Cinque Terre

< Hiking from Vernazza to Corniglia.

^ Notice on the sign "to Corniglia" the small

barred circle in the bottom left corner. It's crossing

out a stiletto, this made for a good laugh.

Cinque Terre in Italian literally meaning “five lands” consists of five picturesque villages’ nestled on the rugged Italian coastline. The five villages are, Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. You can hike to each of the villages, either on the coastline or in the mountains. The scenery is stunning, with the sparkling Mediterranean, the vineyards on the hills and the quaint Mediterranean style towns.

We stayed just outside of Cinque Terre in a town called La Spezia. It was not a nuisance to get around thanks to the trains connecting all the towns along the coastline.

Our second day there we decided to do a bit of hiking, as that is what most people come there for. The trek ended up being harder than I expected, but this may be due to the fact that we chose the hardest and longest two trails. Unfortunately, we started our walk a bit late and were stuck in the afternoon heat, but the view and the beach that awaited us after we were finished the hike made it worth while.

Cinque Terre is hands down, the most breathtaking place we have visited on our trip so far and it will be hard to beat in terms of landscape. The only thing that would be a turn off, is that there are bucket loads of tourist, this impressive strip of the Italian coastline is the least “Italian” place we’ve been to during our trip. I’m thankful we weren’t there during the heart of summer vacation, because that place would be packed like sardines with globetrotters.

The fact that we stayed outside (in a town called La Spezia) of these five towns was enjoyable. On the streets of La Spezia, there wasn’t a word of English, only musical Italian, this sound enhanced by the delectable smells wafting out of the trattorias and the gelato shops. Although notable travel writer Rick Steve’s quoted, “If you want the easy life, stay in Monterosso…” we found it pleasant to stay a bit outside the vacationist’s zone and get to mix in with the locals.

An amazing place to visit, even if it was a tad touristy. Beautiful, stunning and well worth the trip.

Menton

Our one night lay over to cut the lengthy trip to La Spezia in two. We spent the day relaxing on the pebbly beach, soaking up the sun and taking one icy dip in the turquoise water’s of the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, our hotel was slightly on the dingy side and the restaurant we ate at was less than appetizing. C’est la vie, I guess we will know for next time.

Arles: La Flamboyante

What a city, as small as it may seem it lacks nothing in character. After crossing le Rhone you find yourself in a town full of original sights, sounds and flavors, that also happens to be embedded with a handful of ancient Roman artifacts.

Our (my Dad, my Mom, Sarah and myself) day started off at Arles’s amphitheatre, modeled after the “Coliseum” it dates back to 100 AD. Back in the day, the arena used to be able to hold up to 25,000 spectators who came to watch the gladiators fight to the death. Today it only holds half of what it did in the days of the Roman’s and bulls and matadors have replaced the gladiators, but the monument continues to be a window to the past. We had a good chuckle (but I think my Mom’s laugh can be classified as a guffaw) when my Dad gave us some well kn

own words of advice just before we entered the inside of the amphitheatre. I believe the exact words were… “Whatever happens we stick together… Has anybody had any military training?” I swear I could have mistaken him for Russell Crow ;)

From there, we headed to the ruins of a Roman theatre, St Trophime cathedral and the noted neighborhood la Roquette, where we found an intriguing market that provided us with fresh and flavorful lunch. The fresh produce and mouth watering French cuisine made for an appetizing lunch.

We finished the day with a visit to the museum of Roman antiquities, which ended up being a nice, quiet way to end our visit. My Dad even found his counterpart, a statue of Julius Caesar, which is why we now refer to him as Jules or Guius (Caesar’s nickname as a child.)

That night we ate at an unforgettable restaurant called “Restaurant le Plaza”. One of the best meals I have ever eaten. A “must go to” restaurant if you ever find yourself in the area. A cool side story to this outing, was that we found out that the “Gypsy King’s” are from Arles, who knew?

A great visited to an interesting town that can be classified as a Roman artifact itself.

If I could take one thing from France back home with me (putting aside the delicious pastries), I think I would bring Sunday's lunch. From about 1pm to 4pm everyday Sunday is the time slot where French families enjoy a long and delicious meal together. This tradition is something I think everybody in North America could profit from. There's nothing nicer than enjoying time with family around the dinner table, laughing, catching up on the weeks events and savouring the scrumptious food. A great way to wind down the week, there's an over all feeling of calmness, peace and contentment. It's hard to describe, but if you mix those three words together and toss in a handful of other almost synonymous words, you'll get a pretty good idea of this wonderful feeling. It's the reason I always look forward to Sunday's, you get a calm morning, a long lunch with family and friends and a relaxing evening. Truly the best and one of the most memorable souvenir's I'll bring back to Canada.

Life in Lyon

Bonjour tout le monde! Life in France has been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, but things are starting to slow down with spring vacation just around the corner. I'm having a hard time believing that I've now been living here for three months, between school and travelling around, time has just flown by. For this entry, instead of showing you guys a trip, I thought it would be cool to write a bit just about a normal week. Tell you about my, what now feels like, everyday life.

As I spend most of my time at school, I think it to be a good place to start. School here in France starts at 7:55am and ends at 4:40pm. When I first saw this I immediately thought, YIKES! That's an awful lot of school. But in all honesty, it isn't that bad. Considering we get a 1 1/2 hour lunch break and that classes only last 1 hour, the time goes by faster then you would think (although there are some exceptions, hence the reason I didn't use the word "quickly"). For example, french class:

A typical Monday morning french class:

10am: Class "starts."

