Hello from Brittany.

Hi, I know I haven't posted for a little while; I have just been too busy/lazy. We have done a lot. Yesterday we went for a 10 km walk. Well, it was 5 km, then half an hour sitting on a rock, on the beach, by the bridge, then a 5km walk back UP THE HILL!! I was also just informed that we have done ten km everyday, sometimes more over the 3 days. Today, we are hoping to go to the Jacques Cartier museum, but with the protesting French, we are only hoping.

We did go to the Jacques Cartier museum, which was his house, but I am not going to write about that now.   Now, I am going to paste a story that I wrote in french. When I was told to write a French story, I really didn't want to. What I did want to do, was play cards. It was somewhat hard to write my story because I had a pack of cards to my right and 2 packs on my left.  In the end, because of my unwantingness, I had a topic which I otherwise would have not. I often spend a lot of time trying to come up with an idea.
Here it my story!

Il y a une fille.  Cette fille a besoin d’écrire une histoire pour son Français.  Mais cette fille ne veut pas écrire une histoire.  Elle veut jouer aux cartes.  Aces; pour être précise.  Alors cette fille écrit une histoire à propos d’elle même. 

La fille s’assoit sur son lit et commence à écrire mais il y a un paquet de cartes juste à la droite d’elle et deux paquets de cartes à sa gauche.  Les cartes sont partout!  Elle voit des cartes sur le papier, des cartes sur le mur.  Elle est vexée.  La porte est une grande carte, la fenêtre est une carte aussi.  Elle est dans un monde de cartes.  Un score parfait apparait devant elle. 

-Cartes içi, cartes là,

Les quatres aces sont devant elle.

-C’est trop!

-C’est trop! Elle crie

Mais elle n’ a pas vraiment crié.  Elle a imaginé crier.

Eventuellement, tout est retourné à normale. 

La fille c’est assise et elle a écit une belle histoire.

My last blog continued…  In the end I did buy some chocolate in Tournai.

The day after we went to Tournai was the day we left our gite.  The night before we left, I set my alarm clock for 7:00 am but while setting the alarm I accidentally put the clock an hour ahead.  In the morning my alarm went off, I woke Sam and went to organize my stuff.  When Sam went downstairs, mom looked at her watch and let us all know it was only 6:00 am.  The sun was not yet up.  The stars were bright.  That morning we were ready to go a little bit sooner than planned.

That day we went to Caen and walked around looking for the hotel we wanted to stay at.  The streets were full of young people (it was a Friday night) the people had odd hairdos and stuff.  Once we found the hotel we got our room and went out again for a walk to the castle.  The Castle was nice but we couldn’t see much because it was late and the museum parts were closed.  On the way back there were lots of groups of between five to ten University age students standing around chatting. The streets were literally littered with them.

At the marina.

The next day…

We got up and sent mom and Sam to get us bread and milk - Sam the bread (baguette) and mom the milk. Then time for fooooooooooooooooooooood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That day we went to Bayeux and saw the Bayeux Tapestry, it was amazing, it was a lot bigger than I expected, I knew it was going to be big but not That big!

We went to Juno beach that day as well. It was good but they made you pay for the tour, while at vimy it was free and a slightly better tour as well.  I learned that around 400 Canadians lost their lives on D-Day at Juno Beach. But hundreds more died throughout the weeks to follow.  They came at low tide to be able to see the obstacles put on the beach by the Germans to prevent an invasion.  But this meant they had to run a long way with big and heavy packs.  They were about 80 lbs.  I learned that the French call D-Day – Jour-J – makes sense.  We were told the Germans had put up a sea wall along the whole of Europe called the Atlantic Wall.  Along that wall they had lots and lots of defenses.  They had bunkers and machine guns and canons and obstacles at important places.  There were mines by the bunkers to prevent parachute attack.  They did not have much of a memorial until more recently.  All they had was a canon.  But now they have a museum with tour guides and a gift shop and a coffee machine.  The have a statue, an Innukshuk, and plaques with information.  It was all done with help and money from Canadian Veterans, friends and families.

Juno beach.

Ferry to France. And much more.

The ferry to France was almost empty. Us, some truck drivers and pensioners. Even so, they stuffed the car decks full and I guess, didn’t use all the space.

We spent a little while in Arras trying to find the youth hostel that no longer exists. In the end, we went to a different square and found a hotel, not too expensive.  It was not a typical prairie type motel, just two beds and a bathroom and a very very small table, no kettle or mini fridge.

The next day, Tuesday, we went to Vimy, and took a tour down in the tunnels. The guide turned off the lights, except the emergency lights, to show us how it would have been; you couldn’t even see your hand in the dark. She turned the lights back on when everyone had their hands up (apparently they always do that and try to catch people with their hands in front of their faces).

Some of the sheep at Vimy. 

Today, we did math! Boooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At about 13:00, we left our gîte and drove to Belgium. We didn’t even know when we crossed the border. The first thing we did was walk around Tournai and admired the boulangeries and chocolateries. Than Sam and I went to the top of a tower and mom and dad had a treat from one of the boulangeries (which was beside an expensive chocolaterie).

Cat on car!

 bye for now!!!

Friday the First of October

If you are reading my blog and only my blog I feel sorry for you because I will be posting what I feel and when I feel like no warning at all. I will go from Toronto airport to the Lake District like I did earlier.

Three days ago we went into a tearoom and restaurant and got tea, clotted cream, scones and strawberry jam. We sat eating our scones and drinking our tea listening to car ads, Lady Gaga and jingles. It was a moment to remember.


Yesterday we went to London. We drove to zone three of the underground parked our car in the station's parking lot and took the the tube train in. I must say that the best part of this trip was eating. For supper we went to the Wong Kei a Chinese restaurant famous for its rude waiters and fast service. The waiters were not that rude, they just were not that friendly, but the food was really good.

Today we are going to Hastings and then from there we move on to France!!!!!!!!!