Lyon is beautiful! A bit like a mini Paris, but a much more managable size. We are sitting in McDonalds yet again for free WIFI. Our hotel was nice, and it ended up not raining which was great. Tonight we are taking an overnight train to Florence, Italy. Should be interesting...hopefully we will be able to get some sleep. We will post pics of Lyon soon, with a longer post. Just thought we would give everyone an update.
Carrie and Will
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
On the Train to Lyon
We head out of Nimes at 2:30 ( in 2 hours) this afternoon on our way to Lyon. Luckily this train is a speed train, so it will only take an hour to get there. On the unlucky side, it is suppose to be raining all day and through the night. Tomorrow we have all day in Lyon because we are taking an overnight train to Florence. Our train out of Lyon does not leave until around 7, so even if it rains all day today, we will have plenty of time to see things tomorrow. Just checked the weather for Florence and it is going to be a hot time there...around 97 every day! We are quite excited about Italy, especially all the Italian food!! Last night we ate at a good pizza place here in Nimes. We sat outside and the people watching was quite entertaining. I think my favorite of the evening was the man in the long sleeve polo shirt that was completely bedazzled on the back in silver and gold rhinestones. Quite the flashy look..gotta love it. Well, we are going to head out now and find some lunch before boarding our train. We are hoping that all the trains are on schedule..apparently there are a lot of forest fires just south of us in Marseille. Hopefully we will have internet at our next hotel so that we can put up a post tonight!
Carrie and Will
Carrie and Will
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Nimes Day 2
Um I'm sorry but are we in Nimes or Panama City Beach. Oh Euro trash, you are everywhere here. Yeah so Will and I loved the concert last night, but as for the town and the people here we are not as excited about it. Don't get me wrong, it is still really beautiful here, but there is not very much to see, and it is a strange mix of people and a lot of shady looking men. We can't quite put our finger on what we don't like, but it is just not our favorite place of the trip. I suppose there had to be a place at some point that we did not like. So here we are, sitting in McDonalds because they have free internet trying to ignore the techno music blasting. We did go on a search today for books in English. We have both finished all the books we brought. There really isn't much to do on the train rides other than read, but luckily we both found something to hold us over. I am sure they will probably have something at the airport in Rome for us to get to read while flying home. It is off to Lyon tomorrow...the food capital of France! It is our last city in France, so we are a bit sad about that, but I am hopeful that we will love Italy as much as the UK and France!
Carrie
PS Just a fashion update from France. If you are wanting to look French...then you must get the MC Hammer pants that seem to be all the rage here. I on the other hand think I will pass on this fashion statement!!! And if you want to wear them the Euro trash way, they need to be white with black underwear as I just saw here in McDonalds...so classy.
Carrie
PS Just a fashion update from France. If you are wanting to look French...then you must get the MC Hammer pants that seem to be all the rage here. I on the other hand think I will pass on this fashion statement!!! And if you want to wear them the Euro trash way, they need to be white with black underwear as I just saw here in McDonalds...so classy.
Nimes Day 1
So today was amazing to say the least. Except for the super long train ride…but the rest of the day totally made up for it. We arrived in Nimes at 5:30 and headed to our hotel. The hotel is in an old home, with a beautiful courtyard in the center. It is a very boutique style hotel with a great modern feel. Probably one of the nicest we will stay in while here.
View from our window..we will post more pics later
Our only proof..we couldn't bring our camera in
Carrie
View from our window..we will post more pics laterWe headed out to find some dinner after we put our stuff in our room, and went by the tourist office to see what information they had on the town. I happened to pick up a brochure about all the summer events going on in the town and saw that Franz Ferdinand was playing tonight at the arena. (One of our favorite bands!!!) We assumed that it meant the Roman arena here in town, and were pretty bummed that we didn’t know about them coming, but decided to walk over there anyways on the off chance that there may be tickets still. We asked someone once we got there, who said that everything was sold out. As we were walking away we noticed several people selling extra tickets on the street. They were the regular price tickets, probably just extras, so we were able to buy two!!! It was amazing watching Franz Ferdinand play in a Roman arena built in the 1st century AD..sitting on the same original seats/steps. Unbelievable!
