Inter-Hotel Le Continental Poitiers

... have chilled out in the evening with various books that were on the shelf - Brave New World, Huxley; interesting and a short, easy read; The Time Machine, Wells (I think), again nice and easy and short and an utterly bizarre one called Ex Uterus about a woman that loses her uterus in a shopping mall...random!

I also seem to have a sign on saying sting me that the local horse flies have noticed, so am very itchy!

But, I'll be back ...

... and go back. Still not seeing the sign for Amboise, there is a smaller town on the right side as I am headed back toward that larger town. Looks like a lot of people there, so I am thinking I can stop and ask or stop and look at my map again. The town is across an old stone bridge, so I make the turn into the smaller town and pull over to look at my map. An elderly lady is walking down the street, so I roll my windows down and she stop and ask if I was lost. In English, I said I ...

... I had a guide come over to my hotel and he accompanied me in the footsteps of Robert Langdon (the main character in the Da Vinci Code novel). I was then put in a group with nine other people and the first place we ...

... closed. The place down the block, also closed. By this time we were starving and grumpy (thanks a lot Rick Steves) and decided on the first place we came to, just some random place that serves traditional french food. I had wanted to try escargots, but got cold feet when we actually had to order. I ended up getting salad au chevre chaud, which was described as mixed greens with warm goat cheese, tomatoes and croutons, but it was more like toast with melted goat cheese ...

... il faut, avoir la tête dans le pâté pour bosser tout le we, directement au retour de voyage, c'est aussi un moyen de se remettre tout de suite à l'heure française, et, au final, j'ai eu beaucoup moins de mal avec 8h00 de décalage horaire, qu'avec une bête heure au passage de l'heure d'été. C'aurait été trop dommage de renoncer à une semaine sur Kyoto simplement pour être présentable au boulot le samedi et le dimanche ;)

... shops. There were people strolling around and just hanging out everywhere. As we reached the Arc it became even more impressive. As the dark silhouttes of people passing infront if it I realized just how large it actually is. We made our way over to the monument and took a picture of the eternal flame that burns in the archway and when we turned around we were able to get a view of the city. Spotting the ...

... that the coffee was included in the price. I wish I hadn't been so effusive in my thanks! We sat under cover in the restaurant until a ten-minute downpour had reduced itself to a fine drizzle then returned to examining every ladies-oriented shop in the city. Fortunately the prices in such shops can only be described as exhorbitant and Margaret bought nothing. So confident was I that she would not be able to bring herself to buy anything that I continually urged her to buy a ...

... jaywalk in front of heavy traffic. Obviously the language is different and that is why it feels so different I think. In Germany I can communicate easily now, especially for simple things and in Prague I had no trouble because if they didn't speak English, they spoke German or I could use the ten Russian words I know to get by. So this is the first time when I feel like I am really travelling in a foreign country. Some people tell me that the French simply don't ...

... ville médiévale recouverte de neige", que je m'étais alors dit. Apparemment, les Poitevins (résidents de Poiteirs) n'étaient pas tout à fait de mon avis. Effectivement, la presque totalité de la ville était immobilisée par la neige. À 5 cm de neige par terre, c'est plutôt extrême comme blizzard, non? ;) Alors, bien sûr, nous, les canadiens endurcis par nos rigoureux (et sérieux) hivers, ne nous sommes pas laissés faires par une si dérisoire (selon le point de vue canadien) quantité de ...

Today we went into the city with Dad. We bought table runners from a store in the mall, called Cordeliers. I got a newspaper, Midi Olympique, for Philippe, our French teacher in Texas. I also bought a few things for some friends and tachers back home at Yves Rocher and Eurodif. We also saw a chocolate shop window that had the cutest stuffed lambs that moved ...