Today was traveling through Normandy with visits to Rouen, Honfleur and Deauville.
The wireless here in the hotel doesn’t seem to play well with my iPad word press app so uploading photos directly here is being more than a little bit painful.
I have uploaded a few pictures to my flickr feed though.
I Rouen we visited the site where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake as well as a number of beautiful gothic cathedrals. The one in the flickr feed is an example of gothic flambouyent which is a later period style where the carved decorations are meant to be reminiscent of candle flames.
The cobbled streets were lined with beautiful boulangerie and macaroon stores.
We managed to order a crepe Grand Marnier from a street vendor at the Christmas market which was delicious.
Honfluer is the capital of lower Normandy and is a beautiful seaside village in the mouth of the seine river.
Here we were able to taste the local Calvados (apple brandy) and picked up a bottle of the 25 year old… 72 Euro but I think it was worth it.
Surprisingly although Normandy is renowned for raining 360 days a year it was actually sunny while we were there… Still cold enough for nice on then footpaths but sunny :p

We stopped at Deauville which is on the coast of the English channel just in time to catch the beginning of the sunset.
The seaside boardwalk here is lovely and has been a draw card fir the rich for many many years.
It was strange as I had just recently watched a French film on coco chanel before leaving Australia and yesterday I found myself walking along the boardwalk where she first got the inspiration for her classic striped shirt and style from the fisherman along that very coast.
We ended the day .. Well night by hid stage driving to Herouville
Just outside of Caen past the Pegasus bridge ( world war two memorial at the site of the actual bridge).
Day three will be exploring Caen and visiting the Bayeux tapestry.
Hopefully the next hotel will have wireless too… We have been warned though that it is unlikely.

Well McDonalds may not be the most suave place to be eating in Paris but it does mean free wireless, which considering we haven’t found any other way to get our Internet fix from herewe yet means we will probably be visiting dear maccas more than we have in ten years ( not hard that really )
The whole language barrier is a little daunting and there have been a few deer in the headlight moments but so far I have managed to make myself understood for the most part and have even deciphered bits of what people are saying to me.
Here’s hoping that exposure and practice will make it easier as the next few weeks pass.
The while phone plan seems to be proving more problematic than expected with Mr B discovering the hard way that data carves dorm south Korea are very expensive ($25 a Meg). That’s all sorted now though and his phone is hooked up again if anyone needs to call.

This morning we spent 4 hours wandering around the 19th arondisment and came across a gorgeous park (Parc des Buttes Chamont) with gorgeous statues and a lake. Unfortunately since we haven’t been back to the hotel I don’t have those photos to share yet just some others from the last couple of days in transit. We meet up with the tour group tonight but before then we are hoping to explore a cemetery a short walk from the hotel…. If we can still walk after this mornings adventures 🙂

In flight route I formation Melbourne to Seoul. From Seoul to Paris we went over China then across Russia(Siberia) then down through Norway to Germany and the France.
The flight to Paris we were in the middle seated section, in the very middle seats. Not the best place to be seated but it was okay… Right up until I got a migraine complete with sever nausea. Thankfully the flight attendant was able to give me some anti nausea medication and disaster was averted.

View of Seoul from the plane as we came in to land. Seoul is crisscrossed with these massive road bridges that go out to Incheon airport and other islands off the coast.

On the first night in Paris we walked through Parc de la Villete, an area that has the cite de sciences and the cite de la musique. This is a close up shot of an amazing carousel we came across near the canal. It is a gorgeous old style carousel styled on the stories of Jules Verne.
The ceilings are painted with scenes from the books and the riding cars were a mixture of things like a rocket ship, hot air balloon and other things of wonder. I have completely fallen in love with it and taken quite a few photos both last night and again this morning.

Another thing of wonder in the Parc de la Villete is the Geode that is part of the Cite de Sciences. It is a HUGE highly reflective ball that looks like it is floating in the water. The way the lit reflect off it is stunning. This photo isn’t great and sure didn’t capture the great way the light bounced off and w reflected in the surface. I want to go back tonight with my good camera and try to take some longer exposure shots and see what I can capture.

I am going to have so many pictures to upload to flickr when I get get home lol.
Oh the scarves I knitted this year are sure getting a work out. Just right for the weather… There was a light dusting of ice around on the footpaths this morning and some of the waterways had slightly frozen surfaces 😛

Wow it has been a while.
Most people that wad my blog though will know what has been going on. Uni was crazy this semester but thankfully that is all over for now and I have a job starting in January.

Before then though I’m off to France and the. Wales via London.
I can’t wait and sitting here at 11pm blogging is probably not what I should be doing. I wanted to test blogging from the word press app on my iPad though as I am hoping to at least try and keep some kind of travel journal while I am away.

Or at the very least post a few photos.
Speaking of photos I have a couple of finished projects to show off. Not the pictures I promised back in July but new projects! There hasn’t been much crafting in the past few months but I did finish off a beret for myself and another infinity scarf.

This time I used two strands of yarn… One of Debbie bliss baby cashmerino and the other a lace weight alpaca yarn in charcoal. It is so squooshy and soft and very very warm. Just right for winter in Europe .. Or at least I hope so.

The beret is to go with my ruffles scarf I did earlier in the year and is done in Morris and Sons quartet. Unfortunately the Morris and Sons sale starts tomorrow, after I fly out so I will miss it, but really I can’t complain too much considering where I’ll be instead 🙂

Overall I am happy with the beret my seaming needs work and in future I would knit this in the round but not too bad for my first hat.
There was another scarf as well knitted in nor yarn to see what I thought of it. I don’t have photos of it on my ipad though to upload. You can see it over on my ravelry page though if you’re interested.

There are great plans afoot for my crafty adventures in 2011 but the explanation of all that will just have to wait for another post.
And this time I promise the post will be closer together than the last few 🙂