29 septembre 2005

The big wooden box

On Tuesday, we went to see David (alias gnougnaf) presenting his work on his thesis. We then celebrated 4 years of hard work by a long night of hard partying.
After waking up way later than we should have, and meeting with JC who had forgotten his cell phone at the party, we drove to Chablis.
As soon as we were in the house, we climbed upstairs to look for the lost passports...and we could'nt find them. We recalled them being in a big wooden box, but it was nowhere to be found. I phoned to the traveller-checks agency to ask them which had been used, but none were spent.
We looked in the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom...everywhere. All of this under major stress, which is no fun with me.
At that point, we decided that if we were to look into the toilet bowl, we should probably look more into our non-wooden stuff, where we found 2 passports and travellers checks...end of the story. the mystery of the big wooden box was never solved.
We then took all our papers to the post office, ready to fax the documents to the Vietnam ambassy as planned.
The fax never went through the system.
Don't forget that we tried to call the ambassy about 10 times last week, and it never went through either, so that was not a big surprise to us.
Therefore, we sent all the documents via Chronopost, so that everything arrive this morning around 10 am.
Back home, it was 5 pm, and that was all we had done. We called the ambassy to let them know that we couldn't fax them so documents, and we had to send them, to what they answered: "yes, fax machine number no good, try 24 instead of 42, better!". No comment.
I called the ambassy this morning to see if they received our mail, but "no mail before noon, call back at 4pm".
We need those visas by Tuesday, because we leave on Wednesday. This is getting very scary.
Today, we are going to subscribe to a travel insurance, book the flight for New-Zealand, look for new glasses for Laurent, sort all our stuff to see what fits in the backpacks.
I need to go to Phildar buy yarn to calm myself.
Gochoun

23 septembre 2005

France, the end

3 months ago, we arrived in France, ready to spend an amazingly long vacation and see everybody...
Well, it's now time to pack our suitcases for Australia, and we still haven't seen some of our friends. I can't believe how fast it went.
Jen left on the 15th, after a day visiting Versailles and another day in Paris. We went to the Mosquee de Paris, which was an amazing experience!
She will tell you more about it, I'm sure :)
It took us 3 hours to drive her to her hotel near the airport because they had closed the highway, with no explanation on where to go instead, which leaded us to downtown Sarcelles and Villetaneuse, the Anacostia of Paris, fantastic scenery especially at 2 AM.
Luckily, nothing bad happenned to us, JC just had another very short night.
We left Paris to go back to Vannes, the city where Laurent and I met 8 years ago. That was awesome, we visited our old appartments and campus.
On Laurent's old door, JC had put a sign saying "Hello Laurent", and it was still there!!! It's crazy to think that no student in 7 years took it off to put his own name.
We met with Mumu and Tony and had a very cool diner with them in Alexia's summer house. On the Saturday, we saw a bunch of other friends and we all went to Alexia and Javier's wedding. They actually got married in Spain 2 weeks ago, but came back to France to have another party with everybody that wasn't there.
It was fun, we made a song for both of them, and I played a game that did not work...that was pretty lame!
And on Sunday, we came back to my parent's place for a week; we celebrated their 29th anniversary. As of today, we still have to spend another 28 years and 10 months to beat them...
I was sick in bed for 2 days, but I'm felling much better now.
We left Brittany on Saturday to see Laurent's family in Tours and Chinon. We saw a bunch of cousins he hadn't seen in years, and spent a night with his grandma and parents.
Yesterday we arrived in Paris and FINALLY celebrated Laurent's birthday together. We had diner at l'Annapurna, a traditional indian restaurant with a cithar player. And at 11, we went to the "crazy horse", a cabaret show with naked women dancing, wahou!
It was a lot of fun, and Laurent was really surprised.
Today we are going to Gnougnaf's thesis that he finally finished.
We will spend the next week in Chablis, and look for our passport that Laurent's parents couldn't find...scarry.
We were able to phone to the vietnam ambassy today to see how we can get the visas, and will fax them the documents tomorrow.
This is getting really exciting!
We still have a bunch of stuff to get ready for Australia, but our friends Laurent and Pricillia that are leaving with us are as late as us, so it makes things less stressful.
Love,
Gochoun

11 septembre 2005

Douce France

Sorry for the lack of news, but we have been all over the place since Jen arrived on the 2nd. To show her what France is about, we decided to only stay in Paris 2 days, and then head down to the south.

We still visited Montmartre, and the Eiffel tower with the parisians who had never been in it. We walked the 669 stairs, and stopped at the second floor. I was really scared of the heights and would not let go the railling. In the morning, the girls went to the hairdresser, here they are modelling there new hairdos:We also had some nice French diners, especially at 'chez papa' near Montparnasse, where your diner comes into a fondue pot. Still, We went to Starbucks for the fun of it (and to have a 4 Euros Chai tea).
On Sunday night, we drove to Chablis, and the next day to Nimes. We visited la Fontaine du Vaucluse under the umbrella, and Gordes, which is a must see.

We stopped into a little restaurant called "la pause", which was awesome. It was owned by a little gay guy, and cooked our delicious meal right in front of us!
Unfortunately, it was pouring rain, and Nimes was flooded so we went toward Marseille to look for the sun.

The view from Notre Dame de la Garde was incredible. We stopped at the OM store and Jen bought a scarf for the sport bar she works in Washington.

After Marseille, we visited Cassis, and the calanques. We stayed in a cute hotel right by the harbor, and enjoyed nice diners and walks around.


Back to Chablis, we spent the weekend with Laurent's parents. It was just a few days before they start harvesting the vineyards. In Nimes 5 days ago they were already over.
Some serious shopping was done, some great wine bottles were drunk, and very good meals were eaten...everything to make me feel good.

Now back in Paris, we met with Laurent and his beard at the station, and we are staying at JC's place until Tuesday.

We visited the quartier latin, place vendome and Notre Dame, and we ate a kebab in Saint- Denis. Tomorrow, we will go to Versailles to see the Castle.

Pouchoun has a lot to write about his trip too, they had too much fun to make it short.

Gochoun

01 septembre 2005

back to Paris

My vacation in Nantes were awesome. I watched movies (The Interpreter, Les choristes, Atomic circus...crazy movie), I read a book in 2 days (Ou es tu? from Marc Levy), I knit, slept a lot, played with Pikalou, the cat, went shopping.
My friends Mumu and Tony just bought a very cute house. There is a big garden, I have my own room, the internet, a thousand of DVX to choose from, a playful cat...I could just stay there forever :)
In a couple of hours, I will take the highway to drive to Paris. It's been ages since I haven't driven for so long by myself, which is kinda scary.
I will meet JC at his work, and then we'll drive into the city.
Tomorrow morning, Jen will arrive at Roissy, I'll pick her up with the RER. We'll then meet my sister for lunch, and visit Monmartre in the afternoon.
Pouchoun just called me, they are having a blast too in Auvergne. They have been hicking a lot. They are alone in the whole campsite, and the weather has been amazing so far.
I'll post pictures when I arrive in Paris.

Love,
Gochoun