NotMadNomads

spring: hopes eternal

2007-09-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

it wasn't quite a 'zip' and we were in chch. 32 hours is a lot of airconditioning, a lot of special meals, and quite a few security checks of varying annoyance. you've all met them before. they're a special breed, a special personality type- incapable of humour or compassion. they like to ask stupid questions. they try to make your life a misery. while being interrogated by the US border control freak i made the mistake of questioning their system (the only border control in the world that requires finger-prints and retina photos even if you're only in transit), to which he replied 'is there a problem?', his finger hovering over the 'special button' no doubt...
and then we arrived in auckland, aotearoa new zealand. we had to clear security again (it's a trend) but the security team say 'how's it going, love?' and 'oh, here's a lady who likes her jewellery' when i set of the metal detector. the customs people ask questions but then reply 'oh, how lovely' and finally, one man welcomed me home. after 32 hours of travel it was enough to nearly make me cry.
so, that's what we're up to. we're in the business of making ourselves at home, becoming kiwis (again): signing up. we've found most things to be incredibly easy- certainly efficient and every person we've spoken to (in the bureaucracy world) was really friendly.
and it's spring. it's not the semi tropical spring that my mind chose to remember (you know, balmy, windless days in shorts and t-shirts) oh no. it's more like end of winter rather than spring. but it's equally sweet. we flew in to chch as the sun was popping up over the horizon painting the landscape a golden hue. the mountians and hills from the kaikoura ranges to the southern alps were snow capped. the parks and gardens are filled with all the tender new shoots, the sweet perfumes of blossoms and bulbs bursting out as each day warms a little more. the light seems pure, adds a slightly innocent quality;
everything is filled with the promise of things to come.

and that, dear friends, is where the life of the two nomads comes to an end. we've unpacked our backpacks and put them in the garage. oh, no doubt there will be other travels, other adventures, but for us now- well, we're hardly nomads. we've unpacked. i'm quite happy to have drawers and a wardrobe. we're preparing ourselves for the next adventure, an adventure of a different kind.
in a way we've escaped. the wanderlust will always be there, i still long to look at madagascar, africa, maybe one day the silk route, a road trip in the US, return to india....
but we've escaped.
we're making something else now: we've established the rara republic, population: 2 1/2. you're more than welcome to join us there- we don't do security checks or border control.

so: escape to the rara republic (www.rararepublic.blogspot.com - new address) you know you want to

xx

only 46kg each?

2007-08-28T01:36:00.000-07:00

it's this sort of challenge they need to make into a reality tv show. forget decorating houses, or keeping people indoors for weeks on end: packing.
and the reality has arrived that in fact, this morning, i have to pull my finger out and start putting stuff into bags. i'm going to start any minute now. i'll just do this.

zip!

ok, that wasn't the sound of me shutting one of my superbly packed pieces of luggage. but it is how quickly we will be turned upside down. a mere 32 hours after leaving paris (tomorrow) we will put our tiny toes onto new soil.

we've both decided that to continue the blog in the same vein- as nomads, wouldn't be quite right; so we're going to make a new one.
thank you for visiting us here, i've enjoyed writing. i hope you've enjoyed the trip. the next trip, well it's gonna be on a whole different plane....

new address will be posted here shortly
xxxxx
b&p&sparkle

cubed

2007-08-26T02:06:00.001-07:00

we don't even have the chance to say 'rust in peace' to our dear friend, maggie. no body is interested in repairing a peugoet 205. they're not even interested in breaking it into little parts.
pascal was issued a certificate of destruction.
the car was sent off to be made into a cube.

but, positively, that little cube will be recycled and made into something else.

so if you see a wee streek of green wave somewhere in your car you know that somewhere inside is a previously loved 205.

ps, trip back to paris in new renault clio was pretty ordinary, even with buttons and whirlygigs.

rolling without electricity

2007-08-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

so, many of you will already have heard a little of the story of maggie the peugoet and her alternator problems. some of you may have, in fact, helped push start maggie when the hill wasn t good enough (merci! thank you!)..... there comes a day when a hammer doesn t suffice any longer for repairing the alternator and the car starts lacking in electricity. we ve already disconnected the stereo (oh my word?!), then we pulled the fuse that connects the heater/blinkers/other miscallaneous dashboard lights&systems; we don t drive at night, but with days and days of continuous rain (biblical, yes) we ve been obliged from time to time to use the windscreen-wipers and that, dear friends, has been the demise of our wee maggie.
bleeding weather.
all of a sudden, on the road into la pommeraie (where pascal s dad lives) the car starts farting, miss-firing and generally running like a misbehaved cow. we lean forward in the seat, pascal does his damndest to drive like a rally driver, and we make it into town. yah!!
later the next day the boys (dad and son) examine motor, tap again with hammer, remove battery, re-install battery and weyhey! we have lights! we have action! maggie rolls again with electrical accessories!!!! woohoo! we drive into town to get petrol and bugger me, whatever it was that made it all work fell off and now we re back to zero. but with a full tank of gas.

