Epinal, France
News from rural France.
Turns out it's much harder to find reasonably-priced internet access than we expected. I am, however, not missing it as much as I'd expected. I am typing from my cousin Alexis' apartment in rural Epinal, France, which is to the southeast of Paris. It's very quiet here, and we're being spoiled by the great environment, free utilities, and lack of worry about security for our belongings.
After the original post, we visited plenty of big English points of interest, including the war bunker and Churchill museum, which was very interesting, if not simply for the cool, interactive museum elements. We sat in on the House of Commons (made famous by the wildly popular show on C-SPAN) and listened to a debate about handling deportees, with roughly 15-20 representatives in attendance (Tony Blair was not in).
Flying from London to Paris was not exactly fun. Our carrier was EasyJet, which is one of Europe's budget carriers. They fly out of Luton Airport, which is not one of England's big airports. We ended up arriving pretty early but couldn't check in until 45 minutes later, then had to check our big bags (rather than carry them on as Delta allowed). The flight itself was only slightly late, and pretty straightforward. Once in Paris (at around 11pm), we took a regional train into the Latin Quarter for our hostel. This hostel also had only 2 roommates, which was nice. In Paris we visited the Louvre, the catacombs, Notre Dame (including the 370-stair climb to the top), and a shopping district opposite the Louvre. While two of our Parisian meals involved generally pointing at things on the menu (in small cafes), we also ate at Quick, which is the European equivalent of McDonald's. While it was short on culture, I can't describe to you how good that fountain Coke tasted, and after only 5 days in Europe. With ice, too!
We took a train from Paris to Nancy (after watching a building fire outside the Paris train station, waiting for our train) and met my cousin Alexis, who then took us out to eat and walk around Nancy. We then drove back to Epinal (about 45 minutes away). Today in this area we visited a castle in Epinal, a lake, a waterfall, a tiny zoo (next to the castle, actually), the top of a mountain (more than 1km up), and a sparsely-populated kids' playground. It's great to spend time here, since it's much quieter and the air is so much more fresh than it is in the cities. Most of the places we visited seemed to be populated with only French tourists, but language hasn't been a problem since we have Alexis to translate.
Tomorrow we leave Epinal for Nancy, then return to Paris to catch a night train to Barcelona. This is a change from our plans to take a train from Zurich; even though Zurich is closer, Paris is a much more direct train route, so it's faster. There are separate night trains leaving both major cities for Barcelona.
I found out that Delta credited me with 10,000 Skymiles due to the Atlanta flight delay, which is pretty awesome. Hopefully that means I'll be able to visit all you California friends sooner than would otherwise have been.
Also, feel free to check out Julia's version of the events at her Europe blog: http://juliatravelseurope.blogspot.com/
For now, au revoir!
Turns out it's much harder to find reasonably-priced internet access than we expected. I am, however, not missing it as much as I'd expected. I am typing from my cousin Alexis' apartment in rural Epinal, France, which is to the southeast of Paris. It's very quiet here, and we're being spoiled by the great environment, free utilities, and lack of worry about security for our belongings.
After the original post, we visited plenty of big English points of interest, including the war bunker and Churchill museum, which was very interesting, if not simply for the cool, interactive museum elements. We sat in on the House of Commons (made famous by the wildly popular show on C-SPAN) and listened to a debate about handling deportees, with roughly 15-20 representatives in attendance (Tony Blair was not in).
Flying from London to Paris was not exactly fun. Our carrier was EasyJet, which is one of Europe's budget carriers. They fly out of Luton Airport, which is not one of England's big airports. We ended up arriving pretty early but couldn't check in until 45 minutes later, then had to check our big bags (rather than carry them on as Delta allowed). The flight itself was only slightly late, and pretty straightforward. Once in Paris (at around 11pm), we took a regional train into the Latin Quarter for our hostel. This hostel also had only 2 roommates, which was nice. In Paris we visited the Louvre, the catacombs, Notre Dame (including the 370-stair climb to the top), and a shopping district opposite the Louvre. While two of our Parisian meals involved generally pointing at things on the menu (in small cafes), we also ate at Quick, which is the European equivalent of McDonald's. While it was short on culture, I can't describe to you how good that fountain Coke tasted, and after only 5 days in Europe. With ice, too!
We took a train from Paris to Nancy (after watching a building fire outside the Paris train station, waiting for our train) and met my cousin Alexis, who then took us out to eat and walk around Nancy. We then drove back to Epinal (about 45 minutes away). Today in this area we visited a castle in Epinal, a lake, a waterfall, a tiny zoo (next to the castle, actually), the top of a mountain (more than 1km up), and a sparsely-populated kids' playground. It's great to spend time here, since it's much quieter and the air is so much more fresh than it is in the cities. Most of the places we visited seemed to be populated with only French tourists, but language hasn't been a problem since we have Alexis to translate.
Tomorrow we leave Epinal for Nancy, then return to Paris to catch a night train to Barcelona. This is a change from our plans to take a train from Zurich; even though Zurich is closer, Paris is a much more direct train route, so it's faster. There are separate night trains leaving both major cities for Barcelona.
I found out that Delta credited me with 10,000 Skymiles due to the Atlanta flight delay, which is pretty awesome. Hopefully that means I'll be able to visit all you California friends sooner than would otherwise have been.
Also, feel free to check out Julia's version of the events at her Europe blog: http://juliatravelseurope.blogspot.com/
For now, au revoir!