Back to work

Yesterday I got out of bed at 5:15 or so and, as quietly as I could so as not to disturb my roommates, gathered my stuff together and went downstairs to the main common area of the hostel where I got some final instruction on how to get to the station for my train back to Nantes.

It all went pretty smoothly. I took the Metro to the Montparnasse station with one transfer between. I had to get someone's assistance with finding where in the station to catch the train and had to wait for about fifteen minutes before my train was ready then waited ten more minutes on the train before it took off. I had an empty seat next to me the whole ride and I dozed in and out of sleep most of the way there, arriving at Nantes at about 9:10. I asked at the information booth how to get to the airport and was told about a shuttle across that ran every thirty minutes, the next one leaving in about fifteen, so I headed there. I was a little worried about not making it to the airport in time so it seemed to take forever to arrive. Then it was almost 8 euro just to get on! But, made it in time for AJ and Bob to wave to me, point out the car - with Andy and Jake in it, and to ask if I went to Paris. I wasn't expecting the other guys to be there so had been worried: What if I'm late? What if I can't find them to get the key? What if I can't find where they'd parked the car? In the end, no need to have worried.

They drove me to the hatchery, stopping at McD's on the way, where they performed a wash and I got caught back up with what had happened during this week's runs. Then we met with P to talk about weights and mortality rates and stuff, then we all headed to check out the new apartment since the one we're in is not available for the next scheduled trips. It was another great place, this one had goats, a couple horses, chickens, even a couple of peacocks running around outside. Inside was very quaint and, reportedly, exactly what English people are looking for when they holiday in France. Honestly, though, it's probably not ideal for what we need, especially AJ and Bob - they just aren't into that kind of thing. No idea why you can't rent a normal apartment in rural France.

Going home, we stopped at a different grocery store and it didn't even stink when we walked in - bonus! The ones we had been going to all stink at the front like rotting fruit or something. Maybe it's the cheese; our fridge stinks, too, and I tore it apart and wiped it all down and it still does - gotta be the cheese. We looked for baking soda but couldn't find any...

Back at Braimboef, my new window is the top one.

Foie gras, part 1

Okay, got directions to a place to get foie gras and headed that way. On the way there I checked out the menu at another place and they had foie gras and escargot and Grimbergen and, what can I say? I decided to save my feet some more wear and grabbed a seat.

Had a Grimbergen with my bread and escargots, which were in the shell (good) but a couple were a little sandy (not so good) - delish, though. Then I had some red wine with my foie gras on toast and a small salad. I love food and I have to say: I was not terribly impressed with the foie gras.

Then, though, I was talking about it with the hostel folks and the one of them insists that foie gras is divine - as long as you get the good stuff. There's "bad" foie gras? He said that, based on the price I paid, it should have been good but then gave me a brand of canned stuff that he guarantees to be good, if not great - apparently the best stuff comes from the southwest of France. Probably give it one more try - I don't really want to like it, anyway, based on how it's raised, but I do want to give it a fair shake.

And I have an early train to catch tomorrow - looks like it's going to be another week in Roussay but I still need to rush to the airport so I can meet the guys that are leaving and get the car keys from them.

Last day in Paris

I added one final night at the hostel here in Paris with the idea I would head for the airport in the morning either to catch my flight or else pick up the car from the guys headed home, depending on whether I stay here another week for work or not. I then walked up to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica where, on the way, the scammers tried to get me in this thing where they tie something to your finger and charge you to let you out - definitely the most uncomfortable I've felt since getting here and I cannot believe how brazen they are about it - can not believe it. I mellowed out listening to a street musician playing violin then enjoyed the view from one of the highest points in Paris, perhaps the highest, then headed back to the hostel where my Paris crew and I said our goodbyes.

I then headed for the Metro and the Centre Pompidou to see the collection of modern, post-modern, and contemporary works. Decided to take the opportunity to have a crepe between the Metro and the musee and also take in some Eastern European street music.

