the journey....

Our Wedding Anniversary

2011-03-02T04:28:00.006+13:00

Bonjour,

In January we had our 3rd wedding anniversary. To celebrate we vacated the busy city of Paris and drove South West to a town called Chartres, which is just over one hour drive away. It's amazing how varied the rest of France is to Paris, and you can see so much from just 1-2hrs drive from Paris.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres

As you can probably guess the town is famous for it's 800 year old Cathedral. It is understood to be one of the finest Gothic Cathedral's in all of Europe. It was a very cold weekend (about 2 degrees), being mid-winter, but we had a lovely sunny day on the Saturday. We stayed in a hotel right in the centre of Chartres, where we had a fantastic lunch in the hotel's posh restaurant.

This is the centre of Chartres.

Venturing out in the cold

One of the many entrances into the Cathedral

The Cathedral has so many wonderful stained glassed windows

The Last Several Months

2010-07-22T20:13:00.012+12:00

Ok, it has been quite a long time between posts to say the least. However it has been a busy and challenging six months. Here are some highlights.

We went to Catherine's friends' wedding in Bath (UK) in April which was lovely

The wedding was just outside of Bath in this cute old church.

Catherine with her old Oxford friends Paul (Posh) & Catherine

Beautiful reception venue in the centre of Bath.

A little pic of us

The newly weds Jim & Cally in the Roman Baths.

Then in May it was the arrival of the outlaws, I mean in-laws. Elizabeth & Carl arrived for a two and a half month tour of Europe, with headquarters being our place in Paris :)

We had a little day trip to a nearby town in Burgandy called Auxerre with Elizabeth & Carl.

Typical view of a French town.

In June we flew down to Nice (South of France) and stayed in Villefranche, where we did our language training when we first arrived in France. We hired a car and drove around the Mediterranean coast and stayed a couple nights in Tuscany. The trip ended in Pisa, where we flew back to Paris from.

On the balcony in Villefranche

Florence. Beautiful Florence!

Pisa

We had a quick stop in Pisa to take a few snaps, as there's not much else in Pisa to see besides the tower :)

More photos coming soon of our 2 week summer holiday with Elizabeth & Carl. So I'll keep you posted :)

Christmas & Corsica

2010-01-28T00:14:00.007+13:00

Bonjour,

We had a quiet Christmas here in Paris last month, although we helped out with a meal (at our church) on Christmas eve for those without much family to celebrate with (which included us!). There are many lonely people in this big city. As one of my favourite song writer's puts it (which I think explains many peoples feelings in this city):

nowhere feels safe to me
nowhere feels home
even in crowds I'm alone

Ok, that is rather solemn. Although it was a privilege to be apart of those people's Christmas, and after the meal we had a midnight service in the church.

On Boxing Day we flew to Corsica! We had booked a week in one of the main cities called Ajaccio, which is on the south west coast of Corsica. It reminded us so much of NZ with it's slow pace of life (as it was the low-season) and surrounded by nature.

The view from our apartment in looking over the harbour of Ajaccio (me playing with our new camera)

The view looking back to Ajaccio (which reminded us of Wellington)

We had a little hire car which allowed us to explore the island. It took about 2 hours to get to the southern tip of the island, and if we had time it would of taken us about 2.5 hours to get to the Northern tip of the island.

These are the cliffs at Bonifacio, the most southern town of Corsica

A romantic couple we saw in Bonifacio :)

As you can see, Corsica is not just full of coastal roads. There were some mountains with snow on in the middle of the island.

With the temperature being around 15 degrees, it felt quite tropical in comparison to the snowed covered city of Paris that we left behind. So with this new found freedom we went for a few walks.

This is looking down onto Ajaccio from one of the walks up in the bush

You can still find some typical French villages in Corsica

A Special Birthday & a few Visitors

2009-12-10T10:30:00.006+13:00

Bonjour,

It's been far too long since I last posted some news. I will definitely try and pick up the pace as I'm keen to start taking more photos.

