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Main Boards => VGMaps Social Board => Topic started by: TerraEsperZ on October 02, 2007, 10:13:44 pm

Title: I'm leaving for France on Friday for 2 weeks!
Post by: TerraEsperZ on October 02, 2007, 10:13:44 pm
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it to anyone outside of Revned, but I'm finally taking my vacation starting Friday October 5th. Me, my parents, my aunt and a family friend will be spending two weeks in the Alsace region near the France-Germany border.



We're renting a house and a car, as well as buying train passes so that we can pretty much go wherever we want to. I fully intend on experiencing the infamous Oktoberfest for the first time while there, as well as sample some of the local beers (instead of the obvious wine, which I don't like). We'll also going to visit Strasbourg as well as a friend of my mom which lives a few hours away in the mountains.



This should be really fun, and I'm eager to meet the people there. I only visited Paris until now, and the Parisians are famous for being real assholes to anyone who doesn't speak perfect French their way, something we experienced ourselves. A waiter kept playing dumb when a fellow traveler asked for a "Coke Diète" and then a "Coke Light", before the waiter suddenly exclaimed loudly "Oh! Monsieur veut un Coca Lit!" ("Oh! Mister wants a Coca Light" only with 'light'  being pronounced like 'lit', because the French are notorious for being either unable or unwilling to learn any sort of English accent).



The rest of the country hates them too, and apparently they love our Quebec French so at the very least, we'll hopefully make them laugh :)



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: I'm leaving for France on Friday for 2 weeks!
Post by: JonLeung on October 03, 2007, 07:36:08 am
Bon voyage!  At least, I think that's the appropriate thing to say here.
Title: RE: I'm leaving for France on Friday for 2 weeks!
Post by: Grizzly on October 04, 2007, 05:08:38 am
That's nice. Have fun, and maybe return a few photographs to show us. :)



Bon voyage!
Title: RE: I'm leaving for France on Friday for 2 weeks!
Post by: TerraEsperZ on October 04, 2007, 06:58:09 pm
Don't worry. With my new digital camera, I hope to take as many pictures as my memory card can contain (i.e. 660 of them) so hopefully a few of them will be epic enough to share with you guys :)



See you in three weeks!



Oh yeah, and I'm still mapping Battletoads; it's just taking a long time mapping those Turbo Tunnel races ;)



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: I'm leaving for France on Friday for 2 weeks!
Post by: TerraEsperZ on October 23, 2007, 07:25:55 pm
Just writing to say that I've been back since Saturday, but I've been busy with family and similar stuff, and won't really be posting again until the beginning of next week. I'll keep you posted about my trip with pictures ;)



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
Title: RE: I'm leaving for France on Friday for 2 weeks!
Post by: TerraEsperZ on November 03, 2007, 07:01:15 pm
Just to post a small resume of the trip since it's just too annoying typing with my temporary OS. You'll get a more detailled summary with pictures as soon as I get my new computer.



Well, it was a great trip and also very relaxing. We spent most of our time in the little villages of Alsace, and only a few days in bigger cities like Strasbourg, Nancy and Paris, in decreasing order of appreciation.



Most of the villages were went, including Zellenberg where we were renting a house, live from either the tourists or from wine making. My parents, who love wine, had a great time tasting as much as they could and buying and drinking a few bottles every day, while I settled for local beers most of the time.



I also visited several castles, one fully restored (Haut-Koenigsbourg) by the German Kaiser at the start of the century, and three who were completely in ruins. While the others spent most of their times shopping and tasting wine, I prefered to simply visit the towns and the trails/ruins. It was more fulfilling physically considering I'm not really in good physical shape (once, I challenged myself to run up a steep trail leading up to a castle 528 meters high in the mountain in half an hour, which to my surprise I actually managed to do) and one of the ruins I visited by really small but I was alone up there with nothing by the sound of rushing wind and a view of the entire region extending several hundred kilometers. Those kind of places are too few near where I live, and it's great to just stand there and not think of anything except what you see.



We also spent a day visiting a woman my mom had met several years prior in a train in France. She  and her husband live in the Vosges mountain chain, so we had to travel for close to two hours on a narrow and steep road to get there. They were really nice and welcoming people.



Aside from that, there was a stork (the regional mascot) which kept hanging on the TV antenna of the house in front of ours, which was neat. Oh, and I visited an exposition in a town of old World War II documents when the Nazi annexed Alsace and basically tried to force everyone into adopting German and Nazi culture. It was creepy to see two pictures of the town square, one empty with parading Nazi officers and another today with the streets filled with tourists and with flowers at every window.



There are a lot of other things to talk about, but I've said enough for the moment. You'll get the rest once I get a working PC ;)



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me