but all is not lost! don t worry, we have insurance! check this out: do you remember the beginning of the hammer and roadside repairs story where rescue mechanic dude turns up in the middle of the night and fixes car? well, that was cos we ve got insurance that gives us emergency assistance. well, pascal just rang them and told them our story (complete and unabridged) and they said not to worry, they'll give us a rental car to get back to paris!!!! (for future reference the company is agf and they are lovely)

so, this may well be farewell maggie, and thank you for the otherwise troublefree and happy 18000km that you have given us through france, england, switzerland and corsica. may you find somewhere shady and with a downhill angle to park up for the rest of your days
xx
b
ps: for sale (or free to good home) one blue/green/white limited edition peugeot 205 junior (but with grown up attitude) in nearly new condition. never rolled, raced nor ralleyed. needs a little TLC.

ninja

2007-08-09T02:27:00.001-07:00

sparkle

i was supposed to be having a snooze, but i'm as excited as a 7 year old on christmas eve.
here is a picture of our little wonder, active as crazy, dancing to i don't know what rhythm and bustin out ninja moves. aiie, 2 very happy grown ups made.

we hit the road on our last tour de france tomorrow, direction nancy (and beyond) to say our 'a bientot's to our french family and friends. slowly slowly. with luck the weather will pick up and make our peasant campsites a little more pleasant. this month in paris has flown past, and now we're nearly midway through august; 3 weeks till the big flight...

my year in france. wow, equally quick. but what a treat! i've become at least one half french.
xx

knitting in foreign languages

2007-08-07T01:49:00.000-07:00

those of you that know me will have heard me prattle on, on probably more than one occasion, about being self-sufficient. being self-sufficient isn't just about having the neat parcel of land, its about having the skills and the knowledge of how to produce the stuff you need. veges, fruit, wine, cheese, energy, shoes, textiles, holidays. (ok, so maybe that last one isn't on the Big List of all self-sufficient types, but it is one of my concerns). you'll note the second to last thing is textiles and it is on this little adventure that i have most recently embarked.
knitting.
years ago, whilst living on my little (rented) coupla acre patch, i had a brown sheep which i called socks. the idea being that i would let my sheep live in relative liberty (in its paddock) unharassed, with all the grass he fancied, and in return i would shear it, weave its wool and make socks (and other woolley items). hence its name. but the wee free loading bastard couldn't see a good thing for all the wool in his eyes and took his liberty literally and ran away. so i never got round to mastering the art of knitting.
and now, i'm in france, pregnant, with a little bit of time on my hands. what better time to take up knitting! except of course my book on knitting recipes is written in french. oh, it's not all that hard, you say. well i beg to differ. my knitting lady has buggered off on holiday (see earlier blog) before i had the chance to ask her what the fork... and now, 2 rows into my first garment, i'm stuck.
the question is this: the instructions ask that i add 6 stitches to either end every 2 rows. (or something very similar). ok, i can do it at one end, but what about the other? its physically impossible!!!
please help! advice, all of it, in any language, will be appreciated. otherwise our poor child is doomed to wear poorly knitted rectangles and squares.
xx
b

babelfish

2007-08-05T03:59:00.000-07:00

check this out: i've installed a translator. simple to use, tragically difficult to understand afterwards. it is worth learning another language simply to have the chance to giggle at the rubbish translations! in fact, it's not too different to how i speak foreign....
enjoy!!

mes amis: regardez ça, j'ai telecharger un traducteur. c'est facile a utiliser (clic sur ton drappeau et puis sur le poisson) , mais tragiquement, c'est tres dificile a comprendre apres... je suis sûr que ça va t'amuser entretemps... profites!!!

and i'm not going to bother trying to so spanish/german/portugese/russian...

xxxx
b

ओ marche

2007-08-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

what an ace time of year to be pregnant! visits to the local market (yah! they've not all buggered off on holiday!!) we can procure seasonally fresh and local fruit and veges. oh yes. strawberries, mmmmmmmm, raspberries, mmmmm nectarines, melons, lettuce-type items, fresh herbs, artichokes, 20 different types of tomatoes, eggplant, courgettes. wednesdays and saturdays two greedy little piglets buy up large. it's hard not to eat it all as soon as we get in the door.
tragically, monsieur le fromager is still noted by his absence. and signor and signora lovely italian goodies seem to have taken to the beach (or maybe they were part of that recent big mafia bust in italy- now that would be cool and i would forgive them).
but mostly i manage to keep my tastebuds satisfied buying locally.
except for jelly-beans (not available in france!), chips (small french fries not nearly as satisfying, but pascal cooks mean potato cubes that do the trick) chocolate and icecream. but mostly i need those every day so the wednesday/saturday thing would never suffice. (note to self, do not let children read this blog).
and as luck would have it, the previously mentioned greedy little pigs will be having a second go at the same season on arriving in nz. more strawberries!!!!!
xxx
b

meet rex:

