French Riviera



Me sitting at a cafe blogging on a gorgeous sunny day in the French Riviera.  Thanks for the push Vlee!



The mussels were delicious.  Thanks for the recommendation Jon Wong!  (and I'm glad they had wifi too)



Ah yes...  the French Riviera.  How do I write about this?  Sun, beaches, and heat.  Oh the heat...  And all the beautiful... scenery.  Right, let's just get to the pictures then.

Apparently Monaco wants to make sure tourists don't walk around in banana hammocks.  I concur.

That's a scary slot machine...

 

What I did:

• August 16, 2012 - Arrived in Nice, checked out the Old Town, the Castle, and wandered around the city a bit.
• August 17, 2012 - Took the train to Monaco, went on to Villefranche.
• August 18, 2012 - Lazy day at the beach (Villefranche-sur-mer)  :D
• August 19, 2012 - Lazy day by the pool (caught a bit of a sunburn on my back)





Highlights:

• Beach - I may not be the biggest fan of going on vacation and just spending all day lying on the beach, but I have to admit it's starting to grow on me...
• Food - The south of France is still France.  And it's on the border with Italy too, so you can't go wrong with French or Italian food there.  Sweet deal!
• Scenery - Yup, the scenery was awesome.  Even better than my pictures...



Sea bass wrapped in bacon

Halfway done!



Nutella panna cotta for dessert.  Nobody's surprised by this, right?  :P



Lowlights:

• Holy crap the heat is actually unbearable at times.  You get soaked in sweat just getting down to the beach, and the walk back (especially the uphill bits) are horrendous.  Granted, I'm a bit of a winter person, so I'm sure other people are better suited to the heat than I am, but I can tell that I'm not the only one sweating.  The trains (and the train station) are packed full of people going along the coast, and they reek of body odour (also partly because there are tons of backpackers around and, from overhearing their conversations, it seems like a lot of them don't shower regularly because they are sleeping on park benches to save money).  Actually, the crowds of backpackers are another problem and things are pretty expensive in the French Riviera.  But it's still an awesome place to go on a vacation to!  :D



Baked veal with bacon and a mushroom sauce :D



Beef Carpaccio



Bouillabaisse

Can't Miss:  Sun.  Beach.  Beer.  Food.  Did I leave anything out?  :)



The long strip of lights is the airport.  Pretty cool!



 

We Remember

Normandy - Part II

Mont St. Michel

 

Mont St. Michel as captured by a professional photographer



What I did:

• August 15, 2012 - Drive to Mont St. Michel, drive to le Havre for a football match (France v. Uruguay!!!).
• August 16, 2012 - Early (stupidly early) flight to Nice.



Cup of cider and nutella crepe, of course

Highlights:

• Mont St. Michel - It's an abbey/fortress on an island just off the coast of France (it's actually in Bretagne, not Normandie).  This is the second most visited tourist attraction in France, after the Eiffel tower.  It's famous for being a pilgrimmage site back in the middle ages for devout French Catholics.  Nowadays, it seems that the bulk of the visitors here are Japanese tourists, who are apparently the only people that come here in the winter (I'm not kidding, you can't even make this shit up).  Anyways, you're allowed to walk around the island at low tide, but you aren't supposed to do it alone because some parts are quicksand(ish) and the tide returns really quickly so it can be quite dangerous if you get stuck out there.
• The highway speed limit is 130 - Good thing I didn't go over too much because I saw the French police ticket a few cars along the highway where I was driving.
• FOOTBALL!!! - Actually, the match ended in a 0-0 draw, so that was a bit of a letdown.  Luis Suarez didn't even play (Patrice Evra is French and the match was played in France, after all), but at least I got to see Diego Forlan in action.  I also learned how to chant ALLEZ LES BLEUS even though I was secretly cheering for the Celeste.



Forlan getting ready to take a free kick

Lowlights:

• Traffic and finding parking in Le Havre for the football match was horrendous.  People were parking on the side of the highway and on sidewalks and traffic was backed up so far that I was almost late for the match even though I arrived an hour early (just made it to my seat as they were finishing the national anthem).

French onion soup, or as it's known in France, onion soup :P



Veal again :D


Can't Miss:  Watching a football match in Europe.  It was only a friendly so the atmosphere wasn't too crazy.  Maybe Europeans are more passionate about club football?

Normandy - Part I

This is what I saw when I first arrived in Caen.  Nice eh?

My original reason for going to Normandy was to check out the D-Day landing beaches and other WWII-related sites.  However, I will cover all that in a separate post because I really enjoyed my trip to Normandy even excluding that stuff.  Normandy is apparently known for cows and ciders, as it's a bit of a agricultural region in France.

My first meal in Caen.  Chevre SALAD.  Yeah it's got bacon and cheese, but still SALAD.  Delicious!!!

Veal frites, the rest of my meal.  You didn't think I'd JUST get SALAD, did you?  lol

What I did:

• August 12, 2012 - Train from Paris to Caen, arrived late at night.
• August 13, 2012 - Sarah arrived to join me, we went to le Memorial de Caen and Chateau de Caen.
• August 14, 2012 - Drove to Juno beach to see the Canadian landing site and the Juno Beach Centre, continued along the Normandy coast to see other war memorials and military cemeteries.
• August 15, 2012 - Sarah departed (but I stuck around for another day)

Had to split it with Sarah because I could only eat half.  And it only cost 2.5 Euros!

