On y va à Geneve! Day One

Lac Leman

The second week of my Gramma’s visit we decided to go to Geneva. My Gramma’s good friend of many years lives in a small town just outside of the city. After some humming and hawing we decided on leaving the Monday for a four day visit. Our trip started out with a little bump that I suppose must be included; I had remembered our train time to be nearly thirty minutes later then its actual time. I only discovered the correct time while strolling to the station Monday morning. We had planned to have a nice walk to the station and perhaps grab a café and a croissant. Luckily we had intended to do so or we wouldn’t have made it at all; we had quite the run to the station and made our train with less then a minute to spare as the door closed behind us!

Swans at the Water

With that behind us though we made our way to Geneva by train where my Grandmother’s friend met us in the station just a little after noon. Together we took the local transit to her little town outside Geneva for a wonderful lunch. After we had refreshed ourselves, we went for a drive around the countryside stopping in Nyon to walk along the waterfront, grab some gelato, and make our way up through the city streets to a look out at the  Château de Nyon.

Back in the car, we continued our tour around the little villages climbing the slopes on the northwest side of Lac Leman for a spectacular view of Mont Blanc.

We returned to my Gramma’s friend's home to finish our day with a wonderful dinner of Raclette. 

Gramma comes to France!!

And now the impossible task remains; to record my grandmother’s wonderful visit this past September....

My Gramma arrived Tuesday September 7th, I met her at the airport and together we made the trek back to Arras. It was only a trek because of the national strike that just so happened to be held that day; instead of taking the next train to Arras from the Charles de Gaulle airport we had to catch an RER metro train to Paris Nord and from there wait three hours for the only train to Arras. 

Cafe in the rue piétons 

The next day we spent lounging in the apartment because of the rain, and to get over the jetlag of the long journey from Canada. The weather improved the next day so we did a bit of shopping, took a café on the terrace in the pedestrian street, sent some post cards, and saw Arras’ enormous cathedral. We also had a delicious dinner at the La Clef des Sens. 

The Arras Belffoi lit up after our dinner

The following day was equally as nice so we finished up our shopping and had lunch at Polonia. Polonia is a Polish restaurant that I had really wanted to try. You have to make a reservation because they only cook accordingly and they only serve at lunch. It was a very interesting little spot and in my mind is a precise example of a northern French restaurant even through it serves Polish cuisine!

A Picnic in the Park

Saturday we made our first trip out of Arras. After walking through the market on our way to the train station we took the regional TER line to Cambrai. We had a wonderful time with a picnic in the park, walking around the old streets, having a pint on a terrace in the main square, and of course doing a bit more shopping. 

Clock Tower in the Grand Place - Cambrai

The next day was a Sunday; a good day to rest in France because not much is open! We relaxed for the morning, and in the afternoon we visited the Beaus Arts Musee. The Musee is in the building of the old Abbey Saint-Vaast. The architecture is spectacular and their collection is also quite impressive for a small ville like Arras.

 

After visiting the museum we still had some time to spare before dinner so we picked up some pre dinner desert and hired the local bike tour to take us around. With an ice cream cone in hand we boarded the velo for an excellent tour of Arras.

More to come, next post Geneva!

Beer, Chocolate, Brugge...

Where's Christi? Can you find me?

After everyone returned home to Canada Andre still had a few days off, so we decided to have a little getaway in Brugge. We took the train Tuesday morning and stayed over for one night. The Lamirandes had been to Bruges while they were here and left us the guidebook they used for sightseeing. We hit all the “hotspots” that interested us in the book, including a small statue of the Virgin Mary by Michelangelo, the lace makers club, and the blood of Christ. It was our first time bringing such a little guidebook around with us (we usually look into what we’d like to see on the web before we go) and it gave us a fun and different perspective not only because of the interesting “hotspots of Bruges” but also because every other tourist we saw had the same book!

View of the Canal and a packed Boat Tour

When we arrived we walked around the city, saw the aforementioned statue, and went on a Brewery tour. The De Halve Maan Brewery is the last family Brewery left in Brugges since the end of the Second World War. The tour was wonderful; our guide was an incredibly passionate elder man, and near the end of the tour we were taken to the roof for a beautiful view of the city. We were also given a delicious pint afterwards of their award-winning brew.

View from the top

After our pint we walked around the grand place and visited the chapel with Christ’s blood before continuing along the canals to the lace-making club. It was a very interesting spot somewhat like your typical Canadian Legion, but you pay to get in and see little old ladies making lace. It was a bit of an odd thing, even more so with the adjacent church modeled after one in Jerusalem and housing a replica of Christ’s tomb.

To see lace makers in action you can watch a clip on youtube

We then stopped for a snack at a café along one of the canals to watch the swans and try more of the award-winning De Halve Mann brew. We also made a pit stop to buy some delicious Belgium chocolate.

For dinner we went to the Grand Kaffee de Passage. Andre had a rack of ribs and I had a carbonade flammande; my favourite regional dish en/fr. We completed our dinner with a café; too stuffed for anything else. We spent the rest of our evening trying to walk off our dinner along the canals, which are beautifully lit up at night.

The next day we went to the local market in the grand place and grabbed a waffle and a café. We had just enough time before our train home to check out the Minnewater gardens and nunnery on the edge of town.