Ibis Moulins Sud

... to spain to meet her, we take a bus that same night to the freeway of paris heading out and fall asleep next to the freeway in some bushes so we´d be ready to hitch out early in the morning and kristen get´s a hostel? so she will be ready to fly out early in the morning.
in Barcelona

... from the train. We met up with a couple who had been caught in this at our Gites that night who told us they had been tied up in the traffic for 4 hours! Awful.

Settled in on the first night. The gites living up to everything I wanted. A gorgeous setting, converted farmhouse and buildings - prob built in the 18th century, but not sure....now four self contained cottages and one for the owners, a lovely ...

The day started with the worst possible surprise: someone had ripped off my credit card to a pretty substantial amount meaning I could no longer use it, even to pay my hotel bill! Fortunately I have another so once I had recovered from the surprise I loaded the bike and hit the road shortly before 8.00 am. My chosen route for the day took me to my next surprise - this time ...

... my director's appartment, and stole EVERYTHING out of her flat...she freaked out and decided that she really didn't think she should stay and work! So...out of association, I got pumped up and was given the title of...Director for the remainder of the Petit Bois American Village experience! How did it feel? How did it feel, ladies and gentlemen? Well, luckily my buddy Niles (former director) came down to give me some on the spot training (yay accounting!). I thought ...

Somehow...i escorted 7 kids from Paris to Moulins without dying...haha, no, it was very simple! We had a few problems, nothing major though! When the train stopped, I literally had 3 minutes to throw 7 suitcases out of the train! That was fun...It's easier if a counselor does it, or else the kids will take forever to get their bags, and they might be stuck on the train going to the next city! At the trainstation I met up with my friend Gord, who's the assistant at ...

As much as I would love to pepper my entries with some of the 76 pictures I've taken so far, technology has seemed to turn against me entirely. It's both terrifying and liberating, in a weird sort of way. I feel somewhat naked and vulnerable walking around without my cellphone, which now serves it's purpose as a doorstop, since it can't do much else without service. Pay phones are apparently opposed to phone cards. And our promised international cell phones haven ...

Did a bit of a drive this morning to the Loire valley. Unfortunately we didn't get the best first impression. I'm not sure if it was just the way we drove in, or if it is like this everywhere - but the whole area is just really run down and dirty looking. Our destination was Amboise, a nice little town with a Chateau that Francois I (king of France) lived in. It's main claim to fame is this is where Leonardo Da Vinci lived when invited to ...

... steeple ahead of us for hours the night I was there. And there was a definite different in the men I met in France, while I was travelling through France not once did I have to lift my backpack up onto the rack while on the train. Every time one of the men sitting around my seat would get up and take it out of my hands and do it for me, and several times they even carried it off the train for me...I was impressed.

... Loire Valley exceeded my high expectations-quiet roads, sometimes just trail, through vineyards, with glorious chateas popping up along the way and quaint villages sprinkled throughout. The kids did great with the daily 40 to 50 kms over 5 days, especially since the most Quinn had done was a 10 km loop to the ice cream store. Chevy had a small mishap when she tumbled off her bike and ...

... and the resemblance is striking. Very interesting history as well, as it was designed and decorated by all women (wives, ex-wives and mistresses of Henri the Fourth... maybe the Ninth... there are too many Henri´s in France, or Enri´s - as they call them). But, the women must have been pretty clever to do all that... no wonder it is the prettiest one ;)