A brief introduction to Paris and learning about the past

Clock art at Gare St. Lazare

The day after the Kangaroo joined us we flew to Paris. Or, rather, we flew near Paris and took a bus the rest of the way (after a rather shady looking Frenchman tried to offer us a lift). From the moment we arrived it felt as though we were lost - it was also a far cry from the Paris I remember from 7 years ago.

Together we negotiated the metro system to get to Paris Gare St. Lazare where we intended to catch our first InterRail/EURail train to Caen. We didn't know about the "social action" (aka: a strike) which had started a couple of days earlier. After queuing for ages to get their passes validated, the Bear and Kangaroo were ready to go. Unfortunately, we had missed our train so we decided to have a late lunch nearby instead.

After filling up on burgers, fois gras, and French desserts we were on the next train to Caen - which just so happened to be packed so full we spent the 2 hour journey sitting on the floor.

D-Day posters at the train station

It was a relatively uneventful evening after that, which I believe C & J spent the majority of asleep. The next morning we caught a bus to Courseulles-sur-Mar, a little over an hour away. We were lucky enough to catch the bus with a lovely French woman who gave us advice and helped us find our train back to Paris, as well as making sure we knew when to leave in order to catch said train. This did, unfortunately, leave us with less than two hours to spend in Courseulles, but at least we had the opportunity to visit the Juno Beach Centre.

Map of the planned invasion

The centre was inspiring. It was built around the information and history of the Canadian forces who took part in the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. We didn't make it for the anniversary itself, but we did our best to be there as close to the time as possible. There were still many commemorative decorations around - it was so strange to see so many Canadian flags in France!

Outside the centre there is a memorial garden with plaques and names for all those who gave their lives during the operation; inside they have a wonderfully informative and interactive exhibit about the history leading up to the landings and Canada's role in the war.

The entire experience was moving. I come from a military family, although (to the best of my knowledge) none of my family participated in either war. Despite this, the knowledge gleaned from our visit and the life, experiences and repercussions laid out before us was extremely emotional and informative.

Field of poppies nearby

I would definitely recommend a visit to the Centre for anyone who is interested in Canadian war history. There were other museums nearby as well - it was a rather long stretch of beach - but we didn't have time to visit them; however, I am sure there is much available for the inquisitive mind.

After our visit we hopped on another bus and made our slow way back to Paris.

'Til next time

~Crown

A Day (and a bit) in Edinburgh

Old Scottish pounds

Our first (and only) day in Edinburgh was wet, wet, wet! It started raining before we had even woken up, and despite hopes to the contrary, continued all day. We took the bus into Edinburgh central where we started our walking tour of the city.

After a quick stop past the café where JK Rowling started writing the Harry Potter series, the Bear and I found a lovely little café called Hula where we had a delicious breakfast and made plans for the rest of our day.

Our first site of interest was a gallery just up the road (and hill) from the café. We can remember neither the name of the gallery nor the show; which is somewhat ironic seeing as it had to do with forgotten places or something of the like. I also don't think I would recommend it - the art was of wonderful quality and style, but the subject matter left some to be wanting.

Rain at the castle

Our second destination was Edinburgh Castle; this place I can highly recommend! We started our explorations with a free walking tour of the different buildings. All outside. All in the rain. This was followed by a visit to the Crown Jewels of Scotland, as well as the Stone of Destiny. The exhibition surrounding these items was interesting and very dynamic, it is definitely worth seeing! Walking into the room where the jewels were kept was breathtaking. It took me a moment to realise I wasn't looking at replicas but the real things - daft, I know, but there was so much information to mull over as we made our way to the treasury room that I, at first, hadn't realised I had walked into it!

This was followed by a tour of the royal apartments, then the Great Hall. Where we met "Queen Margaret" who told us all about her life in Scotland, as well as her legacy. We later visited her chapel which was built in her honour by her son and was the only building at the castle left standing after Robert the Bruce's forces came knocking; this by his direct order. It is also the oldest building in Edinburgh.

After these rooms we payed our respects at the Edinburgh War Memorial, another awe inspiring building full of regiments' banners, carvings, stained glass and books of the dead. We will remember them.

We also stopped by the rather large cannon that I took to calling "Big Bertha" - real name "Mons Meg". It takes huge cannon balls and has only been fired once, I believe. Afterwards we visited the prison of the castle, mostly it used to hold prisoners of war during the American Civil War and beyond.

Finally, we had enough of the rain and went to find some dinner, though not before a spot of shopping.

Tasty pub grub

We ate at Deacon Brodie on the Royal Mile where we sampled some of the local delicacy - haggis - and filled our tumms with hot pub grub; this was just what we needed after a day of trekking through the rain, and to prepare us for the walk back to the bus and, thus, "home".

The next morning we got up relatively early so we could eat and be on our way. We made sure to grab a Geocache en route, proceeded to get lost in Edinburgh (even with a Sat Nav) and, eventually - after driving the same stretch of road four times - were on the road towards The Lake District!

More Sat Nav mistakes and glorious sunshine (finally!) in our next entry.

~Crown

Enjoying the haggis, neeps and tatties

Hello again!

I've been in quite an adventure over the last few days! Yesterday, the Crown and I went into London central and wandered the city as a couple of tourists. We headed into town by express train and went to lunch with a couple of her friends. After a delightful meal of classic pub grub, we headed over to Fe's old work place and I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes to draw up some preliminary sketches for our group crest. 

After we left, we went to see the Imperial War Museum (which need up being closed for renovations), the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben, as well as Buckingham Palace and the Canadian Memorial in the park just off of the Palace.

We did see quite a lot and by the time we walked back to Waterloo station, we were both a bit tuckered out! We managed to catch the train back towards Aunty G and J's home where we are staying and this is where the adventure really began! We had decided on the train that it would be much easier to walk home from the station than try and figure out the bus system at around 8 in the evening, well boy, was that mistake #1! We ended up taking the longer of 2 routes back home. Instead of a 2 km walk, we took the long way home at almost 4 km, bringing our total distance throughout the day to 14km (now, for those who don't know me, I have REALLY bad knees and hips, and generally do not walk long distance in order to be able to function the next day).

However, we did make it home after passing some rather grand houses across the golf course in the neighbourhood.

Today we went to Guildford which is a town close by and went to run a couple of errands as well, one of which was collecting Fe's little sports car, which means we can head out on longer trips up north. Yay!

Tomorrow we are going with Aunty G and one of the doggies to a dog show in Redding, which should be super interesting! I'll let you know how that goes!

Cheers,

C- the Bear