Paris!

And so we arrive in Paris! 

Paris is the last destination on our wandering the world adventure. I was a bit worried we would all be travel weary, especially after a great couple of weeks relaxing at our two stays in rural France. 

Nothing to worry about! That first sight of the Eiffel Tour brings much excitement and Paris has so much to offer, that filling our last four days of travelling the world was very easy.                      We loved Paris. We used airbnb for our accommodation, staying in a two bedroom apartment in the 15th arrondissement. It was a 15 min metro ride into the city, which was simple. As apartments in large cities go, it was nearly large ... not spacious, but we did have two bedrooms and something that nearly passed as a kitchen. So we were very comfortable. We did get to explore our arrondissement a little, usually looking for food, and it had a lovely feel. There is even a 1.5km stretch of disused railway line that has been converted to a walking/running track, which had a lovely feeling of running in a green area so close to the city. 

The Eiffel Tower certainly has a wow factor about it. We saw it from many different angles, including  ground level, from all sides, from the water and from other view points in the city (top of Arc de Triomphe). On our final day, we did ascend it, using the lift to get right to the top. Stunning view! This is my favourite view, and photo, with the Arc de Triomphe in the centre. The Arc de Triomphe is at the top end of Champs Elysee, so it just felt fun to be in that area! We did have dinner on the Champs Elysee, but no shopping unfortunately!

We enjoyed most of the food treats ... except for the snails. None of us were game enough to try! We did however, try the crepes with chocolate sauce ... they were good! There were many ice-creams along the way too.

We loved the cafe scene and usually stopped for a coffee each morning. No takeaways in paper cups in Paris ... everyone takes the time to sit and enjoy. We gave up on cappuccinos long ago on this trip, after constantly being disappointed, so we now drink expressos with milk on the side. This was usually accompanied by a croissant ... how could we not? We loved the feeling of sitting and watching the world go by.

Some serious chatting happened!

We happened to be in Paris at the same time as our friends, the McGuigans. Kate and Michael have three children, the youngest being Sophie's best friend, Lara. Sophie has been looking forward to seeing Lara in Paris for about 4 months so it was a highly anticipated reunion! It was very sweet seeing the two girls so excited to be back together and chatting away. Lach and Olivia also loved catching up with Alex and Jesse, hearing school news and sharing travel stories, so everyone was happy!

We visited the Louvre to see Lisa; we went into Notre Dame and marvelled at architecture from the 11th century; we spent some time in Luxembourg Gardens (with the McGuigans); we did a cruise along the Seine; we did a Red Bus tour around the city which gave us a great overview and exposed us to the big highlights quickly. It was a great visit to Paris, topped off with three days of great weather and our first rainy/overcast day in the month that we've been in France. 

And now we depart. We are about to wander home - but very mud with a direction and destination in in mind. I'm writing this at Charles de Gaulle airport, as we prepare for two overnight flights and then arrival in Sydney on Wednesday morning (36 hours away). We are all excited: we are ready to come home and settle into life again. We have been so lucky. We have had amazing experiences, with all travel plans working close to perfectly. 

I shall write another blog on our arrival home, once we've settled back in. See you back in Australia!

Relaxing at L'Orangerie

 Hanging out at Chateau Parkeau

After wine tasting and cooking French food, we needed lots of time to relax! We've enjoyed time by the pool; sitting and drinking coffees and wines; and getting to know new friends.

While we've been at L'Orangerie, we've met Jacqui; Brett; Fred; and Susie and Malcolm. The fun thing about meeting these people is that everyone has a different connection to Bec, but we've not known each other. We've spent lots of time sitting around together and sharing the wine each night has been a highlight!

Jacqui

Lach & Brett

Fred

Susie & Malcolm

We've explored more local markets and bought all sorts of interesting goods - strange looking mushrooms (which became a yummy mushroom linguine), pumpkins, fresh bread, fresh pasta, roasted chicken, proscuitto, veggies, and jewellery! We've marvelled at many other things also but haven't had the need to buy them- the spices in particular. 

 We are enjoying coffee (and often with a croissant also) in the town squares; then coming home and eating lots of cheese and drinking wine!

The view from our terrace, where we've eaten most meals. 

Meals have been a highlight - both the food and the setting! With lots of people here, and not a busy agenda, cooking yummy food has easily happened.

Lunch in the village of St Emilion

We've explored a few local villages, but often just on market day. St Emilion was an exception: it is well known as a wine area around Bordeaux. As a day out we went, but wine tasting with children doesn't go so well. We enjoyed a yummy lunch in the village square, then had a tour around some of the wineries - the area truly is beautiful, but we didn't taste the wines there on this occasion.

Fresh crepes at the markets

a view of L'Orangerie

Looking into Chateau Duras

Duras Castle is the local tourist attraction and it is located directly behind us. The castle dates back to the 11th century and has been held by both the French and English at various times.  L'Orangerie was once part of the castle and where oranges where held, to keep them fresh. The photo above is taken from the castle, looking down onto L'Orangerie. The large green tarp is on our roof as a result of some flooding that happened at 4am one morning! We were at the castle one day when scenes from history were being re-enacted. There was lots of fighting involved, but as the commentary was in French, we didn't understand much more!


