I know I'm a little behind, but such is life. I decided that despite being exactly 2 weeks from the date this adventure took place it would still be in my best interest to journal all of it that I can. And thus:
We got up early on Tuesday, December 30th. Regan and I had gone to bed the night before leaving, probably unwisely, the boys- aka EJ, Will and Olivier- with whatever was left in that bottle of Whiskey from the duty free shop and a dart board. Danger zone. But EJs a seasoned drinker and we only took a teensy bit longer than we planned to get out the door, and made it to my parents’ hotel in time to fill up the taxi with everyone's luggage. That is, EJ's, Dad's and Mom's. I said a very teary goodbye and as the taxi pulled away Regan helped pull me out of my would-be slump and off on a Sisterly Adventure.
We headed to the train station with a tiny little back pack each and caught the train to Avignon.
Now Avignon, three years ago, was my absolute favorite city in all of France. It's a little beautiful walled city. It's right on the Rhone River and has old, windy streets and lots of character. I was there in late May, though and it was beautiful! Today weather.com had called for rain- 60% chance all day long... I was just hoping that we'd enjoy ourselves despite the weather and that my first impression of this lovely place wouldn't be ruined by a little rain.
Regan did a marvelous job of keeping me occupied on the train down and then keeping up a positive attitude despite the on and off rain all day. If not for her, this family-goes-home day could have been real rough. But no! We got off the train and we were all smiles as we took pictures in front of the wall, found baguette sandwiches to eat, found the tourist office to pick up a map and headed to the only youth hostel in town to try and book beds for the night.
The rain didn't stop us as we followed the walks mapped out on our tourist map and discovered parts of the city I had not seen 3 years earlier. We were lucky enough to find the Christmas Market still open- in fact, we were there on the last day of ouverture (is that an english word?? haha). So of course we profited (another French phrase... Il faut profiter, lol... I think we say we took advantage) of the situation and bought a lovely but inexpensive scarf each. We also happened upon this one really awesome shoe store where we each got a pair of shoes for 10 Euro!! In fact... we bought THE SAME PAIR!! Now my sisty and I have matching green flats! :)
We did more than just shop though- we paid the entrance fee that comes with an audio guide and made our way through the Palais des Papes (the Popes' Palace). It was actually a really neat museum that did a good job of walking you through the 9 Popes (sometimes referred to as "antipopes") that lived there while Avignon served as the other home to the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. (This time is known as the Great Western Schism-- feel free to wikipedia that if you'd like some more details.) They had these models of what the palace looked like back then and how each pope added this section or that section until it got to be the huge size it is today.
There was one room that showed frescos with their original sketched versions. It was cool to see the differences the artist made from the full size sketch to the completed work. I think in some cases I like the simplicity of the sketch better than the full color painting.
We got up early on Tuesday, December 30th. Regan and I had gone to bed the night before leaving, probably unwisely, the boys- aka EJ, Will and Olivier- with whatever was left in that bottle of Whiskey from the duty free shop and a dart board. Danger zone. But EJs a seasoned drinker and we only took a teensy bit longer than we planned to get out the door, and made it to my parents’ hotel in time to fill up the taxi with everyone's luggage. That is, EJ's, Dad's and Mom's. I said a very teary goodbye and as the taxi pulled away Regan helped pull me out of my would-be slump and off on a Sisterly Adventure.
We headed to the train station with a tiny little back pack each and caught the train to Avignon.
Now Avignon, three years ago, was my absolute favorite city in all of France. It's a little beautiful walled city. It's right on the Rhone River and has old, windy streets and lots of character. I was there in late May, though and it was beautiful! Today weather.com had called for rain- 60% chance all day long... I was just hoping that we'd enjoy ourselves despite the weather and that my first impression of this lovely place wouldn't be ruined by a little rain.Regan did a marvelous job of keeping me occupied on the train down and then keeping up a positive attitude despite the on and off rain all day. If not for her, this family-goes-home day could have been real rough. But no! We got off the train and we were all smiles as we took pictures in front of the wall, found baguette sandwiches to eat, found the tourist office to pick up a map and headed to the only youth hostel in town to try and book beds for the night.
