my bags are packed

I'm ready to go...
I'm leeeaaavin' on a jet plane... preferably without a prop

Did I forget to mention we took a prop plane to London?!? It was definitely older than us... and maybe even our parents - mostly because there was still an ashtray built into the arm rest!

 

.... don't know when I'll be back again. Well, actually mid-May. Posts will be few and far between until then, unless Mark decides to take over - doubtful! Au revoir France! Hello USA!



quick trip

We woke up to a sunny morning on Sunday and after a week of rain, we decided to skip town. We drove to a nearby fishing port, but unfortunately, after we arrived the sun was invaded by clouds. Since we were both craving some Vit D, we hopped back in the car and headed back toward sunshine!

Welcome to Concarneau... well a little of it.

The middle is our region Brittany flag called Gwenn-ha-du - this means white and black in Breton.

Breton is the Celtic language of Brittany... yeah, we have our own language!

 it's embarrassing - only seven of these left...

 

Looking forward to our return trip sometime!



back to school

Our French lessons have finally started! We are using flashcards, spelling our names and counting to 100... now when is nap time? Our teacher, who reminds me of Mary Poppins, comes to our apartment twice a week for me and once to the office for Mark. She is hoping to bring our workbooks soon and start assigning homework! I'm obnoxiously excited about all of this! Mark, eh, he's much better at hiding his enthusiasm!

One of the fun things about living on the sea is seeing all the people doing water sports. When the wind is right and the tide is high, you can find them all day out there! I'm not too sure when they work... but I guess that's too American of me to think! Here's some photos of a recent Sunday walk on the beach.

Check out this kiteboarder - we watched him for a long time! I have no idea how he jumps so high!

voiture

A few friends and family have been curious about our cars... Voila!

 Peugeot - the big car

Citroen

 

Buying a car in France is quite the experience - especially when neither of us had ever actually bought a car! Here are some highlights...

Car 1 - Diesel. Diesel gas is cheaper in France and is surprisingly better! The salesman asked us to get into the car after we test drove it and ended up driving us to a carwash... where the owner spoke English so we could ask questions and he could translate the responses back to us! We tried some bargaining but no luck. After one week of registration, etc. we were able to go pick up the car!

Car 2 - Since we'd already done it before and we knew we wanted a cheaper, smaller choice, we arrived to the dealership with confidence. We ended up driving one car that ONLY had a speedometer! No radio, no RPM, nothing! We decided to splurge a little and get something that might be more reliable! I gave it my best shot, spoke in the best French I could and actually got us a deal in FRENCH! I also asked them to fix a couple things on the car that we noticed! Hooray for me! Mark was impressed!

 

I really should have had Mark stand by the cars; it's hard to tell how small they are with the pictures! If you're a visitor coming, you're on a luggage limit! When my friend came, we had a few suitcases in the back seat with passengers! The cars are smaller here, but since neither of us drove a Texas sized vehicle before, it's not too bad! Now I'm just waiting until we drive an automatic again and slam the brakes thinking it's the clutch...

an english easter

Europe takes vacation very seriously, so we took advantage and hopped the English Channel for a four day Easter weekend in London filled with a lot (seriously, A LOT) of walking and very little sleep!

We saw lots of sites, drank lots of pints, ate fish and chips and as much other American-like food we could get our hands on, consumed as much filtered "normal" coffee as possible, spoke lots of English, caught a musical and watched... Michigan basketball. The only thing that could have been better was some warmer weather!

Nerd Alert - A big highlight for me was to visit John Snow's Broad Street Pump and Pub! If you're brave enough... A (short) History Lesson from Val: John Snow was the founding father of Epidemiology. He identified the source of the cholera epidemic to the Broad Street Water Pump in Soho London and suggested that the handle be removed so residents could no longer access the public water. This action represents the challenges and continuous changes in public health.

 Unfortunately, the Queen wasn't around for afternoon tea... but we stopped by the palace anyway.

We braved the long line at Westminster Abbey to take the tour. I don't think either of us realized how many tombs were inside and how small the actual "church" area is.

We visited the Tower of London on Sunday and thankfully arrived right as it opened. We later learned that Easter Sunday is the busiest day of the year... toward the end of it, we just wanted to get OUT! The Crown Jewels are housed here and WOW, they are pretty! We read that we should immediately see them because the line gets long and LONNNNNGGG is right! By the time we left, there were hundreds waiting to see!

We walked past St. Paul's Cathedral later that afternoon - where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married. We were pretty toured out so we didn't go inside.

We are back to the land of the French, where we can't understand a whole lot of anything... London was an awesome city and a very nice language barrier break!