2007-08-02T03:23:00.000-07:00

i've done it. i've bought a suitcase on wheels. it is black, it has several nifty pockets with zips. it has various handles, including one that pulls out so you can tow it behind you like it's your pet luggage. it has wheels.
but don't abandon me here folks! i'm sure there are other nomads in the world with suitcases on wheels. i'm sure the mongolians would have them if they had smooth surfaces to tow them on. likewise the aboriginal australians.
the reality is that we have a luggage allowance of 2x23kg each and one carry on bag. that's a lot of luggage. but we have a lot of stuff. a lot of stuff. and being firmly in the pregnant department i can ask for a special seat on the plane, but i can't carry my luggage. i need those wheels godamnit! i also need to come up with a cunning plan to magically make my 20kg piece of hand-luggage-with-wheels (he's called rex, and he is house-trained) look like it's only 5kg.
any suggestions?

cyclists on the champs elysee

2007-07-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

et voilà, le tour de france arrive à paris.
(isn't that bruce willis?)

le tour de france

2007-07-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

the country's obsessed with it: some 3500km of hard bicycle slog. and a yellow shirt. and also, the lesser well known spotted shirt. (the white with red spotted shirt is awarded to the bloke who does the best in the mountains). this year's race started with all sorts of pomp and ceremony in london before it traversed la manche (or the english channel, depending on what side of it you are) and headed for the hills. up and down. i don't know how they do it- especially being as we've been up and down quite a few of them in our non spotted shirt winning peugeot. oh, now here's the crazy bit: this week the dude who had the yellow shirt, a danish bloke, was kicked out for failing to do a blood test at the appropriate moment (and then making up a big story about where he was as opposed to where he actually was...) and so he lost the yellow shirt to a spanish guy. now spanish guy isn't so good at the time trials (different type of race they do on the flat bits to keep the punters interested) and today was nearly beaten by an australian. nearly. so, (you can exhale) he retains the yellow shirt. pascal spends whole afternoons watching the race. it is a little addictive- if only to see what the next drama/accident will be.
tomorrow is the final day and the cyclists will be zooming in to paris, up the champs elysee. so guess where we'll be going? oh, i'm very excited.
we'll be off on our tour de france soon. might as well being as paris will be shut.
xx
b

fromage

2007-07-27T06:26:00.001-07:00

for a reason i haven't yet manage to fathom, the whole of paris goes on holiday for the month of august. the pharmacist goes on holiday and closes his shop. the cafe owner goes on holiday and closes the cafe. having nowhere to get the coffee in the morning the boutique owner closes shop and buggers off as well. the boulangerie, seeing its clientele reduced drastically exchanges the patisserie flour for beachside sand, on holiday..... the market stalls stop. the metro is reduced. even my knitting lady at the local wool shop has bought the ticket. the city goes on holiday.
for the 3 remaining parisians i imagine that life is a bit of a misery dealing with tourists and the city heat. so the mayor of paris makes little gifts available to soften the edges of this hardship. like paris plage. importing thousands of tonnes of sand and dumping it on the seine banks, putting in potted palms and little umbrellas, the beach comes to paris.
and, like free parking. yes, for the month of august residential street car parking in our district is free.
but, this is august. not july. and for some reason the cheese vendors seem to have packed up shop and gone to the hills early. we're lucky enough to have 2 markets nearby that alternate days where we do a lot of our shopping. the markets are lively, with the vendors competing for the euro in your pocket yelling "un euro, un euro, un euro" and then something else that's probably enticing you to buy from them. but not the cheeseman. oh no. monsieur le fromager is noticibly absent. no wafty cheese smells invading tender nostrils at these markets. so what's the alternative: the supermarket? oh, i hear you saying: what's a pregnant woman doing taking such an interest in cheese... we're in france!!! there's no such thing as 'tasty cheese'!!!! (all cheese here is tasty) but, ventures into the supermarket to search the alternative expose that really, there aren't any. what am i supposed to limit myself to la vache qui rit? (little plastic cheese triangles, and anyway, i have a firend who worked at the factory who says its made from camembert that fell on the floor). seriously. if there really was such an issue with cheese the french nation would cease to exist. obviously, i'm avoiding all super manky, stinky, mouldy cheeses. and some cheeses do smell a bit 'ripe'.
so, august looms, next week its curious arrival has us all on the edge of our seat. the museums are already filling up while the little 'local' cafes close down. apart from the supermarket i don't know where else to shop. it will be a little strange to have parked up in a city that has gone on holiday and to be overwhelmed by loud tourists when they're nearly my least-favourite creatures. especially being as i'm neither parisien nor french.

updated

2007-07-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

friends, we've changed our front page. we've added a few pictures (including pictures to older blog entries), edited our profile.

this, i guess, heralds the beginning of the new era.

i hope you'll follow us on this journey as well
xx
b

new journeys

2007-07-18T02:28:00.001-07:00

many of you will be familiar with this type of picture; some of you won't.
this is a picture of our future, our child, 7 weeks old and the size of a bean (currently called harry, as in, haricot).
happy and lucky? totally elated, and equally scared...
and what a new beginning this is. is this the point when we say: that's it? hanging up the backpack?? folding up the map?? getting out the knitting needles!
well, maybe. but this is a completely different journey now, a journey into the real world of grown-up parenthood. oh, we've talked about it for a long time; but now it's there, now it's an actual moving, little soul, its heart beating...
so, steps along the path: pascal has applied for and been granted his visa for NZ- he has the rite to stay for 2 years and in between times apply for residancy;
we've bought the ticket home: one way ticket to chch. oh, i know it's not the first, and possibly not the last.
is it safe to talk about plans now? i mean, now we've actually got someone else who is making them for us!
i don't think that i'll be hanging up the backpack forever (got to use it to get home yet!); it's just going into storage- the journey that we're about to undertake needs a different type of backpack ;)

