Swiffer!!!

Hello


Sorry I haven't blogged in a while (again)





Today is our first half day in Poitiers. We haven't done much toaday. First we woke up in Vannes, then we went to FNAC (a French book / music store) and bought some CDs for car trips. Janet also bought 6 French books (after claiming that she would only buy one!!!). After FNAC we took some photos of Vannes and had lunch. After lunch we drove to Poitiers (via Nantes, and the IKEA in Nantes), arrived at ten past six, parked illegally, discovered that we were parking illegally, parked legally, and walked to the the center of town to have dinner.

 Yesterday (New years day) we all slept in untill 8. We then had a quiet morning at our hotel, and got picked up at 12 by David (Wellington girl's old French assistant) and his family. With the we went to a couple of small French towns and saw some big fields of menhirs. Then we drove around and looked at some beaches, and went round to David's place and had galettes for dinner.

On New years eve we woke up on bed in a train, in a small, cramped, room with two other random weirdos, got up, went to a very smelly toilet, had a terrible breakfast and got off at a small train station in Paris (half an hour late). We then went outside, down a huge staircase to the metro, into the giant lines for metro tickets, ended up buying a ticket from a scalper, through the one working ticket - checking - gate - thingy, through the corridors and into the train. It was all very well until the train broke down between two stations! After about five minutes and a message saying "please be patient, we have a problem with the signals", and another message saying "please be patient, we have a very big problem with the signals" we eventually started moving again and stopped at the next station... for about ten minutes! We eventually decided to get out and take a taxi to the train station where we would take our TGV to Vannes... the one that was leaving in ten minutes! We eventually got there and ran down the platform to our carriage. We were in carriage 13, but unfortunately the numbering went: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12... 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13. Luckily it was all downhill from there. We had somehow got into first class, We got there on time, David was waiting at the station, our hotel was nice, and then there was dinner at David's. First came pre - entree entrees: smoked salmon, chips of some sort, goose liver pate, and then entrees: Shrimps, Prawns, Sea snails, Oyters (which I still dont like), lemons :), cockles. Then the main course: fish and rice, And then, of course, dessert: a caramel and apple cake, and a chocolate cake. After that we stayed up until after midnight, and drove home (I wasn't tired at all during this whole experince, mostly due to drinking around ten glasses of Coke light).



























The day before was our second and final day in Venice. We left our hotel just after nine, to be able to see Venice in one of it's famous high tides. After that experience, I never, ever want to do it again. It took us ages to find a way through the streets to the grand canal, where we wouldn't get our suitcases completely drenched. Then we went to a laundrette (very exciting) and had lunch. After that we went to murano to see some glass blowing, and came back to have dinner at the same place that we had lunch. Later we went to the train station and took an overnight train to Paris.



BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!