The rain didn't stop us as we followed the walks mapped out on our tourist map and discovered parts of the city I had not seen 3 years earlier. We were lucky enough to find the Christmas Market still open- in fact, we were there on the last day of ouverture (is that an english word?? haha). So of course we profited (another French phrase... Il faut profiter, lol... I think we say we took advantage) of the situation and bought a lovely but inexpensive scarf each. We also happened upon this one really awesome shoe store where we each got a pair of shoes for 10 Euro!! In fact... we bought THE SAME PAIR!! Now my sisty and I have matching green flats! :)
We did more than just shop though- we paid the entrance fee that comes with an audio guide and made our way through the Palais des Papes (the Popes' Palace). It was actually a really neat museum that did a good job of walking you through the 9 Popes (sometimes referred to as "antipopes") that lived there while Avignon served as the other home to the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. (This time is known as the Great Western Schism-- feel free to wikipedia that if you'd like some more details.) They had these models of what the palace looked like back then and how each pope added this section or that section until it got to be the huge size it is today.
There was one room that showed frescos with their original sketched versions. It was cool to see the differences the artist made from the full size sketch to the completed work. I think in some cases I like the simplicity of the sketch better than the full color painting.
When we got done making our way through the palace and doing all the shopping we cared to do for the day we headed back to the main square to find a restaurant and my sisty treated me to dinner. After dinner we walked through the market once more and decided to buy these cookies that were on sale- snack food for the hostel- turned out to be a bad idea though because they were the worst cookies I've ever eaten! So gross!! We also picked up some wine (and coke in case we wanted that) and headed back to the hostel.
We settled into our PJs and got ready to play some cards and drink some wine when our roommate walked in. Sarah was from Calgary, Canada and we quickly dropped a couple of Cool Runnings lines before inviting her to join us in some cards. She accepted, though she didn't join us in our wine drinking, and thus the night ensued. Well, first Regan tried to make games up... games with no point and no way to win... she couldn’t remember the rules so we gave her some crap for it before switching to a mishmosh of everything including 10s and 2s, Go Fish, BS, Slapjack and War. :) It was a fun night.
The next morning we all (Regy, Sarah and I) ate free breakfast at the hostel and then walked
back through the walled part of the city and up to Palais des Papes. Regan and I had not visited the church yesterday and Sarah hadn't seen any of Palais des Papes. So we did the church together and then wandered through the popes gardens and then picked up another "tourist walk" from our map and followed it through the old, narrow, winding streets, noticing the abbeys and the architecture as we wandered. We also took Sarah back to our favorite shoe store so she could get a cheap pair of shoes too. :) Sarah had to catch her train around 1:00, so we left her at the train station and went to go get some lunch. In our wandering yesterday we had seen a place with a delicious looking lunch menu and so we returned there for what was indeed a delicious meal. My sister ordered steak tartar, which I think might have made me throw up, but she loved it, and I got chicken in tasty mushroom sauce. Both came with fresh, home-cut fries. Yum. Then we too caught our train and headed back to Lyon to bring in the New Year! 
Olivier had invited some people over (I tried but all the assistants were out of town!) and the party began around 8 or 9. He had made chicken wings in 3 different sauces for dinner along with the chips and snacks we had to munch on. If any photo is indicative of where an evening is headed, this should be it: this was the first photo taken for the evening.
As we continued to eat, drink and be merry my cell phone rang and I answered it to hear random French coming back at me. I handed the phone off to someone who would be able to understand better (french on the phone is hard when you're in a quite room by yourself, let alone when you have english, spanish and french going on around you). Turns out they were a radio station asking me what my favorite radio station was. I didn't listen to french radio I said to the room and the Frenchies all started quickly brainstorming which station was on the phone... they yelled a couple different answers before I think the other line got frustrated and honestly, I don’t know who hung up first, us or them. A little while later we realized that my phone service is tied to NRJ (pronounced energy in French) radio station... duh!! Oh well, no huge winnings for me this new years.