and yes, i will keep you posted
xxx
b&p &h

bastille day

2007-07-15T03:34:00.000-07:00

14th of july, bastille day- french national holiday celebrating revolutions and be-headings and overthrowing of bourgeois establishment and giving the power to the people.
in fact it's not about that at all, so it seems.
there're are concerts all around the town on bastille eve, finishing with firework displays. on the day itself (the french don't refer to it as jour de bastille at all, they just call it 14th of july) there are huge military parades up the champs elysee, the president has a wee speach and then the french airforce puts on an aerial display. it's a great song and dance. it's a great show of excess wealth and opulence. it's not terribly ecologically sound. and despite all this i was awake very early yesterday morning, as excited as a 5 year old; camera at the ready- our apartment has a great view of the air parade.
the day finishes with a bal populaire (an outdoor ball) and lots of people all patriotic and happy. normally, feeling extra patriotic and super strong, a french dude will win today's yellow shirt in the tour de france; but today he was beaten by a german (and a coupla spaniards). oh well.

views

2007-07-11T03:27:00.000-07:00

i'm sat in paris, our apartment overlooks pere lachaise cemetery. a little over to the left (say, between 10 and 11 o'clock) is montmartre and sacre coeur; further to the left is la defence and if you poke your head out the window you can see la tour eiffel. quite a view.
the sky is grey, not a menacing take-your-umbrella-out grey, but more like a (clouds:) "we can't be bothered to go to england so we'll just stay here" type grey; sun squeezing through every half hour or so just to fool the tourists who think they're having a summer holiday in paris. the view changes with the light. obviously the big things stay in the same place, but depending on the angle and brightness of the sun, and how deep or menacing the clouds are, the horizon can change drastically. for example, the other day, just before a huge and scary storm, la defence (paris' central business district) looked like a huddle of evil giants plotting to take over the city and sacre coeur, bathed in white light, was going to be our saviour. 10 minutes later with a quick cloud reshuffle sacre coeur started to look a little less sacred and la defence stood round looking a bit puzzled, wondering what they were doing there....
i like this little corner of paris. the cemetery is filled with large trees, (nourished by all those dead people i guess) and is rather soothing to the eye. it's on the edge of a rather large jewish/arab district (kid you not, i'm sure if you put the mayor of paris in charge of the gaza strip it'd all be fine) which means i can buy humous at every supermarket. it's not far from bastille and being as it's nearly bastille day that's not bad.
the horizon is an early geometry lesson: rectangular box apartments, triangular church spires, cranes and aerials.

the circle

2007-07-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

so, how long has it been since i wrote? despite promises of updates, with photos. i wouldn't be at all surprised if you haven't nodded off or, that indeed, you've buggered off completely. oh you've never been far from my mind, dear reader, i compose blog entries in my head daily. but as for getting round to tapping the keys....
so, right. new leaf and all that. new leaf. and quite rightly too.

blog entry title is the circle. because that was life is all about really, completing/creating circles. but before i get into that i shall quickly (sorry) describe the last month (ooh, is it nearly 2? dreadful!)

voyage to prague was as expected but at the same time not quite. i fully expected there to be some sort of family ordeal (you've met my family? you understand! bless em) especially being as my bro was bringing along his girlfriend and therefore changing the whole family dynamics: new girl vs old girl? (please, no offence meant here) but in fact none of that occurred at all. the dramas were all from my bro! and once he got them out of his system everything was all good. beer (no pastis) and lots of food- shopping aside i think we all went home a coupla kilos heavier.

zip- prague-geneva-chamonix- lyon... pop in on some friends; zap- lyon- marseille les goudes, where we were very kindly lent a little holiday home by the sea to lounge about in for a coupla days, profiteering from all the sunshine and sea air before we went off to provence.

provence: lavender, olives, wine: my favourite consumables. an outdoor aromatherapy session in the nature- and oh the nature!!! an escaped garden. we camped a few days in the verdon gorge, a climbers' mecca, and slowly wandered a few trails while we were there. i say slowly not because we were unfit (oh no, 5 months at 2000m altitude makes you into wonderwoman when you're at sea level again! despite... g of tobacco and....l of wine per week) but because i had to stop every 20 metres to inspect some wee plant or other.

and then we went to corsica.