My very cool twin sister (Julia) came all the way from NZ to celebrate our 30th birthday! Also my big brother (Rob) came from the UK.

Thank you to all of you who sent cards & presents!

We had a number of highlights together. We went for a dinner cruise along the river on the night of our birthday (2nd October). Ju and I went to Disneyland Paris for the day. We all drove out to Versailles and visited the Chateau. Rob, Ju and I risked our lives by going to the very top of the Eiffel Tower, as all of us are scared of heights - some more than others! So there was plenty of fun had by all.

Here is the evidence :)

All dressed up for our dinner cruise on the river Seine

An evening stroll after dinner

The next night was our 30th Birthday Party held in our apartment.

There were some lovely desserts and NZ wine :)

Friends, mainly from church

Then there was the trip to Versailles.

Me, Catherine, Julia & Rob inside the amazing Chateau de Versailles

Then I escorted Julia to Disneyland, obviously I'm way to old and mature too enjoy such a thing :)

Julia & I at Disneyland Paris

Then it was time to risk our lives by going to the very top of the Eiffel Tower.

Rob's face says it all

Then finally, two weeks ago we had one of Catherine's best friends (Stephanie) visit us with her sister (Esther). We stayed with Stephanie when we visited her in the Canary Islands earlier in the year. She was now on her way back to Germany and popped in for a couple of days.

Esther, Stephanie & Catherine in front of Sacre Coeur

Summer Trip

2009-08-22T04:04:00.009+12:00

Bonjour

We have recently returned from a fantastic 3 week long holiday. Two weeks in the South West of France and one week in Oxford.

The first week we stayed in a cute Chateau in the Medoc region, which is known for its great wines. It was about a six and a half hour drive from Paris, with most of that cruising (legally!) at 130 km/hr.

Chateau Pomys - our room was on the top floor, second window from the right

We then moved onto the Vendee region, which is about 3 hours north from the Medoc region. We stayed in a holiday home (called a 'gite' in French) in the countryside. We were now much closer to the beach, within 20 minutes drive we had several beaches to chose from. So as you can imagine, we spent plenty of time there. I even dusted off my surfboard that came all the way from NZ with us!

This was our regular spot for the week at the beach called Les Conches

Yay, I finally caught one!

This was our gite, and the spot of many summer evening meals.

On the way home back to Paris we decided to break up the 6 hour journey by staying the night half way. We were recommended, by our French tutor, an abbey called 'Hotel Abbaye Royale De Fontevraud' which had been turned into a hotel. It was in a beautiful setting, and it dated back to the 12th century!

Catherine's artistic photo of the abbey

My symmetrical and sophisticated photo :)

Then our final week of our 3 week holiday was spent in Oxford. This was my first visit to Oxford, and Catherine's first time back since graduating. We stayed in a guest room in Catherine's old college (ironically called New College). Amongst visiting many of the colleges, Catherine had organised for us to meet up with a number of her friends who still live in Oxford.

The beautiful grounds of New College

Catherine and her good friend Anna

Catherine and her crazy bunch of Chemistry friends!

A Few Ups and One Down

2009-06-26T23:15:00.010+12:00

Bonjour :)

It has been a while between posts, with things been rather busy.

We have had Catherine's parents and Nana staying with us over the last 3 weeks or so, which has made for a rather eventful time. Unfortunately Catherine's father (Ray) had a heart attack several days into his stay with us here in Paris. Fortunately though, he has been making a remarkable recovery after spending one week in the hospital, and resting up in our apartment. As I write this they are on their way back to NZ, via Hong Kong.

Before the visit to the hospital, we all had a lovely time visiting Claude Monet's garden in a little village about an hour and a half out of Paris called Giverny.

The centre of the gardens with Monet's house in the background.

Those of you savvy with Monet's paintings may recognise these lilies.

Some tourists walking through the garden (a.k.a. 'the in-laws')

We drove up the road to an old village called Les Andelys.

Some of you smart cookies would realise we would need a car for this (you're very sharp), we purchased a car just before the troops arrived.

