Balladins Epinal Nord

... of the Dalai Lama. He carves the image into wood and then prints them onto paper. Sounds simple, not so. The images are amazing and so intricate. The work he did for the Dalai Lama (a complete Buddist medical journal) took him 13 years to complete. I toured his workshop and was lucky enough to get one of his originals. We stole a lift to Nancy with Marion's brother and were back in the capital that evening and snuck back into the nunnery for the last week on the continent..

... my thick accent and the fact I don't speak French he presumed I was English. Marion kindly corrected him, sending his brain into meltdown. "Do they speak English in Australia?" he asked in French, "yes, of course" Marion replied, "So they don't speak Australian?" An uneducated Frenchman, what a sight! We payed 20 euro for the four hour drive and the only threat against our lives was **** music.  A week in Epinal ahead.. 

... of the place. We were actually in a little village called Mennagio. It's a tourist village, very quaint and charming, but busy. As we were locked out of the hostel from 10-4, we decided to make the most of the sun and go for a swim. Turns out, the only place to swim in the village is fenced off and you have to pay €6 to get in!! We payed the dosh and headed for the artificial sand to get some pre-swim sun. We were headed off by a very brown and wrinkled Italian Stallion ...

... 1,424m ) from where you can see into Germany. There was still snow on the top of the mountain and as we walked up the clouds came down and engulfed us. I expected to see my Mum and Dad at any minute! The boys ogled a group of Porches with Swiss and German numberplates, and bearing expensively dressed and coiffed ladies and gentlemen. H took a special fancy to a bright orange one! Then a group of bikes arrived, mostly Hondas, and Suzukis ...

... enough of it to be what I considered the minimum of 'polite' and was fairly sure I had ripped the lining of my stomach. But I'm ok now. They eat late in Europe. And they don't have the healthy fear of carbs that seems to permeate my English-speaking life. It snowed, it was pretty. Not a hell of a lot to do in Baccarat.

... indoors anywhere in France is the number of people smoking in there. I swear at least half the people in there were smoking. BUT, after talking with some girls, they told us that France passed a law that bans smoking indoors starting in 2008! By the way, a small jack and coke cost me 5 euros... so roughly 6.75. It's about LA prices, except this is in a tiny country town! Hate to find out how much it'll cost in Paris...

... were; basically groups for friends with a tent just hanging out. Adam and I ended up just going for a hike around the lake as there's a trail that goes all the way around. I'd guess that it took us around an hour, maybe a bit more. Afterwards, got some food at a restaurant by the lake and then headed back to Epinal. Overall, not a bad place to go for a daytrip!

... us how to use the soy sauce and wasabi for sushi.... it they only gave a tiny little clump of wasabi. The second time I went in, the girl instructed me how to use soy sauce and wasabi again... Uh, I guess French people don't know? There's a kebab place that I like to go to, called Snack Attak, or something close to that. It's pretty good and it's cheap. Tons of other places to check out... I guess I have another 2.5 months to do it!

... shower and sink) and separate room for the toilet. I think the toilet is designed for Germans as it has a thing at the bottom to stop the **** from sinking. When you flush it, the water level comes up and then its like a big vacuum and sucks everything down. If any of you REALLY want to see what it looks like, I can take a pic. I'd much rather have a regular toilet like in Adam's room.

... highways. Imagine this... .slow traffic stays right and passing traffic only uses the left lane! I only saw one person staying in the left lane, but he was hauling ass. If only it worked this way in the US. I never once got held up by anyone. Also, I noticed that when people were passing, they left their left blinker on after having switced into the left lane. At first, I thought someone had just forgotten ...