well, when i was a wee thing i read asterix in corsica (in fact i read most of the series- it's where i learnt my history of france) and was quite taken by it for some reason, deciding that some day, amongst the already growing list of places, i would go there. and, well, some years later, our little peugeot rolled off the ferry into the bright ajacio sunshine and we hit the corsican road. first destination was one of the islands most important archealogical sites: filetosa. first occupied by humans some 9000 years ago this impressive site is covered by carved menhirs (of the type that obelix would deliver) which more than resembled large penises. all this before lunch! and a good thing too. by midday it was unbearably hot- not even the Windows Open While Driving (WOWD) aircon was sufficient.... so we zoomed towards the coast and parked up, set up the tent and went to the beach!!!!
oh la la la la, la mediteranee!!! how beautiful. the beach!!! golden sand, azur sea and totally cloudless sky.
in actual fact this poses a large problem for your average lazy as all buggery freeloaders like ourselves. if left alone we'll quite happily get out of the tent at about 1030ish, smoke, drink coffee- 1130ish, bathroom activities and weyhey- we're ready for action at midday. midday, corsica: 30odd degrees. no time for hitting the beach or walking off into the hills. time for a siesta!!!
in an effort to combat this dilemna we discussed getting up early (like 9) but getting up that early requires consuming another meal and by the time you've gotten down to the boulangerie for a croissant and all that- well, the extra time is gone! even earlier you say? well, probably not a bad idea as they seem to sell out of croissants before 830!!!
(here's some mathematics for you: people on 2 week holiday are obliged to get up and hit the streets early- an hour and a half lounging in bed every morning over 14 days is a whole day lost!!! this is why we take month long holidays)
anyway, we never managed to figure out that dilemna in the whole time we were there. in fact the last day was the only day that saw us getting up early and that was because we were catching the ferry.
ok, sorry, getting side tracked.
corsica is quite rightly referred to as l'île de beauté (the island of beauty) and it swings gaily between ragged coastline, huge, dominant mountains and quaint little towns perched on the edge of them both. its incredibly rich and long history includes being dominated by, protected by/from, bought, sold and damn near discarded by every european power since the year dot. the language is closer to italian than french and i didn't see one single donkey the whole time i was there (which was the only real disappointment).
but i think it's best you just go there and see for yourself.
aiie corsica. it will remain close to my heart for the rest of my life.

so, back to the circle.
after corsica we went back to the alps to collect our belongings- (very wierd after feeling like i had closed that door). and despite slight emotional upheaval the alps were absolutely breath taking: green green soothingly green, carpeted in alpine flowers with bell-wearing cows, tourists and cyclists all over the shop. we followed former tour de france routes and could sense the pain in mounting the extremely high, thin aired summits. (we were travelling in a fully laden maggie after all)
and then down the other side, back through lyon, side step through haute-marne and circle almost complete: paris.
paris.
paris.........
well, i have a whole other blog entry coming on now. a proper explanation for the real meaning of the circle. it might be a whole novel's worth. and i will write it.
soon
i promise
xxxxx
b
oh, and of course- attach photos ;)

farewell mountains

2007-05-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

from the mountains to the sea and back again in one weekend...
pascal and i droved the snaking trail down to annecy, caught the highspeed train to paris, then a high speed rental car to brittany to go to a wedding. the flat green countryside flew past, spring's beauty having been swept aside for the early summer. the wedding's reception was held in an incredible castle dating from (not sure of date) way back. the grounds, lush with rhododendrons of every hue and greeny galore, overlooked a pretty lake. all very romantic.
the last few days in the mountains didn't disappoint either: it snowed!!! would you believe it! while the rest of the country is basking in semi-tropical heat and peeling off clothing left and right my folks (who are visiting) were very happy to have had that extra 15kg of warm clothing in their luggage.
so, penultimately (we've left stuff stored in val so we'll have to go back), we decended the valley again, singing our farewell to the snow and marmottes and travelled down to the relatively flatlands (only 445m) to a crazy medievil town called annecy. and what a little gem. snuggled up beside a lake with a castle perched upon a hill, its little cobbled alleys and crystal clear canals make this town a pleasure to shop in.... (visiting with folks: dad and pascal do boys things- as in not shopping, while mum and i do the other.)
all pleasantly punctuated by french culture: the aperitif.
now french living isn't all just about berets, bicycles, garlic and kissing cheeks left and right. they're not only known for their culinary wonders like frogs legs and duck. it's all about how you take your meal. and with the right alcohol. an aperitif is usually some strong alcohol (like pernod) taken before your meal, and it's not unheard of to be invited somewhere purely for the aperitif. (usually taken with a snack). then of course it is essential that your meal (when you get round to it) is accompanied by the right wine. imperative.
anyway, that's part of the next lesson.
so we're off to chamonix tomorrow to pick up my bro and his girlfriend and then we're heading to prague for a family holdiday (more shopping and local cultural exchanges)
xxxxx
b

liberty

2007-04-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

i've wiped my hands of it:
work.....
we are, once again, gainfully unemployed and soon to be homeless.
yippee!!!
the spring route beckons...
the next few weeks will be filled with plenty of to-ing and fro-ing. i'm going to chamonix tomorrow to see my folks while pascal stays behind to make the most of the snow before it melts.
and boy is it melting faster than you can even say melting snow!! the northern slopes of all the hills round here are turning green and are dotted with alpine flowers, smiling sweetly at the sun. we walked yesterday up a valley road and saw bouquetin (ibex- mountain goats) and marmuts (small furry hibernating rodent type things) nibbling at spring's grass. the air is heavy and sweet.
we were going to go skiing this morning but stayed in bed instead (bed is always better than sport); now with the almost subtropical temperatures it's only the morning skiing that's any good- by afternoon it's all soup.
so, no more tartiflette, raclette and other potato/cheese french alpine wonders. it's all salads and loveliness from now on!!!
xxx
b

new beginnings

2007-04-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

my friends, you have followed me down almost every road i have travelled over the last year, but not the personal route.
some things have changed and so perhaps i need to change this blog too, the cleansing of our souls will be tomorrow and so the new story will begin after that
xxxxx
b

equinox....

