France - Paris

The train was near full as we pulled out of Namur station heading for Paris.  It was a popular train to catch as it got your into Paris just after 9am.  Paris Gare du Nord was a huge station,  we found somewhere to have brunch and then brought a hop on hop off bus ticket - and got on.

From looking on the rather small and simple map, it looked as though we could pretty much get off at one of the stops and walk to our hotel.  But no, I had mis read the map and we had to catch another metro out further and then we had trouble finding the hotel due to lack of signposting - hmm not so good so far Paris!  After we had settled into our wee box we went and caught a train and headed back into the city centre to re catch the hop on hop off.  Skies were a little grey and it was quite dull, we sat on the top deck and got blown around a bit, although it did get better as the day went on.  The buildings were amazing with wrought iron banisters, big oak lined streets, loads of traffic, which was a bit erratic.  It had a nice feel to it though, it was busy and had a city feel to it, but in a friendly relaxed way.  There were people all shapes and sizes wearing all sorts of garments, some done up to the nines and others super casual - pretty much anything goes.

Beautiful sculptures outside the Assemble Nationale

There is a power lead going into a socket
so I am guessing this little guards box is heated or maybe he is listening to some heavy metal.

Grey skies

Complete with caps and hats

Just a cool building

National Academy of Musicals.

Eiffel Tower by day ...   not so pretty,
although Murray thought it was a cool bit of engineering.

Me with the NZ bear,  alongside the Tower, there was a display of 140 bears, designed by 140 different artists.  The display moves around the world.  The theme being that they stand together, hand in hand thus symbolizing the vision of a peaceful world.  Each bear represents the people of the country and their culture, but not political views.  Since 2002, they have raised 1.9 million by auctioning the bears and receiving donations.   The NZ one was pretty cool, although I thought the colour weren't vibrant enough.

Mr NZ bear bares it all - second along.

Beautiful by night.

Bears everywhere

Next day took luggage to lock up, then headed off to explore some more sights and got a bit side tracked. We had to run with our bags for around 10 mins hard out, to get to train.  Red faced and out of breathe we just got on train in time for doors to close.  No seats left but and area where we could sit on our packs and still see out the window.  We looked at each other and shook out heads, then laughed we had made it, the problem was it was the last train for the day to where we were going, so we had to get it.  A minute passed and the train did not move and shortly after that they opened the doors.  We found out soon after that we had been delayed for one hour as there had been a train accident on our line.  It turned out that some poor bugger had ended his life and thrown himself under a train.  As we passed the station we saw his body still on the tracks!  A common occurrence apparently.  A French man told us that one person everyday ends their life in Paris this way – they have a high suicide rate.  So we had sprinted and got the earlier train, but ended up delayed for one hour, and still got into Argentan a little early.  So we had a short wait to meet our helpx host Patrica.  Ironically, Patricia had arrived early too and was sitting in her car waiting for us, so we both waited for around 30 mins before meeting up.
Haha travelling is fun!

Belgium, Andenne

We had sent an email to Claire and Bernard a couple of weeks ago, saying that we would be in Belgium for a few weeks and we would love to catch up with them for a coffee and to meet them in person.  To cut a long story short we ended up by staying with them for two nights.  It was fantastic to meet the family Jade had spent a year of her life with.  They are a very nice family.

Grislart-Carlier family - Jade's host family for her AFS year student exchange in 2009.

Delwyn, Murray, Elsa, Claire, Bernard, Juliane and Alix

Claire and the three girls, Elsa, Julianne and Alix picked us up from the Andenne train station and after a lot of warm greetings, we drove back to their home to meet Bernard.  We had of course seen plenty of pictures of the family and their home and surrounds, but it was so nice to see it for ourselves.  Jade had often said that Claire was a very good cook and she was right.  We sat down to a delicious Belgium meal of special cheese tarts,  Rabbit with cherries, mashed potato  followed by a dessert of Belgium 'tiramisu' made with Speculoos biscuits.  All of it absolutely yummy!

The next day we were lucky enough to spend together.  First trip was a little walk around the corner to see Alix's school and the bus stop for the older girls.  So close. Next stop was to to be a visit to the school that Jade attended and then a walk into Andenne.  It was a smallish place, but it did seems to have a few shops and of course a town square.

Alix outside her school

The family home.

Main street in Andenne.

The school that Jade attended, also the Elsa and Juliane go to.

Then we drove with two cars to explore a little of the Ardenne region.  After poor Alix being car sick, and a bit of a clean up required, we arrived at a place called "Hautes Fagnes".  It was a very special area, quite flat, a marshland sitting at 694 m which makes it the highest point in Belgium. It had a wooden walkway winding through it, and we were advised to stick to the paths or be gobbled up in the peat swamp.  It was really beautiful, and would be nice in winter with the snow too.  We did see remains of some snow that had fallen a couple of days before - perhaps the same time as we had it in Brussels.  Bernard is taking part in the Oxfam walk next year which goes through this area too.   To polish off our nice morning walk we went into the restaurant and enjoyed a meal together.

On our way to Hautes Fagnes. 

At the start of the walk

Along the boardwalk

After a bit of a jiggle with bodies in cars we headed off again.  Claire and Alix in one direction and the rest of us to Spa- Francorchamps to see the famous Spa race circuit.  The gates were closed unfortunately so we walked along the track a bit, and could see the track between the trees, we watched the Audi's training race for awhile and then headed back to the car.  On the way we noticed that there was a gap at the bottom of the gate, so we all straddled a big puddle and climbed through for a closer look.  We managed to get quite a way over and saw them coming around a corner and got a good view of the track.  It would be so cool on race day.