Unfortunately, not long into the museum my feet started to ache like they have never ached before in my life. Not a blistery ache like I had been feeling, something totally different. I longed for a bench to sit down on and take my shoes off but there really wasn't a good spot. So, I trudged on. Which kinda sucked because I was seeing all kinds of great stuff - Matisse and Picasso and Kandinsky but I couldn't stop feeling my feet, even my fingers were swollen by the end of the visit. I sorta wished I had gone to the big museum with the Impressionist stuff just because I felt I could sit down and stare at some of those pieces longer than the newer stuff. If not that, I wished I at least had started with the stuff I really was looking forward to instead of the temporary Eileen Gray exhibit and the contemporary works. C'est la vie; I still enjoyed it.

As soon as I was done there, though, I made for the Metro and home to the hostel - where my Paris crew was just then finally actually leaving! We said another round of good-byes and they were off for real this time - I presume.

But, then I sat down and chatted with a new arrival, Nick, and we decided to go grab a very over-priced Heineken together at the place around the block where I had that great salmon, right across the street from the Sacré-Cœur. He grabbed dinner but my final mission for Paris is to have some foie gras, which I will head out for presently but wanted to get this down first.

I didn't get to see La Grande Jatte (from my favorite painting) nor did I see the big museum with the impressionist stuff in it. Otherwise, I feel I had a most excellent first visit!

Sacré-Cœur Basilica

Grand tour of Paris

This hosteling thing is all right.

Kyle, Allen, Phillip, and Susan invited me to tag along with them today and check out the sights. We walked from the hostel down to the river, saw the Arch d'Triumph with the Tour Eiffel in the background, Notre Dame, the Louvre (from the outside), the Paris Opera, the Hotel DeVille, the Beaubourg Museum, and all sorts of other things. Phillip knows quite a bit about the city so he led the tour - it was spectacular. They have one more friend arriving presently and we're all going to check out the sunset from la Defense. So generous of them to let me tag along but Philip says, "No, we're tagging along with you!"

My room - I'm top bunk on the left.

Stepping out the door of my room.

View from the terrace outside my door.

The soir part of my first full day in Paris

Okay, past time for bed so... why not write a blog entry?

My roommate and I ended up striking up a conversation (buying a guy a small bottle of wine from the hostel probably tends to work, eh?) and then headed out for dinner - my description of my burger last night was more than he could resist. He confirms, however: Paris has outdone les Oo Ess Ay when it comes to burgers - time to up your game, America!

We also picked up a couple more roommates - thought they are out hitting the town with a friend from another room.

Here at the hostel there is mostly foosball with some Chilean guys. Kyle's friends showed up so they are making plans for their upcoming adventure to Amsterdam, Switzerland, and Italy - they leave tomorrow. What new friends will I make in the coming couple days?

Oh, I almost forgot the best part: Kyle said the best view of the city is from the Basilica up the hill from the hostel so I walked up there. On the way, I chatted with a nice couple of Nigerian guys who have been living in Paris for the past three years attending University, "Phillip" and "Dennis", they call themselves. They offered to provide me with things not available just anywhere but I politely declined and wished them well when our paths separated a few blocks later. The view wasn't that great at night - I'll check it out again during the daylight.

Now, 'tis time for bed. My main priority attraction aside from the Louvre is the modern art museum here - not sure what it's called. Kyle says that the Eiffel Tower is also more than worth it and near to Notre Dame. I'd also like to see the Arch d'Triumph, especially the "square" it's in. We shall see what we shall see.

Buenos noches, in honor of my new Chilean friends in Paris.

The jour part of my first full day in Paris

What a day, what a day.

Woke up, tried to compose myself to face the day, grabbed some waaay overpriced breakfast from the hotel, decided on a nostel to try out, bummed a bandaid for my (minor) blister, and checked out of the Hotel du Parc with general directions on how to get to the hostel using the Paris Metro and directions from the hostel's website from the stop there.

Took the 1? from Montparnasse to ???, switched to the 2 for one more stop: Anvers, walked up rue Steinkerque on the right (I admid, that took a little hunting with my eyes), walked towards the Basilica for one block, turned right on rue d'Orsel, walked past #20, but only a few steps, and finally found the Le Village Hostel at #20 - no big deal. Bonus: they were even able to find me a bed.

Once I got the lowdown from the hostel, I took the bare minimum I needed for the day and put it in my fancy Stingers backpack, stashed my bags in the secure storage area, and made my way for... the Louvre, baby! (They're closed on Tuesday and I didn't want to miss it so took the safe bet and did it today.)