2007-04-07T09:03:00.000-07:00

From beginning to end the months have flown past in a fluffy white blur. Flashes of bright blue from an eager sky are almost the only contrast to the monochromatic landscape of dormant trees, rocks and snow. The days, and indeed the months, have moulded into one big pile and are now beginnning to defrost: Spring, that beautiful princess, goddess of promise, is on its way. Buds of willows swell, counting the days, ready to burst into leafery while tiny patches of grass, determined to be green, wait patiently for the snow's retreat. The sun, less eager to be elsewhere, loiters as it makes its daily journey, poking its rays into deeper, darker crevices every day.

Today i walked to and from work, a brisk 20 minutes, happy to have bright red gumboots, happy to have the sun on my face, happy to hear the little birds chirping their welcome song to the spring sunshine. Happy.

Last writing had me just about to escape from my plaster caste prison to the freedom of scratching and bathing and all sorts of other two-handed activities. In the meantime i have even tried skiing, would you believe! 14 years ago was the last time i was seen on skis heading downhill in a blur of colour, screaming. Not a lot changed in the interim, but for the engineering of skis which makes turning, stopping and not looking quite so idiotic a wee bit easier. Pascal and i stuck to the 'green runs' (nothing to do with bad meals in india) and mostly enjoyed ourselves: spring skiing: sun shining, trees wafting pine oil at your nostrils (yes, the french alps have trees growing in the middle of the piste... ) and easy snow. I enjoyed it so much (as in, didn't break anything) that i'm going to give it another go. Maybe even this season!

in the meantime i have had one of my travelling sisters, an equally not mad nomad, lacey, sharing our home with us. poor lacey, she came to europe on the promise of easy work and was fired the very next day. she's now lugging round a very serious amount of lovely boots/books clothing looking for a solution in a crazy world. (if you do see her by the roadside pick her up!! ) as always, i love being able to share things with my family and i really hope to see her (and you!!) soon.

Oh, i didn't tell you the sorry tale of poor wee maggy... parked up, minding her own business (in an avalanche zone- after one of the season's biggest dumps the local council erected signs in the carpark where she was parked forbidding access due to avalanche risk!!!) and some narrow minded connard decided to nick the car stereo. I wouldn't mind if a) the car looked decent in the first place and therefore looked like it had a decent car stereo; b) the car stereo actually functioned properly and c) they didn't bend the door frame right back, breaking the window and door in the process..... i have since bought a replacement door (it only cost 20% of the value of the car! Bargain!) only to discover that the peugeot people, bless 'em, developed a special thingo, that requires a special tool to remove and replace the door!

But, in the meantime, i have only 2 weeks left of work. No great shame really as i don't think i was cut out for the pressure of being a shop-keeper. I don't think the boss will be shedding too many tears over my departure either. Not wanting to mention the 'P' word (as in plan) because you know where that'll lead... other than towards the sea: corsica, croatia, tour of the former adriatic war zones... and finally back to aotearoa!!! Yah! But, not mentioning the 'p' word, i think it would be better to keep you updated rather than tell you in advance what we might/mightn't be doing....

Winter's battle finally over, the colourful caravan that is the collective of ski-bums, hippies, freaks and seasonaires, will begin following the melting snow's race downhill, descending the valley to make its merry way elsewhere.

and as usual, i hope to write more and put more piccies on here....
xxxx
b&p

2007-02-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

boy, time flies when you're doing not a lot.
tomorrow the resin cast comes off my arm! it wasn't all that hard- well at least not for me: i imagine pascal has something else to say on the matter. needless to say he now faces semi-retirement from the world of dishes-washing for at least a few weeks!!

it's snowing out. the town has returned to its rather picturesque alpine village scenery. new people have arrived and so the busy part of the season starts.... february is rumoured to be more silly here than christmas. people come, people go, people spend lots of money. it's a very strange environment.

it's snowed a lot over the last 24 hours, i've watched mini-avalanches from the warmth of our apartment. it creates a lot of work for everyone, the snow: avalanche prevention on the high slopes (as in, they do controlled explosions to cause avalanches and to clear the slopes from any dangerous snow) snow clearing off the roads, footpaths and carparks.... craziness.
i spend very little time outdoors- even the bright sunny days only manage to warm to just above zero. i wonder how all the wild animals cope- where do they go?
bring on the spring i say!!!

ode to winter follies

2007-01-25T01:30:00.000-08:00

the mountains stand proud, craggy, white against the sky's blue/black/grey. but sometimes they hide, cacooned in fluffiness.
the valleys in shade lie deep beneath frosty blankets that won't thaw till the equinox
the valleys with light shine, reflect the sun back, blind the inhabitants with the brilliance of the snow.

boys and girls, it's 2 hat cold out, thermals and special grippy boots. nothing less.

