Sens-ational

Can't get these pix to move where I want, so will have to be pix first and text later. Too annoying!

Me with my 'French name': ie the French word for Libya.

Majorettes at the Sens Xmas market

Sens Xmas market

Sens Cathedral, where I finally lit a candle for the miners.

Sabrina being proud of her new town!

Sorry, couldn't resist a cheesy pun since I couldn't come up with anything original!

Day 2 in Sens started with a big sleep-in I had been pretty exhausted after the big journey, and was trying to fight off signs of a cold, so it probably did me good!

Next mission was to look at another apartment for Sabrina (which she ended up taking). A wander in town.

And then... off to the Christmas market! This turned out to be a fairly small affair, but had a look around the stalls at the products on offer. There were some rather tasty-looking foods, especially at an ethnic stall from I'm not really sure where, but possibly somewhere MIddle-Eastern?!, but we had already bought our lunch from La Mie Caline.

After checking out the market, we decided to go and eat aforementioned lunch, but didn't really know where would be a good place. Ended up sitting in a bus stop in amongst lots of HLM (more or less equivalent to state housing). I very much enjoyed my beignet gout chocolat: kinda doughnut-like thing, but without the hole in the middle. Instead, there was chocolate!!

Headed back to the Xmas market to see the marionette display (accompanied by some dude that Sabrina had asked for directions, and who seemed to want to befriend us. This was the first time we were asked if we were speaking German).. Don't know if it's just me who hadn't heard of this before but, if you're the same, it was basically young girls dancing with batons. The youngest ones were especially cute! One of the tracks was a sped-up version of La Vie En Rose, so will have to search that one out. Quite liked it!

Didn't really know what to do with ourselves after this, so ended up going to a museum. Aside from anything else, a good way to escape the cold (or so we thought, until we got down into the basement). The lady on reception asked if we were speaking German (twice in a day! Is it the NZ accent throwing them off?!) I found the museum pretty interesting, as it had all kinds of info on the area... going right back to time periods that I don't know the name of in English and have forgotten the word for in French. Go me. Anyway, iron age and before. There were old arrow-heads, and mosaics, pieces of stone facades, tombstone enscriptions, paintings... There was even a hat worn by Napoleon at Waterloo. Well, provided I understood that sign correctly. This was the one downside of the museum. Museums are tiring in another language! Took me rather a long time if I wanted to read the notices telling me what the display was all about.

Went back to the hotel to be lazy for a while, then re-emerged to get a kebab and a crepe for dinner, before calling it a day.

Day 3... well, we did a quick walk in the am. Found the pools and a game of handball (don't quite understand how it works, but it seems pretty popular over here). Also found a sign with the French word for Libya on it... this is what my name sounds like with a French accent. So much so that, when people have trouble with my name, I pronounce it the French way and say "like the country."

Then it was time to get back on the train... 1 hour to Paris, approx 2 hours break in Paris, 6 hours to Toulouse, 30 min break, 1 hour to Saint Go!

Tried to make use of my time in Paris... went between the train stations on foot at a relaxed pace, so saw a nice park, walked over the Seine, past one entrance of the national library (wow, it is massive!), then carried on past the station a bit to get some food. After Kate mentioned that she missed Indian food when we were in Luchon, I was sold on a take-away Indian sandwich. Which I ate in a nearby park, while dripping sauce on myself. Must stop doing that every time I travel.

Then back into the train... this trip was a bit of a trial as I didn't quite manage to doze but was too lazy to read AND was trying to ration my tissues to last the trip! But I survived. :)

Actually saw someone I knew at the Toulouse station (amazing!)... the Bolivian assistant who works at the same school as Kate. So that was pretty nice.

Got back to Saint Go pretty late, so shoved down some food and then went to bed... back to reality!

Sens: The Never-Ending Journey

Last weekend I went to Sens (about an hour's train ride South East of Paris). It almost didn't happen, though. The day before I was due to leave, I was talking to someone who thought that I might not be able to get a train there, due to all the snow that's around at the moment. So I went on a mission down to the train station, and asked if they knew whether it should all be running, and they said yes. So I thought all was fine.

The next morning, I got up for a nice, early train from St Go... to arrive at the station to find a notice saying that the train wouldn't run that morning. Which was really great for me, as the next train got me to Toulouse too late to get my connecting train to Paris, and I had no other way of getting to Toulouse. And my ticket said non-exchangeable/refundable. Argh!

Given that I had half an hour or so to wait for the next train, I reflected a bit, and decided to note the number of the cancelled train. This was fortunate because, when I went to the ticket man at Toulouse to explain the situation, he asked for it. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, he came back with a ticket for the next train to Paris, which didn't cost me any extra. Great relief! Not sure if they did it because I had taken the annulation insurance option for the Toulouse-Paris trip or simply because it was their fault and not mine, but I don't care. After being extremely peeved at the SNCF, I was suddenly pretty grateful!

