Mercure Laon Golf Ailette 3m

... were walking out with carts full of Cases of wine, not to mention all the cheese, fois gras, ham, mushrooms, and other french goodies that were up for grabs. We spent a piddly 5 hours drinking wine, and now have a much better "education" of French wine. But after a couple hours, food was definitely in order. Istead of opting for the 9 euro fois gras sandwich, we got the pate en croute, which we soon found out is not supposed to be eaten ...

... a local champagne cave, and then go to a local restaurant and do some sampling of all the different brands.

After all of that, it was time to wash our socks and undies. Yup, laundry day (or laundry 3 hours). So, not only are the unlocked internet signals harder to find since last trip, but the laundry places are also much more expensive. We did have a nice conversation with an American girl who was in France for six months to teach English. Although ...

... perfect lair for a comic-book villain, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t what the builders were going for. One thing that’s kind of surprising about these churches is the fact that they don’t really have grand plazas or entrance courts like you would expect. The approach to Laon was basically winding street – another narrow winding street – another street ...

... sleeping in awkward positions (mine was not that bad, thank goodness), we arrived at the Chateau de Coucy. From the pamphlet we received, I can tell you that it’s a fortified castle and town built in the beginning of the 13th century. The man who built it was basically just trying to one-up the Louvre, which was originally a bastion on the outer walls of Paris. Councy was abandoned for a long time, and it suffered ...

... onto the highway was crawling, and continued to crawl for several more minutes once we were on the highway.

We did eventually hit the speed limit and at our second or third toll booth, mom realized one of her wallets was missing. Luckily she had separated her many currencies into different wallets and the one missing was the one with a little bit of Canadian money. Unluckily it also ...

We are just finishing our visit with Dina and Curt. We toured Paris with them, as well as Versailles and Giverny. Today we visited Laon and tomorrow we are taking a daytrip to a nearby town. Wednesday Dina and Curt head back home and Jason and I start our 2 month trip. Below is the itinerary, and I will see you in June!! Wed April 22 - Bordeaux - Hotel Studio- 26 rue Huguerie Thursday April 23 - Biarritz - Argi Eder - 13 ...

... to the nearest grocery store and picked some up. Overall things went pretty well. I decorated my apartment a little and we had Christmas music, which was nice. Also, last week I had made Christmas cookies, so we had those for dessert as well. All the food turned out well, but the chicken was really peppery, a little too much for me. I actually liked the cabbage, which I was surprised about. Susanne cooked it with onions, apples, and garlic, plus ...

... properly. It only seems to work on the broiler setting, which means everything is burnt on the top and not cooked on the bottom. The next day (Thursday), when I went to take the pie out of the mold I discovered that the crust was still raw. The pie filling was completely cooked, but not the dough. I tried putting it back in the oven, but it didn't seem to do anything. We ended up eating it, and it tasted fine, it just wasn't as crunchy as it should be ...

... was telling us about some thrift stores she knew, so we decided to check them out. I found some clothes at the first one. Plus, next to the first one there was a Hypermarché, called L.E. Clerc, which is a really gigantic grocery/everything store. It was the biggest store I think I have ever been in. There was a whole bookstore inside of it, a giant clothes section, and a huge produce section. It was pretty daunting. After ...

... the hill, which wasn't fun, but afterwards I felt like I had earned my dinner. We all met up at the cathedral and went to a Chinese restaurant, which was pretty good. All the assistants but one was there. Afterwards we went out to the bar, le Gibus, and hung out there for awhile. Overall it was a nice night. Thursday, November 13th Medical Visit So, after being in France for almost 2 months, I finally was going to my medical appointment, which ...