Ibis Nancy Sainte Catherine

This is an incredible place...but I don't have any pictures... when I got there my camera stopped working :( But I really think it was a blessing because I just saw everything and didn't worry about getting pictures of everything for later, I just saw and took it all in. It was a much needed get-away and it really blew me away, especially the Cathedral! Mass there was unbelievable...and I have a new-found love of French...and their pastries :)

We left Germany this morning with fuzzy heads after 4 pints of strong German Lager the evening before. We let Pete and Tim know our proposed route and set off in search of some sun!<br><br>It was not long before we heard from the lads who said they were still in the mountains probably having fun so we plodded along the motorway heading towards Metz.<br><br>Nothing much to report apart from the consumption of BK number two, two in two days. No we are not doing a ...

... nice to see him and his family again. Fantastic lunch and same goes for the company. As all good things have to end we parted around 4 pm to go back to my brother's place for ... you guessed it another reunion with a childhood friend, Agnes what can I say... she will never change. Love her to bits even though she is a little mad (in a nice way)

Got up this morning and after our ablutions we took the road for "Domremy-la-pucelle" birth place of Johann of arc. Great trip and pics taken. We then decided to go to the local cathedral to check it out ... this is when we saw he sign for: " ruine gallo-romaines de Grand". Of we pop following ...

... the other half and it was HUGE. I loved the fact that you could still walk around the ruins and get a feel for the enormity of the place.<br><br><br><br>Day 3Today we visited the WW1 museum in Verdun. It displayed<br><br>artefacts and battlefield recreations. My favourite part was the trench art.<br><br>The soldiers had made rings out of melted bullets, vases out of gun shells and<br><br>lighters made out of belt buckles and crucifix made out of bullets.The was ...

Got up around 7 am and got to the restaurant for breakfast. Typical French fare with "croissants plain and chocolate, bread, butter and jam" and the great taste of coffee with the addition of chicory to take off the bitterness. After "mon petit dejeuner" I took some goodies (unfortunately I will have to repeat this over the next few days) to Margaret and the kids so we could all a bite to eat together. After about an hour we decided on the program of the day and were going ...

... duke, and needed a new one. King Henry the 14th wanted this province, and he also had a father-in-law who was a bum living off of the streets, which was an embarrassment to him. To solve both problems, he succeeded in making his father-in-law the duke of Lorraine (the man now on the statue in the center of the plaza), and was able to convince Lorraine that the province would become French territory when Stanislas died. Stanislas was ...

Wow Nancy, what a beautiful city. It's small but absolutely gorgeous. We stayed in a decent hotel just a stone's throw (am I infringing on copyrights here J + S?? :) ) away from the main square with its gates of gold and beautiful public buildings. Nancy is known for its beauty, its delicious food and its bergamotte candies. For those wondering what bergamotte really is, it's a citrus fruit which grows on, amongst other ...

Our first exciting barge experience was attending Roger Van Dyken's Barge training course.<br><br><br><br>Roger and Marlene took three couples, Laurel and I, Brad and Nancy and Steve and Pei Shan (interestingly we have now all bought barges!) and with much patience and good grace taught us all how to run a barge. We left from Toul in Lorraine ...

... after that we visited town of Nancy. In the afternoon the students had their presentation about "Forests and Forestry education system" Next day we were divided by groups,I choose "Evolution of the forest jobs" in the morning and in afternoon "Sensitizing the public to the forest issue". The second theme was more interesting,the lecturers were quite animating and we had a big debate at the end (what was the ...