Had about an hour and a half to kill in Toulouse, then, so went for a wander and bought some lunch for later on.

Train ride to Paris was uneventful... then came the time to get from the Gare Montparnasse to Gare Paris-Bercy.Fortunately for me, there is a metro line between them; didn't even have to change. I got down to the metro, and there were big queues of people in front of all of the ticket machines. By this stage, I'd been travelling for about 10 hours (if we include waiting in the station at St Go) and was not really keen on waiting in a queue that didn't even seem to be moving. So, I was lucky that a lady came along and said there were ticket machines up one level that were completely free. The man in front of me in line and I decided to see if she was right... she was.

Paris - Sens train ride was very picturesque. Unfortunately, I have no pictures, as I was standing, and too lazy to get my camera out at this stage. Anyway, there were lots of pretty, snow-covered village views. Felt a bit like I was in a Christmas card.

Snow on the tracks at Paris Bercy.

One good thing about arriving approx 2 hours later than I had intended (with original train) was that Sabrina had finished work when I arrived, so she could meet me at the train station. Happy times!

The hotel she had booked was just across the road, so off we went. I swear the man verified who she was and asked if the room was for one person or two about 3 times! When we got to the room, we saw that it was nice, but rather 'intimate.' Ie there was only a double bed, and the bathroom only had saloon-style doors blocking it off so, if you were not in bed when the other person was in the bathroom, you would be more or less able to see them. LOL.Sometimes, French hotels crack me up.

Decided to go out and have a look around that night. Quite a lot of snow, so were walking carefully. I've seen enough people on the news slipping over in snow; didn't want to be one of them! Looked at an apartment for Sabrina, wandered through the town centre, and saw the school where she teaches.

Sabrina reckons about 30 000 people lve in Sens, so it's not huge, but it's rather nice. Lots of cute little houses, a nice town square and pretty old cathedral, river running through...

We found a good place to eat, called 'Le Frenchy' and I tried tartiflette, which was very tasty! Then we thought we had better have 'un petit dessert' so I had a banana and nutella waffle. After this, I was very happy. :)

On the way back to the hotel, we went past a bar with some music pumping, so we decided to go in... but we were the only ones, apart from some men playing pool in a corner. We were a little bit bemused as, when Sabrina asked if we could sit down, the lady indicated the far corner. And then we noticed a basket full of washing in a seat right by the door and bar. Not quite sure why the washing got a better seat than us (or, indeed, why it was on display at all) but never mind. The important thing is, I finally tried pastis: a very licorice-y aperitif which is typical of the South (but I don't know where exactly).

Second Week of Holidays, With Random Reflections

Random reflections really describes a lot of this blog rather well.

Anyways, have had complaints (ok, complaint) about the length of time between posts. Hopefully the quantity being uploaded now makes up for that. ;p Just spread out actually reading them... Ha.

Had only a couple of days to fill in before Sabrina arrived to visit. Since it had been about 3 years since we last saw each other (and last time was in NZ), it was pretty crazy to meet up on the other side of the world! And really good to see her again.

Of course, it rained on the day she arrived, and the next day. Well done, Saint Gaudens. Hardly ever rains, except for when I have visitors. That makes twice!

There were many amusing times during the week, so guess I'll just list a few:

• cooking for 2 in my pathetic 'kitchen'
• randomly walking past the movies on All Saints' Day evening and finding that there were enough people there to have a queue out the door
• Sabrina continually getting big frights about not much (eg cyclist ringing bell behind us, lady coming out of a shop unexpectedly)
• making our own nightclub in my room, since SG doesn't have anything except bars
• making friends with the drivers of the 'navettes' (shuttles which go around town, and to nearby towns)
• attempting the exercises for the local fitness trail (and discovering a few new muscles the next day)
• managing (twice) to unknowingly pick the day that there was a discount at the movies to go and see one
• hiring an Australian tap-dancing movie because the video shop man recommended it when we asked about dance movies
• Sabrina explaining to me that if I use the word 'copine' for friend, and say my copine, it means my girlfriend. Luckily, I normally use 'amie' and, apparently, this doesn't work the same way. Otherwise, I could quite unwittingly have been telling people about my girlfriend.
• Sabrina randomly making conversation with the local Australian.

Also several good food moments:

• Calissons d'Aix: praline-y iced sweet things that Sab brought
• Lemon Tart: Just from La Mie Câline, but super tasty! Thank goodness for the actual lemon on the top though, or it'd have been too rich (even for me)
• Peanut butter: Sab found it in the 'world' aisle at one of the supermarkets
• Cherry pâtisserie thing: have really got to start remembering the names of things that I eat
• Super fromage crêpe: about 5 types of cheese in a single crêpe = guaranteed happiness
• Nutella crêpe: simple, yet tasty

Am now resolved to slowly work my way through many unfamiliar types of food. Although, I'm not too sure about stuff like rabbit. I saw a menu board today advertising a rabbit dish and it just doesn't appeal. We'll see if I get brave.