Highlights:

• Food - If they can get me to eat salad and like it, you know the French are doing something right with their food.
• Bakeries - Boulangeries, as they are known here, are awesome.  I had baked goods for breakfast every day in France and usually ate enough so that I could skip lunch.  See the big-ass macaron above for an example.
• Small-town folk - People in Caen and around the whole Normandy area were so friendly, despite my horrendous French.  Getting around using mostly English was not a problem at all.





 

Modern art by a Chinese artist in the middle of a 11th century Norman castle.  What, you didn't expect this???  hahaha



Lowlights:

• Torrential rain on the morning of the 15th!  Also, everything (including the bakeries) was closed, so we wandered around in the rain for something like 20 minutes trying to find some place that would be open for breakfast before I remembered that it was a national holiday (funny enough because I had actually warned Sarah about that the week before).

Can't Miss:  Food.  Honestly, my blog format is pretty stupid sometimes.  You probably could have figured this out without me highlighting it in this section, no?  :)

 

More beef please!  :D

Paris

Chilling along the canal in Paris on a gorgeous sunny day.  Yup, that's the good life...

What I did:

• August 11, 2012 - Arrival in Paris from London, checked out la Basilique du Sacre Coeur de Montmarte (Sacred Heart Basilica), sat around and had a few drinks beside the canal (I believe this was Canal St. Martin).
• August 12, 2012 - Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, Fontaine Saint-Michel (Fountain of St. Michael), Chateau de Vincennes, departure for Normandy (Caen).



Nutella pizza?  Genius!



Highlights:

• Chilling out and relaxing beside the canal - It was pretty awesome.  I don't actually usually do much sitting around and chilling out when I travel, so this was a pretty cool experience for me.  The canal looks quite nice (it was filled with what looked like students or locals, not too touristy).
• Getting a tour from a local - Right, so Polina's not actually living in Paris or from Paris, but she did an exchange there in university and has spent quite some time in Paris, so she knows it pretty well.  She spoke French (which, obviously, comes in handy in France) and totally knows where to go.  She even booked us a hotel that was way better than the one I had last time (and cheaper too, even during peak season).  Thanks Polina!!!  :D
• Food - Paris (actually France in general) is known for it's food, and for good reason.  If I keep eating like this, I'm going to get fat(ter) for sure.  Which I'm looking forward to!  Though we did do quite a bit of walking, so I may have burned (some of) it off.



Lime sorbet on a hot summer day.  What could be better?  Well...  hypothetically...  what if the sorbet was soaked in vodka?  :D



Lowlights:

• Getting harrassed by immigrants (sorry...  that's the best way to describe it) when we were at Sacre Coeur.  We were walking on our way there and we had to pass by mobs of immigrants trying to sell various things.  I'm pretty sure it was some sort of scam, so I didn't want to stick around to see what it was, but they were super aggressive, grabbing my arm and stopping me from walking off.  Good thing Polina was firmer with them than I was (and also that she spoke French, which came in handy more than a few times).

Moving on from the last photo...  This is St. Michael defeating the devil and casting Satan into Hell...

Can't Miss:  Paris is awesome, just make sure you spend some time away from the main touristy areas.  People tend to be nicer in those areas and it's a heck of a lot more relaxing too!



London 3



What I did:

• Olympic volleyball (women's)
• Various Olympic National Houses - Olympic (representing the IOC or something), Brazil, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and probably a few more that I can't remember.
• Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre





Highlights:

• Watching an Olympic event really makes you realize how incredible these athletes are!  And they're even more impressive when you get to watch in person...  I also was fortunate enough that Team GB (that's Team Great Britain) was one of the teams I got to watch.  It was fun to see the crowd get into it and try to support them, but ultimately they were outclassed by a pretty wide margin and lost fairly quickly.
• I got to watch Usain Bolt win the gold medal in the 200 metre sprint on the big screen at Picadilly Circus.  It was pretty cool to see the whole place explode when he won!
• I saw the Taming of the Shrew at the Globe Theatre.  That's a replica of the original Globe Theatre where Shakespeare's plays were actually put on in Victorian times, right down to the standing tickets in the middle.  Those spots are super cheap (5 pounds only!) but if it rains, you're sh!+ outta luck.  But it's pretty tiring to stand there and crane your neck up to watch the stage even when it's dry.  Anyways, it is fun to watch Taming of the Shrew at any time, but the whole vibe at the Globe was pretty cool, you felt like you had travelled back in time or something.

The Olympic mascots are a pair of one-eyed monsters (I swear, you can't make this stuff up).  They've done up a few of these according to various themes and placed them around the city.  Obviously they want tourists to be aware of Britain's history of...  umm...  piracy...



Can't Miss:  If you're a fan of Shakespeare, check out the Globe Theatre!

KPMG sponsors the ferry in London.  Why?  Because...  uhhh...  no, I can't think of a reason why actually.



Because Percy's an idiot:

• Same disclaimer as last time.  Please stop scrolling down if you have any respect for me.  That probably doesn't apply to most of you...  lol

This is actually a pretty awesome piece of art.  Not being sarcastic, I do think it's pretty awesome.

Oh cool!  Wait.  I see the snake and the dog helping.  Where's the scorpion?

Seriously scorpion?  wtf dude.  Not cool man...  (in case you're wondering, see bottom left corner)