The journey continues... we arrived at a slightly more manly landscape (less flowers more ruins!), Chateau Gaillard, which Richard the Lionheart built in 1197!

Poor Ray had to stare at a blank white wall for a whole week while in the hospital, so after several days of resting up in our apartment we took him out for a treat.

Bienvenue au Chateau de Versailles

Versailles is a beautiful town about 40 minutes outside of Paris, which has a spectacular Chateau with amazing grounds.

The young, beautiful and wise (you chose the order)

Mon beau pere (Ray), belle mere (Elaine), et belle grand mere (Nana)

Canary Islands

2009-04-14T20:59:00.005+12:00

Catherine and I have recently returned from a fantastic time in Canary Islands, which are the Spanish islands off the coast of North Africa, we were on Gran Canaria to be specific. We stayed with our friends Stephanie and Mario. You may remember Stephanie as she was one of Catherine's bridesmaids.

Stephanie, Mario and Catherine in a seaside fishing village known as Puerto de Mogan

On our way out to dinner

We spent 8 days on the island, which is exactly what the doctor ordered. As you can imagine we spent a big percentage of our time on the beach, with fantastic warm weather.

The lovely white sandy beaches with many tourists sprinkled around

Another tough day at the office!

The impressive sand dunes of Maspalomas

They call the island a small continent as there are so many different climates and terrains. In fact in the north of the Island, where Stephanie & Mario's place is, it would be 18 degrees and cloudy, and then we would drive 40 min south to the beach and it was sunny and 25 degrees!

It was great to have Stephanie as our personal guide. She new all the spots to visit. One of these places was a walk in the mountains called Cruz de Tejeda, which was about 1600 meters above sea level.

Cruz de Tejeda - the girls walking in the distance. Our destination is the highest rock in the picture.

As you can see we had an amazing time on Gran Canaria. It was fantastic to go to the beach, get some sun on our pasty white skin, be surrounded by nature, and smell fresh air again! Basically, it was a reminder of home :)

Anniversary, Brother, Snow & Romania

2009-02-13T23:06:00.009+13:00

It's been an exciting month since the last post.

First of all, as some of you may remember, we got married one year ago on the 26th January, which has gone past so quickly! We decided to celebrate by having a fantastic meal at the restaurant on the Eiffel Tower!! It was an amazing experience, with wonderful food, great service, excellent view, and of course lovely company :)

On our way to the restaurant, which is on the 2nd level of the tower

A few days before we celebrated our anniversary, my big brother (Robert) came to stay with us. This was fantastic! One of the highlights was hanging out at the Musee du Louvre (a huge museum).

Little bro & big bro

This was a slightly large painting which was on the opposite side of the room to the Mona Lisa.

Also we've had a bit of snow over the last week or so. I was in London for the big dump which made things rather interesting as my class got cancelled as hardly any transport was working.

In London, when a wee bit of snow fell :)

In Paris, the same day (taken by Catherine) - obviously snow looks prettier in Paris

On Sunday night I gave my first ever sermon at our evening service at Church. It seem to go well, and I got some encouraging feedback.

I'm off to Romania tomorrow!! There is a group of 14 of us young adults (18-30yrs) from my church going to visit and serve in an orphanage there. We've been fund-raising and planning for the last couple of months, so it should be very cool. We'll be there for a week.

Love to you all,
Paul (& Catherine)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-15T06:33:00.006+13:00

We had a great Christmas here, even though we were missing all our family and friends. It was a nice relaxed day, went to the Christmas service at church, and then cooked ourselves a good old NZ roast lamb! They sell them here - and they're quite cheap too :)

Me enjoying a wee Christmas drink on our (very small) balcony

We also went for a walk along the Champs Elysees, which is the hugely popular road in central Paris with the Arc de Triomphe at one end, and amazing Christmas lights!

