Campanile Hotel Laon

... were walking out with carts full of Cases of wine, not to mention all the cheese, fois gras, ham, mushrooms, and other french goodies that were up for grabs. We spent a piddly 5 hours drinking wine, and now have a much better "education" of French wine. But after a couple hours, food was definitely in order. Istead of opting for the 9 euro fois gras sandwich, we got the pate en croute, which we soon found out is not supposed to be eaten ...

... At first the elevator wouldn’t work, so we trekked the bags up a few flights. From there, things included a busted light in Pam’s face as she merely switched it on, a broken shower head (which Chad geniously MacGyvered with one of my hair bands), falling blinds from the hook as I tried to draw them closed for the night, and water was seeping out of the shower where it should have been sealed. Did I say seeping, I meant pouring! But all in ...

The next destination on our itinerary was the Notre-Dame of Laon Cathedral. My pamphlet tells me this is "one of the earliest Gothic edifices constructed in France," so there you go. It's a lot different than the famous Notre Dame in Paris, being a lot less ordered and therefore more “exuberant.” It’s on a site that’s a lot higher than the rest of town, so you get lots ...

Well, I just returned from our first sketch trip to various cities in northern France. Instead of one long entry, I'm going to do smaller ones for each city so I can organize pictures and everything better. And I must admit that I love the little pushpins TravelPod uses when you visit another city.

We left Versailles at about 8 AM, all very sleepy. I can report that my hiking backpack is absolutely incredible. Not only ...

... listener.

The bets part of the tour was the champagne tasting after wards, which we new it would be before we got there. Angela, Caroline and I all chose the Vintage Pommery which is aged longer than the normal by about 5 years. It was very delicious, not bitter at all, very bubbly!!

After a short bus trip back into the heart of the city we approached the Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims. Before going in search of dinner we took a nice walk through the ...

... around in the vicinity for at least another 20 minutes.

When we got to the rental office we were helped by a young man with excellent English. After some more time we loaded up our shiny new Ford Focus and drove out of Paris. Driving out of Paris is easier said than done, however. It really is a big and busy city. It took over an hour to get out. Even though it was midday by now, the ...

For the inauguration, Jason and I planned a small party for the assistants in Laon. Our menu consisted of Chicago style hot dogs, to represent Obama's Chicago connection, a chili that was supposedly Obama's family recipe, fries, because we originally wanted onion rings, because they are shaped like O's, but don't exist in France, and O shaped cookies for dessert. We also had some snacks and had planned to ...

... what that meant. We had some time to kill until the big event, and it was freezing, so we went and hung out in a café for awhile. When we got back it was almost time for the mystery. Everyone was gathering around the base of the cathedral, and the Carolers were encouraging everyone to sing a song for Santa. Then he appeared. He physically descended by rope from midpoint of the cathedral ...

... a big celebration for it, since it is the first new wine of the season. The bar was packed, but luckily since Anne and Merima know the bartender, he sat us down with some of his friends, so we got to make some new French friends. The place was completely decorated. There were leaves all over the floor, vines all over the walls, and they even had a small brass band playing. It was a really cool night. One of the French guys ...

... an entire outlet. I would have to unscrew the current wall outlet and replace it with this flat one. He explained how to do it, and said it was very easy. I asked him if it was dangerous, and he said no, not at all. So I bought the plug and headed home. It was about 8 at night, and I began to unscrew the outlet from the wall in the bathroom. After everything was taken apart, I realized it was not at all as simple as the guy had made it seem ...