Oh yeah and The Virgins and The Ting Tings also played. What a great concert except we didn’t have time to eat…so we had a Heineken dinner instead!! Good thing beer is full of carbs. Today will probably stand out as one of our best days in Europe by far!
Our only proof..we couldn't bring our camera inCarrie
Perigueux Day 2
We woke up late this morning, relieved to not have to hear an alarm, and set out to find some breakfast. We actually ended up at the same place that we had previously eaten dinner because they had what will thought was a real breakfast, rather than just some pastry and espresso. We discovered that they had cappuccinos, and ended up having two each along with our breakfast. Will had an omelet with ham and cheese and fries, while I had a crepe with raspberry jam. After that, we headed over to the Roman part of town, where there use to be a Roman villa as well as a temple. There is still a large remaining center tower from the temple that dates back to 2nd century AD. It was amazing to look at something that had been around for such a long time.
Medieval Building
With the occasional part of a column or capital lying around, it was quite astounding. We then walked over to where the villa used to be. There is now a museum over the remains, but the floor is glass, so you can see everything. In fact the whole building is very modern with steel and glass walls, so we peaked inside and did not even have to pay to go inside! We continued to walk around the path and came across what use to be a Roman arena. There are only rubbles left now, and a beautiful park and garden inside, but you could still make out where some of the entrances use to be. We then did a bit of shopping around in some of the boutiques. At one of the many confectionaries, I got some really great flavored marshmallows which Will said tasted like flavored Peeps. I then found a great dress for only 12 euro, which was quite the deal! Just what I need…yet another dress!! After that we headed back to rest for a bit, and cool down. It was finally warm weather, in fact it was downright hot at around 88, but we can’t complain because it is much better than being cold.
After a rest, it was off to find some dinner. We came across a great Italian place in a small alley, and ate outside in their courtyard. It was a wonderful dinner with great ambiance. We headed back around 10, and it was still light out…we are that much further north, and made a quick stop along the way to get some Orangina to drink. I am pretty sure that I am turning orange from drinking so much, but I just can’t help myself! It was off to bed to get up early to catch another morning train to Nimes. We leave at 10, but don’t get there until 5:30. There is not a speed train available, so we have to take more of a regional line to get there. Luckily, we are staying for 2 nights, so we will be able to enjoy the town!
Carrie
Medieval Building
With the occasional part of a column or capital lying around, it was quite astounding. We then walked over to where the villa used to be. There is now a museum over the remains, but the floor is glass, so you can see everything. In fact the whole building is very modern with steel and glass walls, so we peaked inside and did not even have to pay to go inside! We continued to walk around the path and came across what use to be a Roman arena. There are only rubbles left now, and a beautiful park and garden inside, but you could still make out where some of the entrances use to be. We then did a bit of shopping around in some of the boutiques. At one of the many confectionaries, I got some really great flavored marshmallows which Will said tasted like flavored Peeps. I then found a great dress for only 12 euro, which was quite the deal! Just what I need…yet another dress!! After that we headed back to rest for a bit, and cool down. It was finally warm weather, in fact it was downright hot at around 88, but we can’t complain because it is much better than being cold.
After a rest, it was off to find some dinner. We came across a great Italian place in a small alley, and ate outside in their courtyard. It was a wonderful dinner with great ambiance. We headed back around 10, and it was still light out…we are that much further north, and made a quick stop along the way to get some Orangina to drink. I am pretty sure that I am turning orange from drinking so much, but I just can’t help myself! It was off to bed to get up early to catch another morning train to Nimes. We leave at 10, but don’t get there until 5:30. There is not a speed train available, so we have to take more of a regional line to get there. Luckily, we are staying for 2 nights, so we will be able to enjoy the town!
Carrie
Doors and Stuff...