Christmas lights on Avenue des Champs Elysees

Christmas trees outside Le Pantheon & Notre Dame (both huge churches)

In contrast to NZ's tropical heat wave, we've had a rather cool time here in Paris. We had a week or so where the temperature didn't rise above zero degrees!!

Snow outside our apartment! (view from our bedroom)

Catherine all dressed up for a cold day in Paris, down the street from our apartment

We are very blessed to have such a fantastic apartment. We feel like we can call it home now, with all our boxes unpacked and mostly everything in its proper place - it's basically me letting down 'team tidy'! :)

The view from our apartment. If you look closely you can see the top of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower!

We've arrived in Paris!!

2008-12-18T02:07:00.003+13:00

After 15 weeks of living out of a suitcase, we have finally moved into our fantastic new home in Paris. YAY!! This also means that we have been reunited with 40 boxes worth of our stuff!

Here's Catherine hard at work unpacking the boxes. Everything was wrapped carefully with paper, hence the huge piles of it! I'm obviously just overseeing the operation :)

Catherine has started her work at the Embassy and is now having to put into practice all the french language skills she's learned. Where I've just finished the first term of my course and have started my exciting part time job at St Michael's Church.

Paris is very cold right now with some days having a high of 2 degrees! Eek! So I haven't been as trigger happy on the old camera, as my poor fingers try to avoid exposure to daylight/blizzard like conditions. But here's one just for you :)

This is from the Metro (underground train) station near my work/our church. You can see the pretty cool imitation 'London Eye' they have here, which is nicely lit up.

Here are a couple pictures from our last few days at the language school in Avignon.

A group game (so we weren't the only silly looking ones!) we played on our last night at the language school, which was lots of fun.

This was taken on on a day trip we took in the Provence region, close to where the British TV series 'A Year in Provence' was filmed. A couple of hours drive from our language school.

Paul

Life in Avignon

2008-11-19T06:11:00.008+13:00

We have now been in Avignon for almost a week and a half. Well technically our language facility is in a little village called Morieres-les-Avignon, which is about 20min East of Avignon.

This is our home for the rest of the month

A kiwi based over here has kindly lent us his spare car, which has made life here much simpler. I picked up the car a week ago after he picked me up from the airport. I would call myself a rather confident man at the wheel, with many years experience and different types of vehicles under my belt. But the 45 minute drive to Catherine, was certainly an interesting one. Driving in a foreign part of the world, with the signs in different languages, different road rules, and the obvious biggy was having to drive on the other side of the road (and car!). Lets say it was a rather humbling experience for me, feeling like a school boy sitting his learners licence!

Our smooth 4 wheels

In the weekend we visited one of most visited historical sites in France, which happens to be in Avignon, 'le Palais des Papes' (for you english speakers that means 'the Palace of the Popes'). It's really interesting to find out more about the history of the country we will be living in for 3 years.

A great view of the Palace from the other side of the river. The city is surrounded by an impresive fortress, which you can see in front of the Palace.

The entrance to the Palace

The Palace was built in the 14th Century, so it's almost 700 years old! It's called le Palais des Papes because the Popes of the Catholic church were based here in Avignon for about a 100 years instead of Rome.

The view from the top.

We've both had our first dose of the French flu, so we've being going slower than usual. But otherwise in good form.

On the Move

2008-11-08T00:36:00.008+13:00

Yes, we are on the move!

Today is our last day in the beautiful Villefranche. We have enjoyed our 2 months of warm weather here, especially since we have come from NZ's winter and are now going into winter here in Europe. And it's consistently been warmer than both NZ and England. So it's always been a bit of a laugh (for me!) to turn up to my course, in London, and tell them that I was swimming yesterday! Yes, how naughty of me - but it's only fair, as they hassle my accent - so I think that makes it even. :)

Here are some pictures of the view from our lovely apartment we've been in. It's closer to the beach than our last one. So when I've been a man of leisure, I've just walked 10 minutes to the beach!