and here're the follies:
our poor naked bodies: hairless: we're not meant to be hanging out in alpine snowiness! we're tropical babies (ok, so maybe that's just me)
we're certainly not meant to be strapping things to our feet and descending said mountains at break-neck(wrist) speed.

dear readers, i broke my wrist snowboarding.
i didn't need helicoptering off the mountain, luckily.
i didn't suffer any amputations.
but i do have my arm in resin for a month.
i said a little more than just bugger. (it's amazing how easy it is to swear when everyone else around you is speaking another language: it's like your words float freely, harming no ears, transmitted directly to the god of accidents who takes it as a compliment of a job well done.)

so here's a list of things i can still do, easily with one hand:
drink.
um, hold on, i'm thinking.
oh, yeah: clean my teeth (although the toothpaste onto toothbrush thing is a bit hard. i have a technique now but whilst developing this technique one brush was lost to toilet...)
um, i think that's it!

and so everything else falls onto either the can-do-with-difficulties list or slips onto the need-assistance list.

winter sports eh?
as one of my wise friends told me we are definately meant to propped up under umbrellas on tropical beaches sipping coctails!

hope you lot are keeping safe and warm!!!
xxxxx
b

publıc transport

2006-12-14T08:32:00.000-08:00

we wıll walk, we wıll catch a tram, we wıll get a ferry followed by a bus and then on to the aırport where we wıll catch a plane. yıp, the cheap as chıps easyjet flıght wıll take less tıme traversıng all europe than the trans-ıstanbul tour by publıc transport to get to the aırport. (the alternatıve taxı fare wıll otherwıse be more expensıve than saıd cheap flıght).

ın the last few days we have sıpped tea; smoked water pıpes; popped ınto mosques, art gallerıes, bazaars, underground cısterns, museums that were once churches converted to mosques; played backgammon; eaten and slept. we caught a ferry to asıa and notıced that the food was cheaper but otherwıse everythıng else was the same. we walked up and down several of ıstanbul s seven hılls. we ve been mıstaken for spanısh on several occasıons, but sınce pascal had hıs beard shaved off some thınk he s a turk. we ve not shopped as much as ı thought we would (pascal wıll swear that we shopped twıce as much).

but otherwıse we are happy, ınspıred, refreshed, revıved and ready to return to that real world that awaıts us: that of -12degrees of snowy alpıne wınter downhıll festıvıtıes.
oh, and work.
xxxx
b
ps promıse promıse promıse photo updates to all entrıes to follow when we return to fransa

new autumn

2006-12-08T07:37:00.000-08:00

mother nature desıgned autumn to gıve everyone a lıttle joy: leaves dance delıcate ballets as they fall to the ground to waıt for gardeners and chıldren to play amongst. the sun shınes gently lettıng those sun weary gardeners get on wıth theır harvest ın peace.
and we re lucky enough to see a second autumn after frollıckıng amongst the leaves ın parıs parks and watchıng the rapıd onslaught of snow and all thıngs wıntery as we clımbed ınto the mountaın s valley.
and even though thıs cıty ıs heavıly blanketed ın a thıck smog, or maybe because ıt ıs, the lıght ıs extraordınary, golden, happy, as ıt reflects on the golden tops of the thousand mınarets.
today ıs frıday, the holy muslım day of prayer and my favourıte day of the week here for fındıng peace and tranquılıty. we were woken thıs mornıng by the most soulful call to prayer; the streets were almost empty as the workers took the day to celebrate famıly lıfe and love.
the turkısh are very frıendly, theır smıles genuıne and free. ı know theır lıves are much the same as ours: usual work/money worrıes. but, beıng muslıms, theır streets, bazaars and shops aren t lıttered wıth fake chrıstmas nıcetıtes and commercıal woes.
we re creatures of habıt, pascal and ı, and we ve found some happy turkısh chefs to serve our çorba (lentıl soup) and we pass the same streets every day to take our tea or coffee- well away from the overwhelmıng tourıst dıstrıcts. (downhıll from the grand bazaar, through the shoe manufacturıng dıstrıct, next to a busy mosque).
yesterday, ın the button dıstrıct (kıd you not, streets and alleyways devoted to fastenıngs) ı found a shop that to my delıght (and much to pascal s too ı m sure) would let me browse and pıck a few to buy sıngly. the shop owner who hardly spoke 4 words of englısh smıled at pascal and told hım: women, all world, same. and wıthout knowıng ıt, the 2 men followed hıs own prophecy by smılıng sympathetıcally at each other.

summary of world travels: women lıke buttons and men lıke football. we all lıke peace and love and a good sunday/frıday/saturday famıly meal. and autumn sheds the same lıght, leaves and bountıful fruıt on all of us
xxxx
b

swisstanbul

2006-12-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

the roads wound round and up and down.
ıt was snowıng when we left our valley.

