Pathetic

Yes we are.

So today is the semi finals for the men's singles at Roland Garros (French Open, tennis). Andrew and I have been looking forward to watching these games (the semis and finals) for a really long time now (even though Roger didn't make it to the semis and we are slightly crushed - thank goodness for Nadal!). So today we get into our shirt and shorts, put sunscreen on, get a blanket to sit on, and bring our hats and sunglasses to watch the game on the big TV outside of l'Hotel de Ville (in city centre). It was so hot out (27) that we only lasted a couple of hours, not even seeing the first of the two matches. Andrew and I were actually asked to play a match of tennis with these other "semi pros" or ex semi pros behind where we were watching (they have a clay court in the middle of city centre set up), but we had on our flip-flops and were too hot so had to decline. We were so hot we had to go back to the hostel and watch the games from there. Here we are in the forum.

Before we went to the games we went to the top of l'Arc de Triomphe and took a few pictures.  Here is the Arc from below. It is big.

View from the top.

When we got to the Arc (and we have been warned by scams that start like this), a foreign woman approached us and asked if we spoke English. I put my head down and kept walking. Andrew looks her in the eyes and says to her, "Nope! I'm sorry!". I thought that this was pretty funny.

Tonight we plan on going back to the Arc after dark to see the city lights and to see the Eiffel Tower light show. We'll post some pictures when we get back in from that.

Paris: Jour Un, Deux, Trois Et Quatre

Ok so that's enough french. We got to Paris May 31and went on a walking tour... a free walking tour. It was a tour of the city and gave a little bit of history.  We took a few pictures along the way.

The Eiffel Tower. We will be visiting it soon.

An Egyptian obelisk, in Place de la Concorde, where the giant guillotine used to be and thousands of executions took place.

Arc de Triomphe. We will be visiting the Arc today.

It was a really good tour, but by the end of the 3 1/2 hour tour Andrew and I were really tired. So we went back to the hostel and watched an episode of Glee, watched a UFC fight and ate popcorn.

On June 1, we were rejuvenated, so we hit the town running. We got our museum passes (which allow you to go into almost any museum in Paris) and began at Notre Dame Cathedral, which was beautiful. We climbed the North Tower and had a great view of Paris.

After ND Cathedral we were all churched out so we went to Pantheon. The architecture of these places are amazing!

It was around noon by this time so we went to Jardin de Luxembourg for a picnic. The gardens here in Paris are not the same as those back at home. They don't really have any grass, and when they do have grass there are signs saying not to walk on it. They are also obsessed with symmetry, to the extent that all the trees are made rectangular or square.

This is a well known gay area in Paris. There are always rainbow flags flying around and men in short shorts... notice the street name? It also smells bad... Coincidence, we think not.

We thought that it would be a good idea to go to Le Musee D'Orsay. So we went, we saw... and I almost died. I don't like museums. I don't have an appreciation for art. I get it, it's old but that doesn't mean it is good. Also, the museum was packed! We saw some Monet and Van Gogh (which I do really like), but then I was done. So I was following Andrew around, which I am sure is pretty annoying, but then I found some benches. Andrew could now go look around and then come and get me when he moved on. Thank goodness I don't think Andrew has an appreciation for art either.

Then if we hadn't been to enough museums already, we decided to see Napoleon's tomb and walked through the Military Museum (very quickly!!!). We only went through the WWII portion (which was large), and it did not compare to the one in Caen. However, there were lots of French WWII items of display, including lots of rifles and uniforms that were in great shape (because they were hardly even used in the 2 weeks or so it took Hitler to invade France, which, by the way, had the largest land army at that time...).

June 2, and then we went to the Louvre. So I thought I didn't like museums when I came to Europe, then after June 1, I really didn't think I liked museums, but after this day I knew 100% museums just aren't my thing. We get to the Louvre at around 10am. The line to get in isn't bad and we decided that before the masses came we would go see the really famous pieces first. So... we went over to the Mona Lisa. The rooms leading up to the room holding the Mona Lisa are 40 degrees because there were so many people. Once we get into the room where the Mona Lisa is there are tons of people and every one of them is holding up their cameras trying to take a picture of a picture... Don't they get it... they can buy Mona Lisa replicas, magnets, towels... pretty much anything you could ever want, and yet they are still taking a picture. You can even download high definition Mona Lisa pictures on the internet for free I am sure. Pictures of pictures...

After we had seen some of the famous things Andrew wanted to see we were wandering through the museum and I found the best thing in the entire museum (other than the exit): the 2rd floor. Here is where they keep some french pieces, none of which are extremely famous, so nobody is up there and the temperature drops about 10 degrees because the rooms aren't packed with sweaty barbarians.