Back down to the Anvers stop 2, took it towards National, got off at Stalinburg, switched to the 10 train, towards Ivy?, and got off inside the entrance to the museum - reminded me of my visit to the Natural History Museum in New York City when I was a teenager - you pop right off the train and you're there - in NY, though, I think you have to take an elevator to the actual entrance.

The automated ticket machine took my wimpy American credit card (with no chip in it), I passed my bag through screening, and spent the next seven hours wandering around the Louvre. What can I say? It's everything you've heard. One thing that surprised me was how difficult it was to keep your bearings. They need to change the map so the same room number doesn't show up in different wings and on different floor. But I saw ancient Egyptian stuff until I almost couldn't take any more - and then I realized I'd missed a section! They have large sections on two floors of the stuff! It was heaven for me - I minored in Humanitites with a focus on ancient Egyptian studies.

Then I saw the Venus d'Mile, the Mona Lisa (well, from a ways back and in the middle of a throng of people, most of them trying to take a stupid picture), and all that stuff - even the Code of Hammurabi. I took a couple breaks and actually took my shoes off for a couple minutes to hopefully prevent more blisters.

After closing the place down at about thirty minutes past their official closing time of 6:30, I perused their gift shop, where I found something for my Xmas list - see photo. Then I reversed the train route like a pro, checked in, met one of my potentially-three roommates (Kyle, from Texas), and grabbed a shower. And now I'm writing this. For you. Well, and for posterity for myself. But for you, too! ;) Now I need to gather the energy to head down to the social area of the hostel and grab me some wifi - handy tip: it's pronounced "weefee" over here. You're welcome.

What will the evening bring? Well, it had better bring some food. I don't feel particularly hungry but, then again, I didn't feel particularly hungry last night, either, but when they set that burger down in front of me, I found myself ravenous!

Bonsoir!

For Daniel - I had her tune in my head throughout my visit - it was perfect.

For Tasha - to show even Pharaohs lose their sequins.

Dear Santa...

It's a fact - the world is ending - there is a Starbucks in the Lourve.

The view out my new door.

Welcome to Paris

Such a bizarre evening.

I arrived in Paris with no idea where to go. I stopped at the information booth and the kid looked at me like I was nuts, then suggested a "new place" called Novotel. "Up the stairs, turn left, you will find it." Well, I didn't find it.

I walked left and kept walking. When I didn't find it I started trying to find wifi. No luck until half-way around the block when an "orange" network popped up that worked with Skype Wifi - nice. 19c/minute.

I put out a plea for help on Facebook not expecting much if anything in response. What do you say to such a thing?

So, I kept walking and eventually decided to approach a woman with a son probably about six years old - I told her it was my first time in Paris and I needed to find a hotel and had no idea at all, just that I wanted to pay "in the middle". She suggested I try walking down a road away from the block we were on and find a two-star place I like and try it. I almost just took her up on it but hadn't been all the way around the block yet and I was pretty curious if the guy at the booth was just messing with me.

I eventually did find Novotel just to the right of where I'd come out of the station. Well, they're a four-star place and the man behind the counter told me 170 Euro - yowza! I said too much and he eventually came down to 144 - still about $200.

So, I walked back over to where I'd spoke to the woman and checked my FB post - wow! I'd received much more assistance than I had hoped for! One was from Phil suggesting a place called Hotel du Parc and it just so happened to be in the district I was in. Putting my trust in the universe, I jokingly made my way down the road the woman had pointed me to and looked for the Hotel du Parc. And there it was, a block down.

I walked in, asked for a room, it's 80 Euro/night - just a hair over what I'd naively hoped/expected to pay. Nuts, I tell you, to walk down a nigh-random street in Paris and come across the very hotel that had been recommended.

Only bummer is that there are no vacancies tomorrow night so I need to find other accommodations. Going to worry about that tomorrow, however.

Just now, after showering and lying down for just a few minutes, I went out and had the very best hamburger I've ever had - the Burger Aveyronnais at Kamelo Brasserie - along with fries, a small salad, and a 25cl Pelforth Blonde.

