Village Les Restanques Du Golfe De Saint Tropez Grimaud

... démontés et empaquetés dans des cartons, une remorque, un réchaud et une popotte, des vêtements pour tous les temps, des éléments de rechange pour le vélo, une trousse à pharmacie et une brosse à dent :)

Attention top chrono : J-23h

On vous embrasse tous très très fort.
Vous allez nous manquer quoique....!
N'hésitez pas à nous écrire et à commenter nos images.

Hasta luego amigos.

Joséphine

I just arrived in Lille just over an hour ago by TGV (in right around an hour from Paris, super fast). I got a bit lost arriving to my new host's house, but here I am, safe and warm. I'll stay here till Friday, when we carpool (two groups in two cars) to a big CS weekend meeting in Rotterdam. There I should be able to meet up with my host in Hague (about 20 or 30 minutes away).

The last few days were ...

... huge damage during the war and required significant reconstruction. Some parts of the original buildings still stand, and show shrapnel damage, and some of the statues in the church walls are badly damaged.

Next stop after Ypres was at the Hooge Crater Cemetary. This cemetary contains the graves of nearly 6000 soldiers, many of whom were younger than I am, and a lot were only engraved with 'A British/Australian/New ...

... else trying to find out if they're British as well (hey, that's me!), and look quite defensive when somebody else sits next to them (hey, that's me as well!). They then get out an English book and try to look very superior because they speak another language. (I do that sometimes.)
A lot of French people, particularly early in the morning, sit down and close their eyes and somehow magically wake up when it's their stop and run off the train. I don't know how they can do that ...

We went to Ypres on the suggestion of my dad. Ypres is located in Flanders and was a central battle ground during WWI. The town of Ypres seemed to be right in the midst of the fight and was almost completely destroyed in bombings and fires. It is also in this area that the battles of Pashchendale took place. It was one of the most deadly and greusomome places to fight in WWI and many young Canadians lost their lives there.

We got a ...

... towns, but if that's true then they must be ghost towns!
Dunkirk does have a few art museums, but we were told that the closest one didn't have anything interesting at the moment and the others were more expensive. So we took a walk down to the beach, had a stroll along the sea-front and ate "Moules-Frites" in a sea-side brasserie, and wandered around the shops. It was a nice day out and at least I can now say that I have been to Dunkirk!

... important language for them to have, as most of them don't ever plan on going to an English speaking country, and so their level of English is really not very good. They really do try, which I see and I appreciate it, but it can be really difficult when trying to get my point across. During the observation period the only contact I had with students was the asking and answering of questions, which was quite simple and easy for them and gave me a ...

... at various buildings. All were very interesting and each professor incorporated their own concepts/ideas with each building. This became a more integrated approach to us learning our architecture. The next day we traveled to Amiens, to look at another Notre Dame Cathedral. A little different then the last, but still very impressive. Amiens was a nice little town, it houses a main university in France so it was awesome to get to see how other students in Europe ...

... dinner was amazing. When you put 450 exchange students together, the energy in that room is incredible. The Aussies all started and "Aussie, Aussie. Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!" chant, the Americans hoisted Casey (a guy who has a strinking resemblance to Obama) and chanted "Yes we can!" The Mexicans chanted and other things involving Sombreros and the Brazilians started one massive conga-line. We didn't get much sleep that night, or the whole week really. We had the whole hotel ...

... of Sacrifice which apparently was built on the site of a German bunker, or pill box. I found Ed sitting on the very top of the monument gazing down at the grave site. The marble walls on the back of the site had the names of the missing soldiers of the Commonwealth including Australian, Canadian, South African, etc. Lush bushes of crimson roses adorned this part of the memorial, behind an altar with the ...