Out and About

Naomi has been seeing and doing many things this past month or so. For example, I went to Nice in the south of France on the riviera. I don't much care for the south. I know, I know, how can you not? It just wasn't my thing. Beautiful coastline, but it seems to be mostly over-developped and over-crowded. I'd rather spend my time elsewhere. The most interesting part of this little trip was skipping over to Monaco for a morning. Here I can be seen in front of the famous Monte Carlo casino. It's incredible how small and clean Monaco is. It's literally a strip of land along the coast. You could walk from one end of the city to the other in an hour or so.

This is the view you get as you exit the train station. Guessing by the reactions of other male tourists about me, Monaco is full of 'hot' cars. Ok, I'm not so clueless, I know I saw a Lamborghini in front of the casino! But the car that interested me most was this convertible Smart car that had no windshield or doors. Pretty much a golf cart!

The other fun thing was looking at all the luxery yachts down in the harbour. Monaco is definetly a playground for the rich and richer. Funny thing is, other than that, I can see absolutely no other use for it.

A place that I did love was Amsterdam. Can you find me in this picture?
Amsterdam has more bikes than cars. The bikes are virtually all this style and are literally everywhere. Every available pole, railing and bike rack is covered in bikes. Every road has a bike lane. It's very cool. Good thing I went with a friend though, because I had this really bad habit of stepping out in front of the bike traffic without looking. Shannon prevented me from causing great dammage to both myself and the cyclists of Amsterdam on many occasions.
We had a great time walking along the canals looking at all the houses and houseboats, and we also spent a lot of time hanging out in funky cafes. One thing I've missed in France is relaxed coffee houses. Tons of cafes here where you can have a wee cafe creme, but you always sit on a wicker chair at one of those typical little round cafe tables. France just doesn't do the relaxed coffee bit. We were able to find a few relaxed cafes where we could hang-out and watch the hipsters of Amsterdam. You have to be careful though, a "coffee shop" in Amsterdam mainly serves-up pot, with a few beverages on the side. You really have to look for the coffee house style cafe for the "other" type of coffee shop that I know and love. Actually, it's not that hard, the "coffee shops" are very clearly marked for the tourists.

Arras Nightlife

There is definetly some sort of operetta being performed just accross the street from my house at this very moment. It looks a little bit like this (see above) from my bedroom window. The ominous-looking mansion across the street is still a bit of a mystery to us. Sometimes we hear lots of music lessons drifting out of its windows, other times we see people practicing archery in the yard. It's tough to tell just what is going on over there. Is it a conservatory or an outdoor sports school? Tonight, the side of the building is being used as a backdrop and setting on which to stage a play of sorts. They're even making use of the second story balconies! Every now and then I hear the can-can. What excitement here in Arras.
And since we're talking about evenings in Arras, this would be a good time to show you the town's beautiful belfry. There are many of these Flemmish style belfries in this area of France and Belgium and together they have been made a UNESCO world heritage site.

When not gazing at the belfry, one can also sit in the streets of Arras and ponder the marvels of a tiny bar fridge and how exactly to move it into your supervisor's new apartment, as you can see some of my roommates doing here:
It's hard to keep a blog interesting, ok?

General Harpo

Back in July, General Harpo (a.k.a. Stephen Harper) stopped by for a visit. I had the honour of passing him a wreath during a very brief ceremony in the cemetary. It was a nice ceremony, though the woman running the visit sort of ruined it by whispering (rather loudly): "10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds" from somewhere just behind the Primeminister throughout the 2 minute silence. The most interesting thing about the visit was watching the media, the entourage, and his handlers. This visit was a photo-op, nothing more, and so at each stop on site, the media bus went ahead, and all the little media-types scurried off the bus to get in position for the perfect shot just before the PM arrived. My co-worker from Nova Scotia who had a few minutes to talk with him about what he could see on the battlefield below the monument was impressed that the PM would not let his handler rush him, but insisted on asking some questions about the Vimy battle.

In under an hour the whole visit was done and we were left with this sweet little photo of us guides and our PM.

What I thought was more interesting than his visit to Vimy was his visit to another cemetary with his wife just before coming to Vimy. They went to visit the grave of a great uncle of his wife's who died in WWI. Mrs. Harper shed some tears and this made for a great snapshot but what the media didn't report was that when they arrived at this little cemetary in the middle of a field, the entire nearby town had shown up to greet them. I guess they had heard Mr. and Mrs. PM of Canada were coming and they all turned out waving Canadian flags. I thought that was sweet. I can't get over how much they love Canadians here. It's like we can do no wrong!

And while we're on the topic of people loving Canadians, now would be a great time to tell you my little anecdote about clearing British customs. I have travelled to London on the Eurostar out of Lille (a city one hour north of here just next to the Belgian border) twice now and both times I have been complemented by the British customs officer.
Customs: "What are you doing in France?"
Me: "I'm working at the Canadian war memorial at Vimy."
Customs (in a very thoughtful and sincere voice): "You guys do great work there. Have a great trip!"
It's very nice to be so appreciated.