And now, it is almost midnight and I am in desperate need of some quality Zs!

Bon nuit!

Twenty four hours in Nantes

In the end, I decided to spend much of today in Nantes then head for Paris.

The hostel kicks everyone out at ten, whether they're staying another night or not, so I checked out, leaving my bags in their secure storage room, and headed for the centre. My end goal was to get to Les Machines de L'ile to see their giant machine elephant. First stop, however, was the train station for a ticket - I purchased one leaving at 16H52, arriving in Paris at 19H20.

Then, I just wandered my way towards the island, which, if I remember right, was where the Nantes centre originally was but it was moved for some reason. It was the first day of true spring here after a long winter - forecast called for sun and 70F - so I walked through the entire Jardin des Plantes, taking many photos, AJ will be pleased to know.

After that, I stopped for a biere de garde at a sidewalk cafe and just chilled for a bit. The beer was delicious and, as I was right across the rue from the train station, there were plenty of people bustling around.

Next was the chateau which is entirely open to the public and houses a World Wars museum inside - I went through quite fast. It seemed to be both larger and in better condition than the chateau de Clisson, not necessarily more impressive, however.

Then I walked. And walked and walked and walked [I am hoping I narrowly avoided getting blisters], mostly along Courses John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt, I kid you not. Antoine told me last night that "France loves America!" After today, from both the street names and the museum, I believe him. I walked clear across town to the bridge that Les Machines de L'ile was on the other side of.

And I arrived just as the elephant was walking up to the front gate - it was spectacular! Amazing, not just the engineering behind it but the fact that someone got the idea to do it and to follow it through, sharing his vision and procuring funding and the support of the city to get a prominent position in the Island revitalization. I toured the whole place, was invited to get hoisted up for a better view of the heron show but declined - I wanted to see the caterpillar go. :)

I left with the intent of giving myself plenty of time to get back intending to take the light rail. Good thing I did because the celebration this weekend was larger than I thought. I got some bad advice as to which train to get on because, it turned out, the trains were not running through the centre of town because of the celebration! I got on the first one and it turned around and went the other way! So I got some advice from someone that was privy to the day's schedule, took the train back to my origin and started hoofing it, probably only a quarter of a mile but there was a parade right in the middle that I had to cut through - a parade!

Anyway, tram to the Manufacturing stop, grabbed my bags from the hostel, speed-walked the best I could with all the extra weight to the train station, and managed to have all of five minutes to wait for the train to arrive - whew!

And the train is where I am now, about an hour into the ride. I rested for a while, then cleaned up in the WC, then I figured I'd get some thoughts down while I have some spare time. They have outlets in the train, even ones that will work with US plugs in the WC for some reason, but no wifi so you will not be receiving this in real-time.

(pics later, too tired now)

Finally actually in Nantes

Just a quick update tonight as I am exhausted.

I am in Nantes, for real now - the blog's name is a misnomer as Nantes might as well be a whole world away from where I'd been. Now, though, I'm really there. Here.

More specifically, I am at the Auberge de la Manu, a hostel that Jenny connected me with. I was a little nervous signing in and seeing my room for the first time and realizing that I needed to buy a lock and a towel. On the plus side, the person manning the counter spoke English, which made everything a whole lot easier.

So, I walked to the Super U a few blocks away and got what I needed then hung out in my room for a bit until my first roommate showed up. Another English speaker! A French-born Jew whose favorite language is actually Italian. He reminded me strongly of John at the Potato Eaters Gallery. We got to talking and we actually ended up going out on the town together - we each had a drink (I had the tap Grim??? and it was absolutely to die for) then wandered over the International Fest or something which was like they took any American State Fair midway and plunked it down next to the chateau in Nantes - it was a crazy juxtaposition. We wandered around a bit more chatting, grabbed a quick bite at a Tunisian hole-in-the-wall, then came back - a little earlier than I would have like but Antoine is catching the 4am flight to Tel Aviv. Oh, and he's currently working with someone else from Minnesota - small world.

Probably will spend another night here, but not 100% sure, then maybe take the train to Paris? See what tomorrow brings...

Here, have pics, all from today - bonsoir!

Me, with feet in the ocean on the coast of France. For real, homes, not for play.

