Yes l am counting down the hours until Philippe arrives. He is currently on flight to Montreal from Ottawa then Montreal to Paris! Arrival time is 8:45 am our time but about 4:00 am your time..... Flight isn't too bad, it's the time difference that is the killer!
Schedule has already been made up and not by me! My personal tour guide, aka Philippe, has taken everything into his very own capable hands and has arranged everything, hotels, places we are going to visit etc.
We start off by going to see the "officials" here about a Visa........ Yes l said Visa, long story short. We didn't realise until it was too late to apply in Canada that l need an Visa to stay here for six months. The process in Canada can take up to 12 wks and you have to physically attend an app't in Montreal and since l was one week away from departure, none of that was going to happen so the next thing to do was wait until l got here and apply to France directly. So with the help of Philippe, we will go start the process on Monday. Worse thing they can say is no, either way l win... I'm here aren't l? :)
French lesson Tuesday afternoon and yes l will be doing homework while we are away.... We leave for Strasbourg Wednesday morning, only about a 5 hr drive but we are going to take our time as we are going to sight see along the way.
Strasbourg is Philippe's home town and the headquarters for the Council of Europe, where his meetings take place. Looking forward to seeing and discovering his "roots" and meeting some of his long time friends. I have been doing some reading on Strasbourg, did you know that Gutenberg established the very first printing press (around 1440) in Strasbourg and the city will be celebrating it's 2000 year!
That's one thing l find so fascinating about Europe, is the age of places.... To walk the cobblestone roadways or to sit in a building that was built 500 or 1000 yrs ago is truly an experience. It is something you can't experience back at home, we are simply too young. So yes l am definitely looking forward to exploring this part of France.
We will be travelling through the Champagne region, to stay a night in Reims... I can taste the champagne right now!:) Will try to stop at a few vineyards in the region and to finish off our mini work-holiday we will be spending two nights in Paris. Still so much that l haven't seen in Paris. To do Paris right, you really have to have a full week to see everything.
So as you can see, it's going to be a busy but fun filled adventure to say the least and l will of course post pics and info of all these places for you!
Ok, bed time for me... Got to be up in 5.5 hrs to head off to the airport!
BONJOUR again ;VISA eh hope you can stay wouldn't that be awful if they told you to leave.How do you get to the airport ;can you drive over there and what side of the road do they drive on ?What kind of work does Phillippe do ?it will be nice to see his hometown and meet some of his friends.Can you just imagine the people that has walked those cobble stone roadways if only the cobblestone could talk.Well off to the next stop talk to you soon luv mj xo
ReplyDeleteVisa should of been applied for prior to coming here but wasn't aware that l required one for a stay between 3-6 months. We are just waiting for the reply to our request for an extention.
ReplyDeleteIf we need to get to the airport, Philippe's family drives us there usually to pick up or drop off Philippe!
Driving here is just like it is at home, the only difference is........ they are friggin nuts on the highways!!! There is area's that they can legally drive 130 kms so of course people go much faster then that!! NUTS
I have thought the same thing as you Marion, if only the cobblestones could talk, what stories they could tell! They look beautiful and of course historic but boy women must go through heels like crazy because of them!!