parc asterix

Mystery solved.

Yes, yesterday's post was a picture from the Parc Asterix near Paris! Bravo ladies! Mystery Guest planned the whole thing for my birthday, it was a big surprise! He told me a couple weeks ago to keep the weekend of the 24th open. Then on Thursday he said I needed to pack an overnight bag... I had no idea what was in store for me!

We drove out to Paris Friday night after work and stayed with friends outside of Paris. Then on Saturday we went out to Parc Asterix! Totally kicks Disneyland's bootie!!! I had such a blast, there was some great rollar coasters, we did the water rides (and got soaked!) and even though it pretty much rained all day I had such a great time.

Thanks again M. Mystery Guest! You sure made my 28th birthday special! I got to feel like a kid again :-)

Obamarama

Well now that I can finally sit down to write a decent post last Saturday has just been mulled over in my head too much and I can't figure out what I'd like to say!

The day was amazing, too much waiting but so worth it! The complication was that Sam came in the day of instead of the day before and as the train station in Caen got rid of their lockers after 9/11 and the shuttle wouldn't allow you to take anything more than a handbag we had to figure out what to do do with her bricks... er suitcase. Luckily Natalie was also planning to go to the ceremonies so we were able to leave it in her basement (not up the 5 flights of stairs to her apt...) that also meant that we had to take the shuttle back to Caen (unbelieveably disorganized after the ceremony, it was so well done on the way there but such a mess on the way home...) get her bag and then grab a train back to V-town. All the waiting wouldn't have bothered me so much except for the fact that I had to get to Caen only to go 3/4 of the way home again (we don't live far from the cemetery) and then do the whole thing in reverse!

But I must say that the ceremony was beautiful, as was the cemetery. It turned out to be a hot summer day, quite different from June 6th 65 years ago... the battleships off in the distance almost transported you back in time and the few veterans that made it this year were proudly wearing their medals. Sadly although we were only halfway back in the crowd of 9,000 we were behind the TV cameras and so we couldn't see any of the speeches. I thought all of them were very good but I have to say I prefered Obama's, just because he wasn't saying the same thing over an over despite the fact that he was last to go. And yes, Gordon Brown did rename one of the beaches, Obama Beach ;-)

One thing that struck me was the respect, respect for the place, the day and the veterans. I'm always shocked at how poorly elderly people seem to be treated in France, brushed aside by someone in a hurry, those big sighs and exhales as people wait impatiently in line behind someone taking a while to pay, no one offering to give up a seat in public transport... but on Saturday all that changed and it was really refreshing.

So anyway it's been busy around here since Saturday! Sam came over and although she arrived with sun and departed with sun it mostly rained all day Sunday/Monday... we did our best to try and play tourist and take a few pictures between showers but I guess that way she got a real taste of Normandy ;-)

I'm now getting ready for Mom and KC's visit! They're arriving Sunday and staying for a week! Mystery Guest and I are writing out a whole list of things we can do or show them while they're here! I'm so excited that I'm not working or caught up in something and that I can just enjoy my week :-) Let's just hope the weather cooperates!

D-Day

The lovely Sam is visiting right now so I'll be sure to write more about this later but I wanted to leave you with some pictures of a wonderful day!

Paris weekend!

Wow! What a great weekend! I wanted to post as soon as possible so as not to forget anything! I decided to go to Paris for the Blogger's picnic put on by the fabulous Katia & KylieMac on Saturday evening. Since I don't exactly make it to Paris all that often I decided to take full advantage of my time there. I arrived at 10am on Saturday and was met by a great friend of mine from my university who is now living in Tours working on her PhD, we had a coffee and then wandered over to a Thai restaurant near Republique where we met up with our old French TA from our university. We had a fantastic lunch there, I had requested some sort of ethnic food for lunch as I don't get it often here in Normandy and that Phad Thai lived up to my expectations!!

We had almost finished our meal and non-stop catching up on eachother's lives when we heard a loud and obnoxious "S'IL VOUS PLAIT" screamed across the restaurant to get the poor waitress' attention. When Miss V. turned around to shoot the uncooth man a dirty look he smiled at her and his pearly whites instantly reminded her of something - "whoa! that's the second time Jean Dujardin is in the same restaurant as me!" she whispered to us. I turned around (this was afterall my first star sighting!) and saw him sitting there talking to 2 other people. I decided to feed his already-too-big ego and go ask for a picture. The movie star stuck chopsticks up his mouth, walrus style for my picture - so classy! His friend said to him, oh that's going to be all over the internet, to which I replied, no no just the American websites, that doesn't bother you right?? haha!
Afterwards by the metro we came up with soooooo many other ways to have talked to him but alas its like a comeback, the good ones always come to you long after the moment has passed. We said goodbye and I ran off to Place d'Italie to check out Aimee's cafe and meet up with the artist formally known as Sam and Leah. It was so much fun to finally meet Aimee and to see her adorable cafe. It is so cool to see someone's dreams come true :-) As we sat there chatting Andie walked in the door with her kids. It was so funny because I've meet up with bloggers before, but always when we had planned on meeting up. When Andie came in my first reaction was to say hi as if it were a long lost friend instead of someone I had never met! But she was great and her kids were so much fun begging Aimee for her homemade chocolate chip cookies.

It was time to go so we went over to the shopping center to pick up the necessities - wine, pringles you know... as well as some maple syrup. The only place I can find big bottles (1 litre!) of maple syrup is in Paris and since I've gotten Mystery Guest and his family addicted to pancakes I decided it would be best to stock up ;-)

We made our way over to the picnic on ile de la cite and had an absolute blast catching up with old friends and meeting new people. We munched on all sorts of goodies including some cherry m&ms which were sent in from the States. (no offence but ick! they taste like chocolate cough syrup!)
After the wind turned a bit chilly we wandered into the Marais for a drink. I left with the lovely Katia and her Muffin Man to stay at their place in the burbs. We crashed and didn't wake up until 11am the next day. I got a text from Sam and met up with her and the others for some bagels but the place was closed so we opted for Starbucks... what a pity ;-) When she had to go to work I met Ambre in the Marais and we went to go hang out on the grass in Place des Voges while waiting for another university friend traveling around Europe to call.
We finally all met up and was joined by another friend, I think it had been about 6 or 7 years at least since we had all seen eachother. Our little catch up (at Starbucks of course!) was too short but great to hear everybody's crazy stories!
I zipped out of there at 7pm and made it on my train with 3 minutes to spare :-) I think I took advantage of my Paris weekend, what do you think??? :-)

Thanks to everyone, especially Katia and KylieMac for organizing such a wonderful picnic! I'll throw some pictures up on facebook soon!