Buying lunch.

Dessert. It tasted even better than it looks.

My room in the hostel; I chose the bed by the window.

Vie wout the window. (Heh, that was a typo but it's English acting like French so I'm a leave it. ;)

Work travel

I really thrive under these conditions; feeling like there's an urgency to what I'm doing, that there's little time to do anything but work and live, having my expenses covered, meals taken when they're available, many times being fast and cheap, other times being leisurely and expensive, others being simply fruit, cheese, bread, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I like being thrown into a strange environment or situation with other people, getting to know each-other, figuring out how the others like to work, what needs they have from me in order to best perform their job. I like being in a strange environment and taking in bits an pieces of it as possible.

I don't like this noisy, dusty, humid atmosphere! I especially don't like to wear these booties (pedisacs) over my feet trapping in even more moisture. I'm glad I wore shoes that were about ready for the trash, anyway - they are definitely going in the garbage before I get on the plane! We also have to wear Tyvek suits (combinaisions) and hairnets (charlottes).

I am a dorky, nerdy geek, though, and put my foot in my mouth regularly, too. But, I like to think that I at least notice when I do so and try to improve in the future.

Jonathon said today that "I know one person who picks up French quickly." After a second he smiled at me - I assumed he meant he had known someone, could have been intentional on his part but I think it was just his subtle misuse of English.

I still have not many any plans for the coming week. I could go to Nantes, go to Paris, or I could stay here. I could stay in a hotel, look for a hostel, or even try and find some couches to surf - or, if I stay here, I can crash on the couch in the apartment. I can get a ride into Nantes on Saturday afternoon. I could take a train up to Paris. Or I could rent a car and either stay in Nantes or drive back out here.

My bedroom

The French language

I love the French language. I love how challenging it is; how letters disappear and then reappear attached to the word next to them under certain conditions. I vowed today to learn it. I hope I do.

Tough day at work today

It was a tough day at work today but we did get to go out for lunch with J and have a proper French-style multi-course meal: first a (tiny) 1664 beer while waiting for a table, then a trip to a salad bar (except without any lettuce), bread, wonderful butter, and wine, then the meal, then café, though we elected to skip dessert. Oh, and then cigarettes, of course, outside in the gusting wind - for those who opted for them.

J is so fun to talk to though occasionally a little frustrating because he wants to understand everything! I don't want to even think of how many minutes we wasted trying to get him to understand a joke about pecans.

Oh! And we tried to find a restaurant to go to after work and it took forever. Nothing was open. They don't open their restaurants here until 7:30 or so and it was only 6:45. We finally found a pizza place open and the owner spoke very little English - just enough to be dangerous ;) - and when we finally got our order placed he insisted his credit card machine couldn't accept our low-tech American cards. AJ practically had to muscle the machine out of his hands and swipe the card on the side of the machine (instead of sliding it into the front) and, voila! Instead of being offended by our rudeness, he was (seemingly?) genuinely pleased and said, "That is the first time it has ever worked!" The pizza was good - very high quality though perhaps a little hard to appreciate because of our American expectations of what pizza should taste like. Still, though, very good. :)

(And the traffic is still crazy but I'll get to that though I fear I cannot do it justice.)

Ugh, then home to shower!!! and report on the day's troubles only to also find troubles incoming from the other side of the pond. C'est la vie, I guess.

Bonsoir!

What to do, what to do...

Woke up this morning at about 5:10 and got to wondering what in the world I'm going to do after the workweek is done - I just don't know. The big question, of course, is where am I going to stay? I had been thinking to stay in Nantes expecting I'd be somewhat familiar with the area but Nantes is simply the city an hour away where the airport happens to be. Maybe I should go to Paris? Or, maybe I should stay out here in the general vicinity of Roussay/Clisson/Cholet, rent a car, and make day trips?

First day on the job

Up at 6:10, dressed (not showering before the hatchery!), grabbed some chocolate chip toast with peanut butter and a banana with some coffee, and headed out the door. Dressed and working before 7:30 - bio-security is more strict than the other hatchery - we wash hands, don a hairnet and a bodysuit, then put booties on one-at-a-time as we put our feet over the bench.