As we were walking through Perigueux, I noticed that there were a lot of really cool doors on most buildings so I started taking pictures of some of them. Random, I know, but I like them. I also got the bright idea to take random pictures without looking through the viewfinder so I could be surprised with what I got when we got back to the hotel. Some of them came out pretty well. Have a look!
Will
Will
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Perigueux Day 1
Will and I left quite early again this morning, which is my least favorite part of this trip. At 7:50, we pulled out of the station in Tours, and headed to Perigueux, which is south from Tours and about an hour east from Bordeaux. Once we arrived, we checked into our hotel which was once again conveniently across the street from the train station. We stowed our things, and then headed over to the Medieval part of town. So I completely spoke too soon about Tours being the quintessential French town, because Perigueux is such the perfect French countryside town. With narrow winding streets, shutter lined homes, and cobblestone streets, Will and I got lost in the beauty of the town today.
Perigueux is beside a large river, and the town lies on the hills beside it. We can tell that we are moving south, because the style of architecture has a much more Mediterranean feel to it, especially with the roof tiles changing to clay instead of slate. We walked all around the town for a bit and then got some lunch at a great cafe. Unfortunately, Sundays are a bit slow here, I mean it is only a town of about 64,000, so a lot of businesses are not open. After we ate, we went to a patisserie and I got an enormous meringue for dessert. I have been loving the meringues here because they are enormous, and amazing...much better than when I have attempted to make them.
I had already eaten half of the meringue when this was taken..that is how big it was!
We then followed the map to take us to all the sites in town. From the cathedral..which was very interesting, very simple and not decorated at all. Clearly before the Gothic age, where more light and color was brought into cathedrals. In fact to be perfectly honest, I found it to be a bit ugly and creepy because it was so dark.
View of front of the cathedral
View of back of cathedral, and its several domes
We then came back to the hotel for a bit to rest our feet. Perigueux is a bit more hilly than the other towns we have been in, so we were a bit more tired! We went back out for dinner, only to realize that most places that had been open for lunch on a Sunday, were definitely not open for dinner, so we bought paninis from a small shop that was luckily still open, and brought them back to the hotel to eat. It was probably for the better, since we needed to catch up with our photos and blog. We headed to bed, after attempting to watch French TV, which is really not very good. Mostly it is just old, bad American shows and movies that have been dubbed over with French. Not very exciting. We are pretty excited because we don't have to wake up to the alarm tomorrow, so we can finally sleep in!
Carrie and Will
Perigueux is beside a large river, and the town lies on the hills beside it. We can tell that we are moving south, because the style of architecture has a much more Mediterranean feel to it, especially with the roof tiles changing to clay instead of slate. We walked all around the town for a bit and then got some lunch at a great cafe. Unfortunately, Sundays are a bit slow here, I mean it is only a town of about 64,000, so a lot of businesses are not open. After we ate, we went to a patisserie and I got an enormous meringue for dessert. I have been loving the meringues here because they are enormous, and amazing...much better than when I have attempted to make them.
I had already eaten half of the meringue when this was taken..that is how big it was!We then followed the map to take us to all the sites in town. From the cathedral..which was very interesting, very simple and not decorated at all. Clearly before the Gothic age, where more light and color was brought into cathedrals. In fact to be perfectly honest, I found it to be a bit ugly and creepy because it was so dark.
View of front of the cathedral
View of back of cathedral, and its several domesWe then came back to the hotel for a bit to rest our feet. Perigueux is a bit more hilly than the other towns we have been in, so we were a bit more tired! We went back out for dinner, only to realize that most places that had been open for lunch on a Sunday, were definitely not open for dinner, so we bought paninis from a small shop that was luckily still open, and brought them back to the hotel to eat. It was probably for the better, since we needed to catch up with our photos and blog. We headed to bed, after attempting to watch French TV, which is really not very good. Mostly it is just old, bad American shows and movies that have been dubbed over with French. Not very exciting. We are pretty excited because we don't have to wake up to the alarm tomorrow, so we can finally sleep in!
Carrie and Will
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