is probably the best way to follow along if you’re interested, either in the widget on the right side of this page, or on my feed directly.
Category: Trips
It was (about to be) the best of times, it was (about to be) the worst of times, and then it was about to be the full-on bitchinest of times
Pretty exciting few weeks coming up for Nellie and I. Tomorrow night we see our first film festival movie of 2009, which we wrap up just 72 hours later. Then I have five days in which to complete the twelve labours of Hercules at the office, and then…France.
Woo!
Then, once I get back — and I realize this is much more exciting for me than for Nellie — the hockey season starts. Technically I’ll have missed the Canadiens’ season opener against the Leafs, but a classic Saturday night game should make me feel right back at home in Canada.
Finally, in what could be either extreme serendipity or a classic over-reach, the day we get back is Nuit Blanche. Since we’ll still be on France time we’ll likely fall asleep early and wake up around 3 or 4 in the morning…the perfect time to head out to see some art. It’s a nice bonus that the TTC will be running all night too. We’ll see how that holds up.
I swear, every single town in France has a Notre Dame Cathedral
Back in January I mentioned that our big trip this year would consist of two weeks in France. We’ve now hammered out our plan some more:
The plan is as follows. Follow along on the map for extra fun!
- Land in Paris (trust me, the ‘A’ is hidden behind the ‘K’) and jump in a car
- Visit Chartres
- Visit the Chateau de Chambord and start driving along the Loire valley
- Visit Tours, and other small towns along the way like Amboise and Candes-St-Martin
- Visit Angers, and from there turn north
- See Mont-Saint-Michel, though after the experience we had at Rocamadour I think we’ll just take pictures from the outside
- Visit Juno Beach
- Visit the Vimy Memorial
- Visit Reims
- Spend a few days in and around Epernay and Troyes, sampling Champagne and meeting up with my brother
- Drive back to Paris, drop the car and spend about five days there…probably visiting the Louvre a couple of times, the Musee D’Orsay, Versailles, maybe the catacombs, maybe just hanging out in St-Germain or Montparnasse.
So that’s the plan.We’ll cover A through I in first six days, then as our energy wears off we’ll start to wind down in Champagne and take the better part of the final week in Paris.
Anybody have any tips for those areas? Any can’t-misses?
Wrapping up the trip
In the twenty-four hours since my last blog post we:
- Watched Taken (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which was both highly entertaining and patently absurd;
- Had dinner at Seven Wine Bar with many Halifax friends, followed by drinks at Durty Nelly’s and yet another stop at Pizza Corner;
- Awoke, arose and had breakfast with T-Bone and The Sof (who had an earlier flight) and were joined briefly by Marney and Amy;
- Got to the airport early so we could catch a bite, where our friends were still waiting (their incoming flight was diverted) and who eventually took off after us, despite being on a flight meant to leave three hours earlier;
- Arrived home to find some happy, happy cats.
By the way, here’re the wineries we visited Thursday. I couldn’t be bothered to find all the sites before:
None of the samples really blew us away, but we found enough interesting ones to buy nine bottles. I think the one we’re looking forward to the most is the Alchemy from L’Acadie, which we couldn’t sample but has drawn some fanfare.
Back where it all began
I haven’t had an internet connection the past couple of days, and I have far too much to type to bother using this silly little keyboard, so I’ll keep the events bullet-point form for now:
- Wednesday: drove to the Annapolis Valley, checked in to a nice little bed and breakfast, visited Nellie’s mom for dinner…massive, massive dinner
- Thursday: visited five (!) local wineries, tasted a lot, bought nine (!!) bottles, had excellent dinner at the winery and a nice drink and dessert on their patio
- Friday: drove to Halifax, saw some tall ships, watched KISS arrive at the Lord Nelson. In about an hour we’ll head out to dinner, our last of the trip.
The locals don't go there. Which, in this case, is a good sign.
The coma continued yesterday. Mainly just sitting around and reading and napping. We did go for a bit of a drive up into the sugar woods and then around the farm a bit, but nothing serious. Last night we piled everybody up and went to the Bare Bones cafe in Parrsboro.
I’ve never been to a restaurant in Parrsboro with actual edible food, so this actually felt a little weird. My buffalo and warm rocket starter was quite tasty, my chicken wasn’t bad and my warm chocolate cake & white russian milk shake dessert was interesting. Certainly not going to knock Splendido or Canoe out of my mental top ten list or anything, but just miles ahead of anything else I’ve ever eaten in that town. The service was a little slow, perhaps because our table of eleven might’ve been throwing them off their game, and one of the servers seemed quite young and fairly new. One person’s appetizer arrived minutes after the rest, and then we all waited while another person’s entree showed up several minutes after the others.
I showed T-Bone and The Sof a little more of the town, including the site of my perpetual agony (the school) and the theatre and the pier to see the tides. We got home, chilled, beat my dad at crib (at least, I did) and were about 3/4 through The Princess Bride when the power went out. That’s pretty weird…I’ve only known that to happen in the winter. Anyway, we decided to just go to bed. So now we’re up, getting packed, finding some breakfast and getting ready to hit the road.
Next stop: the Annapolis Valley.
In which we enter a near-vegetative state
Yesterday we began phase two of our vacation: the farm. We got up, checked out, had lunch at the Economy Shoe Shop with some friends, picked up the rental car, bumped into the bride and groom one last time, and pointed ourselves north.
We drove with beautiful weather and good music for just over two hours and hit the farm at 4pm on the nose. A little playtime with the kids, lots of barbecue, a short walk around the farm and a drink with the brother and sister-in-law at theirs and we were ready for sleep. It actually took me a long time to nod off as pitch blackness and absolute quiet are so far from what I’m used to now, living in downtown Toronto, but I managed it. Eight solid hours of sleep later and I got up, hours before everyone else. That’s ok, they like to have a lie-in, so they’re welcome to it. Me, on the other hand, this is the time of day on the farm that I love the most. Just me, Stryder (who can barely get around now, poor old guy) and the tin of chocolate chip cookies mom just baked.
Where our day went
Much sleeping in. Pringles. Shower. Greasy lunch. Nap. Dinner at Fid. Drinks at the Bitter End. Big slice from pizza corner. Back to sleep.
It's dangerous to be this close
Mmmmmmmmm. We’ve only been here 12 hours and it’s already been a pretty sweet trip. Our flight was on time, our cab driver (limo driver, really) was very friendly and helpful (try Crystal Limousine if you’re ever coming from the airport), we got some great food and Garrison beer at the Economy Shoe Shop, one of the few places still serving food. Wiped, we crashed hard in our king bed.
We woke up to a beautiful morning, a welcome respite from what we’ve heard is weeks of gray and rainy weather. We didn’t have too much time before prepping for the wedding, but we did manage to have breakfast, do some emergency sock-shopping at Dugger’s and pick up some wine at Bishop’s Cellar. With all the usual festivals and activities that happen here in the summer, and with Paul McCartney playing here today, the city’s jumping right now.
OK, gotta get ready.
PSA: your eyeballs have been granted a temporary reprieve
Blogging will be spotty for the next week or so as Nellie and I traipse about Nova Scotia.
Enjoy July’s warm, moist middle y’all.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 