The morning went pretty well! Things came together and we ended up rocking through half of our two thousand birds. Six hours after we started, we broke for lunch: McD's again. France must have fast food besides McD's, non?

Back for the second thousand at 2:30; 7:30 pm back home. And, we have a car now instead of the van.

Spent an hour just doing the debrief after the ten-hour day - and after grocery shopping (no peanut butter to be found) and a very welcome shower! Hoping to not have to eat frozen pizza for dinner tonight but I give it fifty-fifty.

---

Okay, dinner is over as well as the viewing of some Sons of Anarchy that AJ, I think, brought. No, I don't think I'll make catching up on that a priority. Thought I'd go enjoy the evening by taking a walk but it's so dark here when the sun goes down! It doesn't make me miss the States but it does make me wish I'd bought and brought a small, good-quality flashlight. (Oh, dinner was pasta with not-enough Barilla sauce supplemented with some sauteed tomato and garlic - not bad at all. Oh, and the second half of a Leffe Blond and some merlot.)

So, not much interesting today since it was a very full day of work. If you'll allow me to, I'd like to steal something from an email to the office:

Samantha asked, "How do they do with English? Have you guys been able to communicate with them fairly easily?" To which, I responded,

Fairly easily, yes. Philippe speaks very well; Jonathon not quite as well but he's very friendly and makes a real effort to understand us and to make himself understood; Pascal doesn't seem to speak a word but still tries to be helpful and is interested in what we're up to (he led at least one tour of folks around the MPSP) – and very eager to jump in and help load birds or whatever. Jonathon also seems amused that I carry a phrasebook in my back pocket – it seemed to take him a while to realize that I’m not always trying to communicate something to him but to find out how to say what I want to say en francais; btw, duckling is caneton, pronounced like canard but with a to at the end. :)

Outside of G, sometimes I'm surprised at how well people do with English and sometimes it's the opposite! Still, today Bob was even able to resolve an issue at McD's of a café grand he didn't receive with people that seemingly spoke no English. I haven't noticed anybody being frustrated or offended with our lack of French language skills and they seem to be gracious in their complete ignorance of English or modest about the skills they do have.

Speaking of McD’s, is there any other fast food near Roussay? Maybe even something halfway decent?

P.S. There is no place on earth dustier than a duck hatchery. No place at all. I challenge you to correct me. ;)

Early-evening view from my bedroom window.

Driving in France

Driving here is insane, btw. More later - stay tuned.

Day 1, 2013-04-07, Sunday

Apologies for the (lack of) grammar and storytelling - I at least want to get the outline down before I forget.

Today I saw so many things!

Woke up kinda late (9:30?), showered and shaved, then had peanut butter (from Mississippi) on bread with chocolate chips in it (the person that bought it thought they were raisins), brewed up some Dunkin Donuts coffee Bob brought from the States, and walked around the neighborhood a bit. The apartment is right next to a waterfall on a river (need to look that up - need to get the address, too!). It was a gorgeous morning but a little cool - forty degrees or so.

We received a text that the Cholet Dogs won their match last night so we were on for hockey tonight - that ruled out a trek to the ocean. So, instead, we hit the road. We first went to my coworkers' previous apartment (which reportedly stunk like a sewer constantly, the kitchen flooded whenever the shower was run - there was even a squeegee in the kitchen for the purpose of cleaning up - and, perhaps worst of all, there was absolutely no wifi). Anyway, when they moved out yesterday, one of them forgot half a carton of smokes so we headed there hoping to recover the lost packs.

GPS got us there pronto and AJ was able to recover his smokes. We were a little worried the people would be upset due to us backing out of the rental but they were very friendly. Didn't speak any English at all, however.

From there we just hit the GPS up for nearby attractions. We ended up, first, at Clisson to check out the chateau there. I grabbed some Euros (I hate not having any cash in my pocket!) then walked around Clisson for a few hours. The castle is just sitting there in the middle of the town - incredible.

By this time it is a little after 3pm and we need to be at the hatchery at 4:30. It takes forever to get anywhere here. So, we headed there with a quick stop at McD's where I did not have a baby can of Heineken with my Le M, pommes fries, and ??? pistache frappe. From there, I took the wheel of the van.