Picture taken after we left!

After being at the Louvre for a good part of the day (ok maybe only a few hours), I was tired (I believe that museums suck the life out of me, much like malls), so we went grocery shopping and went back to the hostel for supper and another episode of glee and a movie. We did, however, get lots of walking done through the city's large and beautiful boulevards.

June 3, we got to go to Versailles Palace and it was gorgeous. The gardens were so beautiful and we spent all day there. We managed to get there quite early, so the gardens (which span 800 hectares of land) were relatively empty. The sweaty barbarians, however, were soon to follow.

The palace.

The gardens.

D-Day Tours & Bike Riding Part 2

So we moved into Bayeux for 5 days, possibly 6 and we are in heaven. Although it might appear modest this place is sweet.

The washroom is like a trailer washroom with just enough room for a sink, toilet and shower. A room with free wifi... how can you complain!

Bayeux is in Normandy, and we are reminded everywhere about the D-Day invasion. When we got to Bayeux we saw Canadian, British and of course French flags everywhere, which symbolize the liberators of the region. Flags of the liberators fly year round for a lot of the northern french towns - each town flies the flag of its particular liberator - and every year on June 6 there are huge D-Day liberation celebrations.

Here is a picture of a street in Bayeux with multiple flags flying.

May 26 (Wednesday) we took a tour of the Canadian D-Day sites. Here the eastern section of Juno Beach in the town of St. Aubin. Many Canadian soldiers died against this wall. They were supposed to land on grassier, unfortified portions of beach to the west, but the storms pushed them to this unfortunate landing point, which was subject to fortified batteries and machine gun fire.

Here is the Canadian cemetery, where only about 50% of the Canadians that died on D-Day are buried. On each grave there is the name of the soldier, his age, date of death, regiment and a few lines that were given to each family. Andrew and I were very touched by the entire tour, but this part especially because of the huge size of the graveyard (over 2,500 graves), the ages of the Canadians that had died (so many were 19, and in their early 20s) and the personalized lines written by the families of the fallen men. We were told that the Canadian and British graveyards are different than the American because plants and flowers can be planted on the graves and because of the lines given by each family. The personalized words really made brought the loss home to us. Beside some graves there were even pictures of the soldiers and stories about them.

Our guide told us that this grave site has the most sets of brothers in it. He told us a story of 3 brothers all who died within June 6 -11 1944, which means their mother would have received 3 telegrams together to inform her of the deaths of her sons.

We also learned that the Canadian forces were very well respected as soldiers.  Canada was the only country on D-Day that could boast of having a force completely composed of volunteers.

This is in the backyard of an abbey (Abbaye d’Ardenne) outside of a small town where 11 Canadian soldiers were taken prisoner and than brutally executed. This is the monument dedicated to them. The German officer in charge refused to take prisoners, and demanded that any captured men be brought to the garden and killed. This site is very well known due to the atrocities committed in the garden.

The tour was very informative and Andrew and I really appreciated it. It was really hard to hear about the brutalities of war, but we are really glad that we were able, if even for a moment, to appreciate the soldiers who, so selflessly, gave up EVERYTHING, and those who went back home after fighting for peace.

I think that November 11 will have a really special meaning for Andrew and I now, and that we will start to give it the proper respect that it deserves.

So, biking round 2... Andrew and I didn't have a tour planned but we wanted to go and see some more WWII sites that were 10-15 kms out of Bayeux. The French bus drivers were on strike (not really surprised...) so we decided to bike. That's right we were going to give this biking thing another try.

We biked off to Arromanches (10 kms from Bayeux), which was a huge harbour brought over from Britain in prefabricated pieces and assembled on a beach that the British liberated on D-Day (the first harbour of its kind, and it was not known whether it would even work). The harbour is one of the primary reasons that D-Day was a success, because without it, it would not have been possible for the Allied forces to bring in supplies - the D-Day beaches were chosen primarily because there were NOT harbours, which were heavily fortified and liberated days to weeks after D-Day, from behind. 

This is a diorama of the harbour. Each inch on the diorama is 100 feet. The harbour was 3 1/2 miles by 1 1/2 miles. Huge ships docked at the harbour, and causeways allowed trucks and tanks, etc, to drive between the ships and the shore. Massive slabs of concrete each weighing more than the Eiffel tower were brought over and partially sunk in order to serve as breakwaters.

Reminents of the harbour.