It's been a while since posting as we obviously have limited access to internet, but I've also been away quite a lot. Since the last post I've had two trips to London, one for 8 days and another for 3 days. All of which have been for my course, which I'm thoroughly enjoying and have made some great friends already. So poor Catherine is left behind each time I journey to London, however she has been enjoying her language training.

We went to Menton a couple of weekends ago, which is where Katherine Mansfield lived for a while and wrote a couple of her works. The public transport is fantastic, as we travelled all the way there on a bus (which takes about an hour along the coast towards Italy) and it only cost 2 Euro return, each! :)

So here are some pictures of Menton.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you where we are on the move to!! We are going to another language school in Avignon, which is about an hour north of Marseille. We will be there for 1 month, and then we move to Paris on the first weekend of December.

Keep in touch :)
Paul

Back home in France :)

2008-10-15T22:54:00.004+13:00

We arrived back to our familiar surroundings of Villefranche on Saturday night, after 2 weeks away. Several days in Geneva, and then last week in Bern. We were in Bern because Catherine had a course (in English!) to complete for her work.

Here are some photos of Bern.

A very cool 'Zytgloggeturm' (clock tower) in the middle of Bern

The Cathedral of St Vincent (The Munster) in the 'Old Town' of Bern

On Friday afternoon we had a little trip to a near by (50 minutes by train) village called Solothurn.

Besides following Catherine from country to country, I have been on my own adventures, where every Monday, for the last 4 weeks, I have had to be in London for my course. So the pattern is that I will fly out, from wherever we are in Europe, to London on Sunday and arrive back on the Tuesday. I am becoming very familiar with the lovely (& everything is orange) Easy Jet! :)

I'm going to London again this Friday, as I have a full on week of lectures (Friday-Friday!). But I'm really looking forward to it, except for the fact that I'll be away from Catherine for so long! :(

Catherine has started back at the 'Institut de Francais' again, and will be here (Villefranche) for a month.

Till next time,
Paul

Geneva & a bit of History

2008-10-05T03:27:00.011+13:00

We've had a couple of exciting days in Geneva. Well, more for me than for Catherine, as she's had to work :)

Geneva's famous fountain

A typical street in Geneva

It's been great timing as I'm currently studying church history within my course, and conveniently Geneva is home to some pretty amazing history. I explored a museum that was dedicated to the Reformation & John Calvin (an interesting & important time in church history, in the 16th century).

This church is called the "Auditore de Calvin", built in the 15th century. It was a lecture hall for students following the teachings of John Calvin. John Knox (the founder of the Presbyterian church) preached here when he was a refugee in Geneva (in the mid 16th century).

Behind me is Saint Pierre Cathedral, it was built between 1150-1250!! This the church that John Calvin preached at, during the Reformation (mid 16th century).

On the 4th October 2008 a young married couple decided to visit this sight :)

A beautiful sight :)

I'm off to London tomorrow for my course, and Catherine is off to Bern for work.

Paul

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-10-02T20:53:00.002+13:00

It's amazing how cut off from the world you feel when you have no internet. That's pretty much been the case for us as we've been moving around Europe, after finishing our language training last week.

Today is my birthday and I'm celebrating it in Geneva! Catherine is here for work, so I've come along for the ride. The only disappointing thing is that she has to work today. So I'm going to venture out of our hotel to see the sights. They have this really cool deal for tourists, where you get a pass to travel on the public transport free during your stay in Geneva. So you can guess who's going to be my tour guide!

It's nice to have a day off after a wee bit of travel. I counted up I've been in 5 different Airports in UK & Europe over the last 2 weeks! I was in Villefranche (South of France) last Friday, London in the weekend, Paris on Tues & Wed, and Geneva today :)

I started my studies in London 2 weeks ago, hence my travels to London. I'm off there again this Sunday for class on Monday.

Ok, I better go as I realise this is too many words & not enough pictures! So I'm heading out to try and take a few pics for you.

Paul :)

A few Medieval Villages

2008-09-16T18:39:00.009+12:00

Things are going well for both of us here in Villefranche. Language training has been pretty full on, so we come home exhausted most days, but we are really enjoying it. I can't believe we've got less than 2 weeks to go with our course here.