At some point in the evening it was asked that I do an exhibition of my tap dancing skills so Olivier pulled out a couple of wood boards to put on the floor and I pulled out my tap shoes. Not having anything prepared and not having tapped since May I just sort of spit off some random steps, but yeah... that was... interesting... the boards kept moving underneath my feet and I was worried I was going to step on someone's hand as they went to push it back under my feet... ahh impromptu tap, haha.
To Olivier's slight frustration we started having way too much fun picking out music choices. A playlist of sorts-- this is what we can remember at least (and I mean that in a "who remembers every song played the night before" way not a "we were so drunk we can't remember what we sang and danced to" way- promise!!):
Black Eyed Peas- “Let’s Get Retarded”
At some point in the evening it was asked that I do an exhibition of my tap dancing skills so Olivier pulled out a couple of wood boards to put on the floor and I pulled out my tap shoes. Not having anything prepared and not having tapped since May I just sort of spit off some random steps, but yeah... that was... interesting... the boards kept moving underneath my feet and I was worried I was going to step on someone's hand as they went to push it back under my feet... ahh impromptu tap, haha.
To Olivier's slight frustration we started having way too much fun picking out music choices. A playlist of sorts-- this is what we can remember at least (and I mean that in a "who remembers every song played the night before" way not a "we were so drunk we can't remember what we sang and danced to" way- promise!!):
Black Eyed Peas- “Let’s Get Retarded”
“Sweet Dreams”
“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cindy Lauper
“Total Eclipse of the Heart”
Celine Dion (around here I was on the phone with Aunt Susie I think... I just remember feeling the distinct need to get off the phone for the next song, haha)
Ace of Base “I Saw The Sign”
Spice Girls “Wanna Be”
Brittany Spears “Toxic” “Womanizer” “Hit Me Baby, One More Time”
Akon “Right Now (Na Na Na)
Duex chansons francais que je ne connais pas
Rita Mitsuko “Andy”
OAR “Crazy Game of Poker”
“Voyage Voyage” (french)
Some sort of Arab Rap
Kiss
We did the Electric Slide to Achy Breaky Heart (and Marion, Lionel’s girlfriend, actually picked it up and did it with Regy and I!!)
This is a condensed list, but you get the idea... it was a crazy night... and there was much dancing and singing that went with it all (I was going to upload a photo... I failed... check the Picasa site soon though and they'll be there)
I also remember that when it actually turned midnight Regan and Will and I tried to clang pots and pans together- as is the tradition in the Bertke household- only to get a sour look from the owner of said pots and pan. (Laughter!!!)
I honestly couldn't tell you around what time we went to bed. I know before the night was over Will and I did Tequilla shots (only two) and that at some point Regan decided to take "butt shots"-- photos of everyone's tush
This is a condensed list, but you get the idea... it was a crazy night... and there was much dancing and singing that went with it all (I was going to upload a photo... I failed... check the Picasa site soon though and they'll be there)
I also remember that when it actually turned midnight Regan and Will and I tried to clang pots and pans together- as is the tradition in the Bertke household- only to get a sour look from the owner of said pots and pan. (Laughter!!!)
I honestly couldn't tell you around what time we went to bed. I know before the night was over Will and I did Tequilla shots (only two) and that at some point Regan decided to take "butt shots"-- photos of everyone's tush
The next morning, after cleaning and breakfast, Regan and I went to explore Lyon. And despite the warning that "Nothing would be open, it was the 1st of the year. Regan won't even be able to buy cigarettes" we managed not only to get cigarettes and a free lighter (for the cute American) but we also had a cup of hot chocolate at one of the many open cafes in Vieux Lyon and had a delicious hot crepe while visiting the touristy part of the city. It was a leisurely but cold day and we headed back to the apartment that afternoon to pack up Regan’s stuff and relax in warmth before she would head back to the good old US of A the very next morning.
I got up with her on Friday and took the 40 minute bus to the airport. Once all checked in we sat and had some not very good hot chocolate and said our last goodbyes. Then she went through security and I went home. It was sad to see her go, but it had been one hell of a Sisterly Adventure! What a rockin' few days we had together!
1 commentaire:
:) Your blog es muy bueno.
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