Strasbourg etc. UPDATED W/ PICS!

Lord, its been too long! I haven't written about Strasbourg because I kept hoping and hoping that I would be able to write about it from my house! I'm sure no one is surprised that 39 Avenue Corneille is still without Internet. Maud and I got the livebox in the mail and set it up only to realise that our phone line had been disconnected. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal. A simple call to your landlord and the problem is fixed, right? HAHA! You may remember that it took our landlord 2 months to cancel the Internet contract he had so that we could sign up for a new one. I'm anticipating a repeat of that situation. Although, it is Christmas so maybe we can all pray for a miracle. In any event, on Friday I'm returning to the States where I know that I have plenty of Internet so its nothing to worry about right now.

ALSO, I forgot the memory card for my camera (I'm sure that surprises no one) so Chantal has all the pictures from Strasbourg and I wanted to wait 'til she posted them. She hasn't yet but I have full confidence in her and I'm sure I'll be able to add them soon. Bref, Strasbourg is BEAUTIFUL. It's very different from any city in France that I've ever seen. The Christmas market was adorable and the cathedral is breathtaking! We were also fortunate enough to get to stay with some real live Strasbourgeois (Paul, a friend of Chantal and his roommate Etienne) They were really hospitable and took us to lots of parties hosted by their friends. They also provided us with late-night paella and all the Cocoa Krispies we could eat. It was a really fun weekend.

UPDATE: Chantal pulled through with the pictures.

Skinniest buildings ever:



Lovely view of cathedral:


Inside lovely cathedral:


Crazy clock in cathedral:


2 views from the tippy top of cathedral:


and:


Part of town called La Petite France:


Lovely friends with lovely beers:


After listening to Chantal and me talk about St. Brieuc, Paul became nostalgic for his childhood holidays spent in Brittany and so he decided to visit us this past weekend. The weekend could have gone more smoothly.

Let me list all the issues we had, note how all but one of them are directly related to my landlord and lady's incompetence:

1. Approx. 60% of my home had no heat. My very kind roommate, Blandine, volunteered to use her lunchbreak to wait for the chauffagiste at our house. When he got there they discovered that the door to the boiler room was locked and that the landlady had taken all the keys to Nice with her. The landlady had to FedEx us the key to the room and then (sans chauffagiste) we had to fix the heat 3 times during the weekend.

2. We lost electricity Saturday night. At about 8:30 or 9 Blandine called the landlady who, of course, had taken the key to the garage where the fusebox is. Lucklily she was in St. Brieuc for the weekend and promised to stop by. She didn't show up for a while. I called her wondering where she was. No answer. The electricity came back after a while so I tried to call her and tell her that, in fact, she no longer needed to come. No answer. She finally called at 12:30am! I told her that the power was back and she said, "Okay, I guess I won't come by then." As if it would've ever been okay to come by at 12:30!! I was in bed!!

3. The boiler room flooded.

4. The phone line situation

5. Paul had strep throat.


Quel week-end!! We did have a fun party Friday night at my place to celebrate Maud's 25th and yesterday Paul and I were able to visit some areas in Brittany I hadn't been to where he used to vacation as a child. (Pictures to come!!) Donc, despite the best efforts of my landlords (and streptococcus A) the weekend wasn't totally ruined!

Pictures of Brittany:

Pléneuf-Val-André's harbor/port/someone teach me the difference:


Beach at Erquy:


and again:


Cap d'Erquy (cap = cape, not hat):


and again:


2 Extremely Cold Top Models:


I thought I was cold on Cap d'Erquy, I was a fool. I have never been colder than I was at Cap Fréhel.

Cap Fréhel, the coldest/most beautiful place on Earth:


and again:


and again:


We also journeyed to Dinan, which is a super cute Medieval town near St. Brieuc. It was decorated for Christmas. Here is a pic of one little street:


This trip was made possible by Paul's sense of direction. As many of you know, if I'd been alone I'd still be trying to figure out how to get on the highway from my house (that's assuming, of course, that I'd found a car with an automatic transmission).


Merry Christmas to all and I'll see many of you soon!!