Hotel Du Portugal Vichy

Il faut avoir au minimum l'habilitation en anglais pour arriver à te rejoindre sur ton blog !
Où es-tu pendant qu'on dépoussière cahiers et crayons pour la rentrée ?
Bon début de voyage, et envoie-nous des recettes de desserts typiques pour l'école !
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Pascale

... of the cones, as the Michelin guidebook said the view was best at sunset. All around we could see smaller volcanoes, some with craters and some dome-shaped, all now covered in trees, silhouetted by the setting sun. An extra show was provided by half a dozen paragliders hurling themselves off the summit then hovering on the updrafts - a surreal ...

... opportunity to make our lunch which usually consisted of a baguette filled with pate, cheese and or meat. We would stop along the way some where for lunch in a park or a Chateau. The cruising along the canals was incredible especially going through the locks. One part took us over one of the longest viaduct in Europe at a place called Briare where we stayed for the night. The first couple of days was heavy going but my knees and legs settled down that ...

... saw at least one English yacht cruising peacefully down the canal. Someone once told me it is possible to travel from the UK to the Mediterranean through the canals of France, even in a yacht. An excellent way to see France - but don't do it in a Bongo sized boat. We first stopped in Charite-sur-Loire, for some bread, but all the other shops were shut. This seemed to be the pattern in every town we passed. At first we ...

... shapes. The rain slowed me down a bit, and I arrived about 1:00 in Vichy for lunch with a retired church couple who live here. The name Vichy will long be associated with the seat of government of Philippe Pétain, who collaborated with the Germans after the fall of France in 1940, when he was 84 years old. He was arguably France's greatest hero from WWI (or as the French call it, the "14-18 war"). But as a reaction to the moral dissipation ...

On Le Weekend we met a group of the French kids and clearly they fell in love with us. So shortly after that weekend they wanted to party with us again as soon as they could. And did we ever. Quentin had a number of us over to get to know us a little better. A couple 40s later we were much better acquainted. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.

We had another entire week of French classes, all day every day that week. We thought that we would take it easy and only go to Clermont for the weekend. Clermont is like the big city near my city, think the Toronto to Burlington, well maybe even the Hamilton to Burlington. It has the home university and it is a much bigger city, since we live in a very very small town, I think only 28,000 people in the city alone. Anyhoo we were partying on a nightly basis, whether it just be at ...

So, on September 1 we headed to the Gare de Lyon and made our way down to Vichy. Its about 3 hours by regular train south to Vichy. When I got the station a girl from my school met me and took me right to my dorm. I was super nervous about this. I really wanted something nice to live in, and thankfully my dorm is perfect for me. It was super clean, had a shower, with pressure, toilet, and kitchenette ...

Reached Clermont-Ferrand at 6:07pm. Turned to night already. Snowing everywhere and the cold is almost the same as Park City, unlike Paris which was slightly warmer and no snow on the ground. Took a cab to Hotel Athena. Clermont-Ferrand is not the small town I thought it was. It's quite big and so different from Park City which consist of just a main street that's maybe 2km in length. The whole journey from Best Western Landmark Inn to Hotel Athena took nearly 28 hours. Didn't expect it ...

Mida lähemale linnale, seda vichysemaks ja vesiseks ka ilm kiskus. Seetõttu polnud me seal väga entusiastlikud turistid ja käisime vaid tiiru linnas ning maitsesime kraanidest vett. Tegemist oli sooja ja väga ebameeldiva maitselise veega. Seega 0,3 € topsi ostmine vee degusteerimiseks oli üsna mõttetu. Vichy külastamist jääb meile meenutama karp pastille.