Next we biked off to the "Batterie de Longues-sur-Mer" (6 kms) which was a German battery, and part of the Atlantic Wall. It was really creepy to go right up to these guns and inside of these bunkers (there were several), but what was even more disturbing was that French kids (ages 12-14) were on a school trip, and they didn't see the sadness of these guns, but rather saw them as jungle gyms. So kids were screaming and laughing and playing around instead of paying respect to the lives that were lost because of these machines (these guns caused a lot of problems on D-Day as they were close to Utah, Omaha and Gold beaches). This is the only battery in Normandy to still have its guns.

Here is a view of the other bunkers.

After another sad day we decided to stop at the Bayeux public park to have a snack. These parks are totally beautiful. There was this tree, called the Bayeux Beech, which was made by grafting 2 different species together (trunk and limbs). It only survived because of the city's TLC - because it can't support its' own weight there are 5 massive posts and an extensive network of cables running from them that support the tree's limbs.

After a visit to the city park we went to Britain's cemetery. There were so many graves, we couldn't believe it. Some of the lines on the graves really stood out to us here, especially one written by a mother to her only son, and another from a family who asked for someone in a foreign land to plant flowers in in front of the grave. Again, it was evident at how many lives were lost and so, so sad.

Although the cemeteries are very sad it is really nice to see how well they are being taken care of. They are in amazing shape and they are so beautiful with gorgeous trees and shrubs.

Biking was definitively a success, we spent 7 hours on the bikes and are talking about going biking again... maybe tomorrow!

Today, May 28, we got on the train to go to Mont St. Michel, an abbey on the top of a hill with a fortified village below. 

It was a gorgeous site and really enjoyed learning about churches, abbeys and Mont St Michel in particular.

The views were great.

I'm still missing Ireland, but we are getting this whole France thing down. We have found our new Dunnes, called Marche Plus+, and my new chocolate chip muffins have become trays of brownies (nothing compared to G'mas brownies though!!). We are trying out several different varieties of wine (all red though) which we are still managing to get for under 1 euro 50 cents. We are also trying out different cheeses (we finally found out what they call cheddar here), and the baguettes are amazing. We have caught a few tennis matches on TV (the French Open is on right now) and we are enjoying playing crib nightly.

The Sleep Of Our Lives... And Rouen

We spent May 22 and 23 traveling. We left the hotel in Galway (May 22) at 5pm and went for a 6km hike carrying all our gear... to Galway city center for our last pint at An Pucan. We left Galway at 10pm for the Shannon airport and slept at the airport (not very well, I might add). We woke up nice and early (4am) to make sure we wouldn't miss our flight to Beauvais, France (departed at 6:40). Once we landed in France we had to figure out a way to Rouen. We hopped on a bus, then a train, then walked through Paris for 3km carrying all our gear... to another train station and then FINALLY to Rouen (we arrived at 4 pm), where we hiked for another few km carrying all our gear...

It was really hot in France, so we were disgusting from our trek with our packs and when we checked into our hotel we had a shower and then left to go and see the city.

Here is a really old cathedral and according to Andrew "you could probably fit the church we saw in Galway inside of it".

Some half-timber buildings, which Rouen is known for... according to Andrew.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to plan our route to Vimy Ridge and then we discovered that it was going to be extremely challenging to get there because yet again it is another bank holiday (these Europeans always seem to be on vacation!). So we decided to leave that for another day.

We went to bed last night at 9:30pm and woke up at 12pm. We couldn't believe how late it was... I guess we were just making up for lost sleep the night before.

Once we actually got up, we went on the hunt for a grocery store ("un supermarche") and went to look at some of the sites the city had to offer. Me on "La Seine", which runs through Rouen.

We went to "Jardin du plantes", a park. It was so hot out (ok it was only 25... but compared to Ireland it was extremely hot) I was considering going into the kiddie pool.

We finally found a grocery store (the very last one on our list of 5) and so we got supper and went to the area where Joan of Arc was burned to eat supper. Once we got there we found another supermarche so after supper we went and got a bottle of wine for 1 euro and 50 cents.

Here is Andrew drinking some wine in our hotel room (we would have been drinking it out of glasses, but both of our plastic cups in the hotel are broken).

It is weird to have everyone around us speaking in French and I am now responsible for talking to everyone. I am now Andrew's translator... we will see how successful this will be. If Andrew is not nice to me he will be cut off and have to suffer the consequences... me refusing to ask people questions he has!

We are (ok Andrew isn't) a little home sick for Ireland and Guinness, and our drinking buddy Jack (mom only drank wine) and for the B Team's company but we are already enjoying the French wine. 

We Did It!!!

After 8 years, we finally got married!

