Mercure Epinal Centre 3m

... of the Dalai Lama. He carves the image into wood and then prints them onto paper. Sounds simple, not so. The images are amazing and so intricate. The work he did for the Dalai Lama (a complete Buddist medical journal) took him 13 years to complete. I toured his workshop and was lucky enough to get one of his originals. We stole a lift to Nancy with Marion's brother and were back in the capital that evening and snuck back into the nunnery for the last week on the continent..

... my thick accent and the fact I don't speak French he presumed I was English. Marion kindly corrected him, sending his brain into meltdown. "Do they speak English in Australia?" he asked in French, "yes, of course" Marion replied, "So they don't speak Australian?" An uneducated Frenchman, what a sight! We payed 20 euro for the four hour drive and the only threat against our lives was **** music.  A week in Epinal ahead.. 

... since Firenze. We headed back to the hostel and decided to watch a movie; Everything Is Illuminated. It is a really great movie and is a true story (I finished the book on the train to Como). Do yourself a favour and check it out! We had to get up early to get the 7.15 bus back into Como to catch the 9am train. We would travel to Zurich, then onto Nancy and we ended up here in Epinal 11 hours later! I'm really tired, a little drunk and feeling a little sick.. Until next time, The Dog

... the hills, and he ever present majestic Sapin Tree, a beautiful tall pine. Some of the tiny roads up the top of the hills are rather hairy when you meet a car coming the other way. Great for a game of chicken! Roses seem to grow wild and flower prolifically, none better than the one in Gisele's driveway a highly perfumed fuchsia coloured tree rather than a bush. And the birds are everywhere, and singing at the top of their voices. H was ...

They make crystal in Baccarat but we didn't have long enough at the museum for me to understand how it works, much to my disappointment. We stayed with our Muslim cousin, and then his Christian children came over for Christmas, so it was very multicultural/secular. When we arrived, at about 11:30 in the evening, the table ...

... indoors anywhere in France is the number of people smoking in there. I swear at least half the people in there were smoking. BUT, after talking with some girls, they told us that France passed a law that bans smoking indoors starting in 2008! By the way, a small jack and coke cost me 5 euros... so roughly 6.75. It's about LA prices, except this is in a tiny country town! Hate to find out how much it'll cost in Paris...

... were; basically groups for friends with a tent just hanging out. Adam and I ended up just going for a hike around the lake as there's a trail that goes all the way around. I'd guess that it took us around an hour, maybe a bit more. Afterwards, got some food at a restaurant by the lake and then headed back to Epinal. Overall, not a bad place to go for a daytrip!

... in our workout clothes. I cut my hair really short before coming over here because I figured I wouldn't get to cut it. Anyways, one of the girls thought we were military! Off on a little tangent, but the guys here are pretty weak overall. There's this little gym called Samourai and it's like someones garage.. but anyways, Adam and I are probably the two strongest guys there. It's pretty sad... Back to the Japanese place... the girl ...

... shower and sink) and separate room for the toilet. I think the toilet is designed for Germans as it has a thing at the bottom to stop the **** from sinking. When you flush it, the water level comes up and then its like a big vacuum and sucks everything down. If any of you REALLY want to see what it looks like, I can take a pic. I'd much rather have a regular toilet like in Adam's room.

... English!) about the sites we were seeing. We even got to go into a Lock! For those that don't know, a lock is a way to raise or lower a boat/vessel to a different level of the water...it was really quite an engineering marvel. So, we finished the tour, saw the European Parliament buildings, and then got off the boat to get some dinner/dessert. Tom and Bonnie actually had food for dinner...pate and fois gras, but I had crepes for dinner...YUM! They, too, had crepes...for ...