We drove back to the hatchery after finding that all grocery stores are closed on Sundays, hung out for a half-hour or so, then Jonathon met us and we followed him to Cholet for the game. Turns out it was the final game of the season and they were up for the title. There were no goals in the first period - pretty typical. The second period ended up 3-1 Cholet (they were playing the C???bery Elephants). The third period ended tied at 5 each. Sudden death overtime, no goals. The tiebreaker ended after four shots each with a score of 7-6 - Cholet won!

I swear, you would not even have known you were at a French hockey game except for the French announcer (all the music was in English) and the severely reduced violence. Well, and, especially considering this game was for the title, the crowd was pretty tame - well, except for the contingency of about twenty fans of the away team!

AJ insists I broke a record for most photos taken in a day by an American tourist in Europe. I assure it wasn't even close. But, I did take some - a quite reasonable amount, I'd say. One hundred fifteen.

Dinner was very light - I whipped up some tomatoes and garlic in olive oil to put on our slight bread reserve. It turned out okay - not as good as when I was following Piergiorgio's instruction. Didn't help that I forgot to not-quite-toast the bread in the oven first! C'est la vie. It went beautifully, however, with half a bottle of Leffe Blond.

And, now it's now and it's past bedtime - bus leaves at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

I hope I haven't forgotten anything major...

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Brief photo selection:

Our place is at the far right of this building.

 

Our trusty steed.

Park with windmill and vineyard.

The old apartment.

First European bicycle.

So beautiful.

Chateau de Clisson.

McD's.

Found this at the bottom of a somewhat sketchy unimproved road - yes, I was driving.

Cholet wins in the tiebraker!

The trip there

Willmar to St Cloud in a van with 650k miles on it and a nice-enough driver.

Hung out at Holiday Inn for ~30.

St Cloud to MSP driver was Dan who told us about his 51 ??? and 57 Chevy Impala and how they were both traded in for a ?? station wagon with an automatic transmission with four(!) forward and two(!!!) reverse gears that their dad put two roof rack on and hauled them all over the country. His wife of 24? years died two months ago. His anniversary was the next day. He married her twice, once by the mayor of their town in Indiana? and once in a Catholic church. He was a talker.

Didn't know to take my laptop out of my bag so the TSA guy helped me. He kept calling me Captain. I told Jesse I could get used to that. Hung out at the gate for two hours. I tried to find a travel towel but none of the airport stores knew what I was talking about. (Luckily, the new apartment comes furnished with a set of towels.)

MSP to AMS I sat by a young German woman, Teresa, that was returning home after 13 months in Phoenix as an au pair. Raised a boy that was born early from 3 mos to 16 mos. She wanted a window seat so she could sleep better so she moved and Jesse took her place. I chatted with a woman from New York but that just graduated with a B in Zoology from South Utah? Before going home she was going to visit her family in Lyon for a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll run into her in Paris. Didn't sleep well or much on the plane. Listened to some french lessons. Decent meal of southwest chicken salad with two Coronas. Breakfast was less good - an egg and biscuit sandwich with some funky cheese and spices.

Hung out at AMS for ~30 minutes after going through security again and finding the gate. Posted two pics to FB on the world's worst wifi.

Took a bus to the plane on the tarmac, a little 1x2 plane but with jet engines. Short but smooth flight to NTE. Listened to more French lessons. Couldn't really sleep.

AJ and Bob picked us up then took the scenic route to the new apartment. Then we went to the supermarket (which had an impressive selection of bourbons available!), came home, and ate frozen pizza for dinner. C'est la vie. I did get to have a P??? Brune with it, at least!

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That previous text was written at about 9pm here and it's now midnight, which is 5pm back home and which explains why I was just able to eat a very hearty midnight snack! Fresh bread, generously drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with Mediterranean sea salt and pepper. We also had some cheese, they type of which I'm not too sure - kinda between a cheddar and a Parmesan. And, all washed down with a ??? Amber. Prior to the snack I was sipping Courvoisier and just chatting with the other people here. The type of exchange we had just does not happen in any other setting than this - thrown together in a foreign place with free time and a bit of a budget; it's invaluable.

Now, however, it truly is time for bed!