Our time at L'Orangerie is almost over. We head to Paris tomorrow, for 4 days, before heading home. We arrive home next Wednesday, 1 October, which will be one week short of 9 months away. We are looking forward to it!

Au revoir, Montreal ....

The most amazing five months ....

Our time in Montreal is coming to a close and we are preparing to leave. Packing up to leave Montreal is significantly easier than packing to leave Australia! Still, we have acquired a significant amount of "stuff" and working out what to do with it now is the challenge .... four boxes have been sent home already!

I don't think I could cope with this scene and these
temps every winter!

So as we prepare to leave, we have been thinking about what we've gained from this experience.

Some thoughts ...

The things that we gained from this experience .....

- the opportunity to participate in another culture and live as locals do has been invaluable;

Farewelling some of our lovely neighbours

- meeting locals and make new friends. In particular, our neighbours have been so kind and generous to us. They've invited us to their houses, to their winter cottages, lent us bikes, collected mail and looked after bins - and all this, barely knowing us. Our little part of Chemin Laval was a great community. Farewelling them was hard!

- experiencing an extremely cold winter and learn how people continue with their daily lives surrounded by so much snow and when it is freezing cold. We loved watching the snow clearers; learning about the process; realising that snow didn't just disappear and physically had to be removed; all things you don't realise when you visit for a short time;

- the privilege of being able to do so much skiing and really improve our skiing abilities;

- learning that I don't want to live in an extreme winter environment for any extended time again (only to visit for skiing trips!);

- spending so much time together as a family - we feel very much a "tight unit" from this;

- furthering our skills in a second language;

- exploring another city, away from the tourist traps - to really explore the side streets and find new and fun cafes.

- watching the change of seasons has been fascinating. There is so much moisture in the ground, so there only needs to be one day of sunshine and warmth and the amount of growth is phenomenal!

- a new appreciation of the Saeco coffee machine that is in the Dostaler's house ... we will miss that! Tony and I look forward to our coffee each morning. We started visiting the local cafes around but then decided that we love our coffee at home just as much!

Love the coffee machine!

- learning about the French Canadian culture. The Quebecoise (as the people from Quebec province call themselves) are so proud of their French heritage and see themselves as different to the rest of Canada. Maintaining the French language is very important to them.

- tasting new foods and then learning to cook them at home! The cheeses...... and maple butter ...yum!

- experiencing living in a city much bigger than Canberra. We are all very comfortable and familiar with the metro; and Tony and I have a pretty good sense of where everything is in the city.

- an appreciation of so many things back in Australia. These range from people firstly; to our house, to some of our belongings and the ease in which we can do things in Australia. All of us have missed people - both family and friends - and we all have new appreciation of people in our lives. As Australians, we have so much to be grateful for and so many opportunities.

- school in Australia. The children have loved their school experience here in Canada but it has been challenging at times and they now appreciate their school community in Canberra even more.

- being forced out of our comfort zone. It takes guts to do it. We've all had our weak moments, but gosh, it's good for us and changes and challenges do make you stronger! There have been many occasions for all of us where we've taken big deep breaths and told ourselves that "we can do this", even if our heart wasn't quite believing our brain!

- the opportunities offered through house exchange. Isabelle and Pascale have been so generous to share their house with us, and in many ways, their lives. We've become friends with their friends, used their belongings and made ourselves at home in their home. We've become great friends and hopefully our paths will cross again ... if not ours; perhaps our children's paths will cross in the future. This was the hardest goodbye of all!

The "before" photo - January...

... and the "after" photo - July.

Things that we haven't really liked or found challenging ....

- the weather. It has been the biggest accomplishment but also the biggest challenge ... and we survived! For the weather not to go into positive numbers for a month was unbelievable ... and to hover around -18 for most of the day, for weeks on end, was equally unbelievable! But we managed.

- it has been hard to meet people. We didn't meet as many people through the school environment as we had hoped;

- with lack of familiarity to a city, things are hard. So often we would comment that ... "in Canberra we would just go/do ..... ". But to work these things out here has been challenging at times. This has become easier as time passed, but simple daily tasks like buying school clothes and shopping were huge challenges, with the snow also, back in January.

Ice on my boots ... ice defrosts and falls off but you are left
with salt stains. Good boots do not get worn in the snow!

- driving on the right hand side of the road. I'm still terrible with giving the correct left/right direction. Tony knows to follow the hand which is usually pointing the correct way!

- the salt that lingers on shoes, after walking on the snowy footpaths;


So the positives certainly outweigh the negatives! We are so lucky to have had this opportunity. We are thankful to our work places for giving us the time off, to the bank for help with finances and to the Dostaler family for agreeing to swap houses with us! This is an experience we would highly recommend to others. We probably won't do a long term exchange again for a while, as we want the children to have long term stability for high school. But as for the longer term future, Tony and I see it as a fantastic way to travel and get to know a place. In the short term, we see it as a great way to have cheap holidays and we will be looking at holidaying around Australia using house exchange locations.