When we first started talking about a wedding in Ireland we decided to have a very simple wedding. So I bought a dress online and Andrew was going to wear the suit he already had. When the online dress finally arrived it turned out to be really ugly!! So onto plan B, it being April 30 (the busiest day for accountants and the day before we left) I got Mom to go shopping for me and we decided that if she found something she would call me and I would go out to meet her. So she called and she thought she found a dress. When I got to there I pulled a few dresses and fell in love with one. I think it is the complete opposite of what I thought I was looking for.

So because I had a beautiful dress, Andrew went and got a new shirt and tie.

Jim Slipp (an old partner from BDO) had sent an email of Ashford Castle to me when he found out we were getting married in Ireland. It has to be the most beautiful castle ever, but because we had decided to have a simple wedding we decided not to get married at a castle.

Two days before the wedding we decided that it would be nice to get a few professional pictures of us. So we found and booked a photographer. His name was Ik (pronounced "Ick"). Then we (me and Mom) decided it was a good idea to get someone to do my hair, because I am hair challenged.

Mom also suggested that we go to Ashford Castle for dinner and to spend one night... I had said no before, but she wore me down. Plus I would have felt a little awkward going to a pub in my dress, as this was the plan until now. So we booked a room at Ashford.

The day before the wedding Andrew was doing his laundry and decided he was going to wash his new white shirt. Unfortunately he also decided to wash his blue jeans with his shirt (I can't blame him, the day before my white tank top turned blue because I washed them with my jeans). So now Andrew has a blue-ish dress shirt. We laughed about it and just thought, oh well who cares (I think Andrew was secretly trying to look like Brian on his wedding day because Brian had a baby blue suit - gay or not gay?).

The morning of the wedding, we decided that I needed a bouquet, Andrew needed a flower for his suit and I needed a flower for my hair. So at 9:30am we went walking and we found a flower shop downtown Galway. 

After the flower shop stop, I went to go and get my hair done and picked up Andrew's (we thought we would try and get it dry cleaned to see if it would come out). The blue didn't come out. Then it hits me that his blue shirt is really going to look blue because I'm wearing a white dress. So when Jack came back from picking up the flowers at 2pm (wedding is at 4pm and I need 20 minutes to get into my dress at the hotel) Andrew and Jack went on a mission to get a white dress shirt. They ended up going to a suit store that Pierce Brosnan apparently shops at.

They made it back just in time to pick us up, drive to the hotel and gave me just enough time to get into my dress.

The whole time I was adamant that I was going to wear flip flops with my dress because nobody will ever see my shoes anyways so may as well be comfy. Right before the ceremony, Mom left to go and get Andrew and Jack into the ceremony room and I decided that if nobody is going to see my flip flops, nobody will notice if I don't wear them at all. So I left barefoot and walked down the isle to marry the man of my dreams.

After the ceremony, we had professional pictures taken and then we went to Ashford Castle to have dinner and where Andrew and I spent the night.

The day was perfect. I have been cold pretty much ever since we landed in Ireland and for the first time on May 20 the sun came out and the clouds disappeared. Naturally, Andrew and I were complaining about hot it was because now we were too hot. It was the nicest day we have had since we got here and it made it really for picture taking, etc.

Here a few pictures of Ashford and us on the grounds.

The B Team.

Me and Mom.

Drinks at in the Prince of Whales room at Ashford... a bride drinking Guinness (what they call Irish wine). Classy hey?

At the piano bar at Ashford. (When we were having supper a couple bought us a bottle of champagne and then another couple at the piano bar sent us glasses of wine)

Our room in Ashford Castle... it also happened to be the room Brad Pitt picked to stay in when he stayed at Ashford. Andrew said it was the closest he would ever get to sleeping with Brad Pitt - gay or not gay?

The bathroom.

The next day we decided to go for a walk on the grounds before Mom and Jack came to pick us up.

George V dinning room, where we had supper.

Inside the Castle.

Thanks so much Mom and Jack for coming to Ireland for our wedding and for making it really, really special.

Andrew and I have now decided that the best way to get free stuff is to wear our wedding gear. So we are now backpacking with my wedding dress and Andrew's suit (ok, we aren't really traveling with them, but we thought about it!).

The B Team has now left us, which means Andrew and I are now returning to roughing it. Two nights ago we stayed in Ashford Castle, then last night we stayed in a beautiful hotel, Mom and Jack leave and tonight Andrew and I are going to sleep in the Shannon Airport on the floor or on a couch if we are lucky.

Andrew and I will be leaving tomorrow morning for Rouen, France for a couple days then to Bayeux and then to Paris.