10:05am: teacher (Mme Bouti) preaches her beliefs about how cod is a universel fish.

10:15am: teacher expresses her opinion on the strong relation between cod and the nuclear crisis in Japan.

10:25am: teacher tells us what a great man Cyrano de Bergerac was (my classmates and I believe she has a bit of a crush.)

10:30am: teacher explains what we are going to do in class today.

10:40am: Class actually starts.

Now mind you, the french teacher isn't mean, just a bit strange. There are plenty of great teachers here. I like how most of the teachers are very strict, a quiet class makes for an easy place to learn.

Elsa and Linda hanging out in the hammac. I guess I can officially say spring (maybe even summer)

has arrived.

From left to right, Sally, Me, Laura and Olessya (a Russian rotary exchange student) at an Austrian party. All the families who went skiing in february (in Austria) got together to look at the ski photos and enjoy some Austrian specialties.

My friend Christèle and I in old Lyon, with our ice cream

from Chez Nardone, a famous ice cream parlor. To start off we couldn't find the parlor, so I had to play the part

of the lost Canadian tourist and ask for directions, Christèle was too embarassed. But as you can see we found it

and got to enjoy a delicious ice cream on a hot day in the city.

A picture of Sally (another Canadian exchange student), Laura and Linda

hiking through the region of Beaujolais, known for it's wine and beautiful scenery.

A girl's night at my friend Christèle's house. We ended up making

ballon, ugh, I guess you would call them people. But to some it all up it was a great night with friends.

Laura and I walking down the streets of the Croix Rousse, a well known neighbourhood in Lyon.

So I hope you all enjoyed having a look into life around Lyon. But it is getting late and I should probably head to bed. So until next time.

Cathryn :)

Escargot

One down, one to go. Yes, I have tried escargot. I bit daunting at first, but it actually turned out to be really good. The herb and butter sauce might of helped, but there really was no gross taste or slimy texture. It was kind of like kalimari, but better. I would definitely put it on a list of foods to try while in France, it's tasty and makes for an interesting culinary memory. Now to find some frogs legs...

Corréze

Sorry for the lengthy delay in blog updates, but here it is. For those of you who didn't know, I spent my last week of February vacation in Corréze, visiting Laura's grandparents. Corréze is about 4 1/2 hours south-west of Lyon, located in France's massive central. Laura's grandparents live just outside of the town Tulles, in the french countryside. Before going on this trip I had absolutely no idea what to expect, I knew we'd be in the country and that we would be doing some day trips to other regions in the south, but that pretty much summed up my knowledge on the subject. Little did I know that Corréze was going to be nothing of what I expected, it was going to exceed expectations. Call me crazy but I feel my trip to Corréze is most easily compared to three layer dip, each layer exposing something new and unexpected.

It's hard to believe, but Laura's grandparents quaint country home has been in the family for over 5 generations. It is a peaceful country paradise, the noisiest neighbours being the donkey's next door. The small country oasis sits on a quiet road over looking the family's "garden", but the word garden is a bit of an understatement. The Salesses's "garden" is made up of a couple of acres of land consisting of a forest, a plain, a river, a tennis court and last but not least a vegetable garden. My favourtie part of the house from an architectual point of view had to be the fireplace. It's mantle was quite a distance from the ground and underneath it were two benches facing each other and the actual fireplace, a typical regional fireplace. A cozy place to curl up and read a book on a chilly night.

Life in the countryside was very relaxing, making it a perfect place to spend the last week of vacation. It was easy to get up and go to bed with the sun, if you got up early enough you could even catch the cheese truck. Some days Jean-Jacques and I would even go fishing, spending all day along the river banks waiting patiently for the whopping 20cm trout to come along. The rain outside wasn't worrisome because we knew that upon return there would be a hearty lunch waiting for us at the house, Jacqueline, Laura's grandmother always made sure that we were more than well fed. Her meals were what most people picture as a stereotypical french dinner, long, big and delicious.

During the middle of our week in Corrèze Jean-Jacques, Linda, Laura and I headed south, to a region of small towns built into cliffs, river valleys and sunshine for a day of exploring. Our first stop was Font de Gaumes caverns. Who would have thought that just outside of your average french town you could find maze like caverns that go on for miles, with prehistoric paintings of bison, deer and mammoths dating back 16,000 years ago. When I made refrence to the three layer dip, this was what I was talking about. It was mind-boggling, unexpected and completely fascinating to see almost perfectly preserved paintings. You had to look closely at times, because there were places where the paint stopped but the picture continued, using the caves natural shape to complete the drawing. Our fourty-five minute tour ended up feeling like fifteen minutes. I would definitely have to put this on the list of top 3 things I have ever seen. If you're ever in the area it is a MUST do. A simply unforgetable experience. This part of the trip also made me realize how much I was forgetting my english. There were two older Americans in our tour group and as they didn't speak any french I volunteered to act as there translator. It didn't work out so well, I tried but was literally at a loss for words.

After the prehistoric paintings, we headed to a medieval castle that sits a top a large hill, overlooking

the entire river valley. A logical place to build a castle, not only could you see for miles on end, but you

also had the protection of a river almost completely surrounding your castle (not to mention the nice

weather). The castle was huge, it would make a great place for a game of hide and seek but for the time

that I was there, I made sure not to get lost from the group. The trebuchet marks on the outer castle walls

made you feel like you were part of a castle siege, you could feel the history seeping out of every stone in every wall.

Corrèze was an awesome and an unforgetable trip. A great place to spend a final week of vacation

before heading back to school.