We then headed on and met the girls at Stavelot where Bernard grew up.  Bernard, Murray, Elsa and Alix went to the museum full of racing cars and bikes which had raced on the Spa track that we had just visited.  There was also a photo and a write up about Bruce McLaren a kiwi formula one driver.  Claire, Julianne and myself went for a walk around the village.  It was a pretty place with cobbled streets and old style houses and these white hooded heads and masks strung up everywhere.  They were for some kind of festival they had just had.   We popped our heads in for a look at the local church and then wandered back down toward the museum.  Then caught up with the others again and jumped in the car and headed off again.

The remains of an old church, outside the Museum.

The cobbled streets of Stavelot.

Blanc - Moussi  for the annual carnival.
A tradition whereby the monks were encouraged to participate in the carnival, with the other Stavelotians, until around the 1490's when they were forbidden.  So they then came up with the idea of going in disguise and the "Blanc-Moussi" or clad in white was born. Today they carry huge balloons made out of a pigs bladder and fill them with confetti to hit  the bystanders.  Also write messages about people and stick them to the walls of their houses.

Very pretty buildings.

Durbuy, known as the smallest town of earth, was a beautiful village by dusk and I am sure it would be by day.  Narrow streets edged with high rock walls,  that lead to the old stone houses that date back to the 17th century.  Flower pots and baskets and lantern lights and interesting shop windows.  First stop had to be to try Belgium pancakes,  yes we can safely say they were yummy.   Then we wandered around a bit, and Elsa tried on some boots,  and we walked through the restaurant part of town and were going to try to walk past the castle, but it was closed.  So our day came to an end.  But what a day it had been, so many new things to look at and with great company.

Durbuy at dusk

Beautiful Juliane

She's full of beans.

Me with the girls

What a wonderful day we had, thank you everyone for making our quick visit so enjoyable.   The next morning we were heading for Paris with the early 6.35am train. Bernard and Claire got up and kindly drove us to the station.  We hope to see them in NZ one day.

Belgium - Aalst

 Neil kindly took us to the train station, at 6.15am to catch a train into London St Pancras where we then caught the eurostar to Brussels.  It had eighteen carriages, and I don't know about many others but I saw three that were pretty full, so that is bulk people crossing over, and I think it holds 750 odd people -  well normal people too!  haha.  It moves up to 300 kph.  The journey took only 2 and a half hours - amazing, the actual tunnel is 50 km, only 40 km is under the water, and has a speed limited of 160 kph.

Using one of the many humungous escalators
at the train station

Gotta love the color,  just waiting for someone with a few minutes to
spare to tickle the ivories - and a guy did shortly after.

The Eurostar

We were looking forward to this helpx.  Working with horses on a small horse farm.  Bert was at the station to pick us up.  We went back and settled into our apartment.  It was really nice and we were sharing it with two sisters from Australia.  The next morning they showed us the ropes and then left for their next destination.  So we got stuck into mucking out the stables, paddocks and then started another job which was removing nails from a pile of packaging timber.  The weather was very Belgiumy - overcast, grey and wet.  So we did our work and basically rested in the afternoon.  As the week progressed the weather did get a little better and they had a couple of bikes for us to borrow - so off we went.  It was really great to be able to look around abit, and bike through some local villages and to get some groceries.  Got me thinking about when we get home, and that I have sold my car, biking is so good for you and really doesn't take that much longer,  so I may just get a bike for awhile, it will be summer too.  Will not, I repeat will not, be wearing fluoro colored lycra!

Too many nails, we pulled two big buckets full by the end.

Aalst town square.

A friendly, funny character

A random selection of huge steel hollow shapes, that had been bashed about and dented here and there.
Don't know why, there was no signage at all.
It was on the Ostennde esplanade, which is on the Belgium coast.

St Peter and St Pauls church at Ostennde.

Brugge, riverboat / canal cruise - gorgeous houses and scenery.

Mr Fix it at it again - on the train even.

Another day we headed into Brussels on the train.  We caught up with famous Mannekin Pis and not so famous Jannekin Pis.  We admired the the lovely Grand Place or Square, which was quite small in size, but surrounded by huge buildings with lots of gold decorations on them.  The beautiful floral display that fills the square for a week or two had gone but their was a nice flower market which added some colour to the place.  Went to a 'posh' shopping centre in a covered in mall.  We walked around a fair bit, visited the St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral.  Past a suitcase full of gorgeously cute puppies and their mum.  Then we jumped on the tube and headed a little out of town to visit the Military Museum.  It was had a huge amount of planes on display but no English translation at all - a bit disappointing really for such a grand display.

Fancy some shopping? - not here

The Grand Place

Me and a dressed up dude

The tiny little Mannekin Pis

Jannekin Pis

Happy sleeping family

Outside the military museum

Looking back towards the city from the steps of the Cathedral

Beautiful stained glass

Yes - thats Brussels done!

Well it was a relatively short two weeks spent with Maria Bert and family, but really enjoyable and we were sad to leave, but we are now pushed for time and need to keep moving.  Our next stop is two days with the Grislart-Carlier family.  We caught the early bus to Aalst where we then caught the train to Brussels and then on to Liege.  We had the whole day in Liege before heading to Andenne to meet Jade's Belgium family.

Liege must have the greatest train station we have seen.  Mind you it was I think only about three years old.  But really great building, escalators everywhere, loads of signs and just a really good design - well done!  We had quite a walk to the main centre and after finding a helpful person and a map we headed off to find the steps that Jade had said we must walk up.  Oh lordy!  we found them all 400 of them.  They go up the side of Bueren Mountain and you get an amazing view from up the top.  It was a shame it was raining and a bit misty, but we still enjoyed the view.

The view from the steps

Half way down

Looking back up the steps - we made it!

The river Meuse

The famous Belgium waffle