We had fantastic weekend & Monday, as the school had a break from classes and took us on a sightseeing trip.

On Sunday we visited the beautiful village of Eze (a view from the top of the village)

Eze village on top of the hill (taken from our boat trip last week)
a narrow winding street within Eze village

a very cool fortress village called St Paul de Vence we visited on Monday with our School

another medieval village we visited on Monday, called Tourettes-sur-Loup

the happy tourists

moi, posing with errr yes, a violet ice cream!

Our little boat trip

2008-09-12T18:45:00.005+12:00

Last night we went on a cruise with our language training school. We had a great boat ride from the port at which we are staying, Villefranche, around to the coast to Monaco. The journey took about an hour and on the way we went past Bono's sea side batch (a rather large pink house!) in Eze sur Mer.

Our beautiful little village on the sea side, Villefranche.

Monaco with its super flash boats.

Au revoir for now,
Paul

Photos

2008-09-08T18:36:00.004+12:00

I have finally sorted out the technical problem with adding our photos - so here are some photos that I've been meaning to add :)

Our luxurious seats/beds in business class on the way from NZ.

Our first weekend in France, where we explored Paris. The Arc de Triomphe (near the NZ Embassy!) and a local market.

The magnificent view from our apartment in Villefranche, where we are based for the next 3 weeks.

Our language training school in Villefranche.

Bonjour from the South of France

2008-09-03T03:17:00.003+12:00

Bonjour,

Firstly I apologise for lack of photos, as we are experiencing technical difficulties - so hope to post some soon!

We arrived safely in Villefranche on Sunday evening on the TGV (the fast train!!). Villefranche is about 15 minutes East of Nice, towards Monaco :) Villefranche is a very beautiful town situated on a very steep hill side - making Wellington look like the flat plains of the Waikato!

The climate is a bit of a shock to the system, with it averaging about 28 degrees, and roughly 16 degrees at night time!!

On Monday we started our language training, which we'll be doing for the next month. It's full time 8:30am-5pm each day (Mon-Fri). We had a good start to the course yesterday with a test to see how competent we are with the French language. Obviously Catherine is quite handy, and I am, well... it's polite to say, a beginner.

Today (Tuesday) we've just finished a first proper day of teaching - my head is about to explode!! One of the biggest challenges is that we are not allowed to speak english all day!!

Very limited internet access here - so I better fly.

Be in touch,
Paul

Bonjour

2008-08-30T20:03:00.003+12:00

We arrived safely in Paris yesterday morning, after a long but comfortable flight (thanks to Singapore Airlines Business Class!).

We had a busy day yesterday meeting Catherine's work colleagues, setting up a French bank account (which was a bizarre experience having to do it all through our trusty translator), and looking at a potential apartment for us to live in (on our return to Paris in December).

Today it's a beautiful sunny day outside with it apparently reaching 28 degrees! Tomorrow we catch the train to the South of France to begin our language training.

Paul

Welcome!!

2008-08-26T10:32:00.004+12:00

It's taken some time, but I've now officially kicked off our blog. It's basically going to be a place where Catherine & I can journal about our journey & life in France.

We hope to post/write something regularly, so do come back here to see what we are up to. The date at the top of each post will let you know when it was written.

If you would like to be in touch, feel free to leave a comment or send an email (my address is pbmcintosh@gmail.com).

The Update:
Catherine's work has kindly put us up in an apartment for 5 nights before we leave, as our house & belongings have all been packed up. So we are currently living out of our suitcases in the apartment.

Here are some photos of our little house in Tawa - after all our belongings had been packed up, and we had cleaned the place!

For those of you that don't know, we depart this Thursday for France. So only 2 more sleeps in NZ for us (for a while!).

I'm hoping my writing skills will improve as the weeks & months go by - which will hopefully make this blog a little more interesting. However I promise to post plenty of photos here to make up for it! :)

Be in touch,
Paul