ın swıtzerland we notıced:
black and whıte cows parked outsıde of quaınt lıttle churches, waıtıng to make theır donatıons towards the natıonal cheese fund.
approxımately 1000km of motorway/autoroute/autobahn lovıngly sıgnposted ın several languages. (for future reference ausfahrt ıs german for exıt: no gıgglıng, the germans aren t tryıng to be funny)
the border control dudes don t carry large pocket knıves even though they ve more than lıkely been ın the army.
everyone speaks wıth an ıtalıan accent (german, french... all ıtalıan)
whıch leads me to the conclusıon that:
swıtzerland ıs a large front for the ıtalıan mafıa, they needed someway to launder all that lovely money and what better way to do ıt than to ınvent a country of polıte, tıdy, dıscreet people who love the sımple thıngs ın lıfe lıke cows, chocolate, motorways and bankıng. and ınvıte the germans and the french along just so ıt doesn t look too obvıous.

our journey to the aırport was very long and confusıng. as the crow flıes basel ısn t very far from where we are, ınfact basel ıs rıght on the french border. tragıcally, we weren t travellıng by crow; but ıt s easıer to get to vıa swıtzerland (and 30euros for a motorway pass and NO free chocolate) so we spent half the day not entırely sure whether we were comıng or goıng. we worked ıt out dependıng entırely on how ıtalıan the accent was. untıl we crossed one border ınto france (what ıs ıt wıth these people and theır lack of sense of humour???) ıt s a good thıng we had some spare tıme that we dıdn t want to waste ın duty free.

cross the border a few more tımes (parked car ın france, departure gate 83 ın swıtzerland) then off we went to ıstanbul, the cıty that traverses the straıght between asıa and europe and ıs busy dıppıng ıts toes ın eıther pond, arrıvıng at an hour that found even the most devout muslıms stıll tucked up tıghtly ın theır dreams. we saw the sun rıse slowly over the skylıne (domınately pıerced by towerıng mınarets and softened by the voluptuous domes) whıle we searched for a hotel.
the cultural vultures that we are of course we wıll be makıng every effort to vısıt everythıng, photograph ıt and report back to you over the next few days. after we ve caught up on sleep.
gulegule
xxxx
b

a bientot paris

2006-12-03T05:47:00.000-08:00

i would love to come up with an incredible discription of the journey out of paris but other than to say it was slow that was about it.
however once we left paris the road unfolded rather delicately, pretty french castles dotted the countryside, designers of children's play areas had lots of fun (as in, they created mushroom parks for them to play in) and then after a few motorway links we were swirling through alpine roads: giant viaducts standing proud of the mountain valleys, by-passing villages and making the route a little like some sort of space travel. the mountains were peaked with snow and some villages were blaketed in heavy frosts that i'm sure will only get thicker until the spring arrives.
we stopped in chamonix/argentiere for a coupla days to see my bro before heading off to our new home for the next few months: val d'isere. altitude 1850m, attitude: very cool. there are clumps of leftoversnow hanging about, up to no good and a pretty mountain stream running through the town. the mountains rise up around the village menacingly; their sharpteeth tops grinning at the sun. aiie, mountains: fresh thin air rosey cheeked madness.
so, we unpacked (poor maggy was filled to the brim) put it all in its place and relaxed.
we start work in about 2ish weeks.
in between times we will be going off to istanbul to buy some pots for making wintersoups and a chopping board and maybe a nice rug to welcome our toes in the morning.
hope you, like us, have got a great surply of thermals somewhere cos if you read this blog further into the winter it'll make you cold!!!
keep warm and happy
xxxx
b

da girls

2006-11-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

how many???
kiara, lacey and i, in best form, supporting the all blacks @ lyon.
nice one girls xx

lyonopolis

2006-11-19T14:44:00.000-08:00

nestled between the rhône and the saône rivers with a hill for praying and a hill for working the pretty ex roman trading post is quite the cultural city. not that i saw much of its culture.
as per usual i looked at it from the outside and a little from the inside of a glass. (which is kinda cultural...?) its a town where they roll out the barrel: the heart of the beaujolais:
so, november 16th is the beaujolais nouveau fest (as in, when everyone gets to sample this season's beaujolais wine) and what better time to go catch up with friends and to do a little work on the city that is the topic of my latest research and employment.
so, maggy the great, traverser of countries (yes, plural) drove us down there at not quite break neck speeds a coupla days early but in time to visit some of pascal's great uni buddies.
we also popped in to a little mediaevil town perched atop a hill in the freezing cold.
we walked up the praying hill to witness muffled views of the city in the rain, with a mini eiffel tower to the right and a monstrous church to our lady the fourvière (dunno what that means) to the left, snuck past the churches to the saints paul, john & george (maybe fourvière is old latin for ringo?) all in time to go watch the rugby.
ooooh what a game!
i shared the spectacle with my 2 american chicas (if you've been following the blogs, these are the same 2 lovelies who i met and travelled with in nicaragua) who enjoyed the action, or at least the boys' form....

once again it was nice to catch up with friends, they make the road worth while. and for me, i got to meet some more of pascal's 'family', a very important family. (c'etait un plaisir de faire votre connaissance x)

and for maggy, well she had her picture taken at 97km/h the wee tart. we're not quite sure if the gendarmerie will be able to publish the picture directly to the blog.....

oh, and as for the beaujolais, well, this year i'd probably recommend it to go with a strong cheese, maybe parmesan, on top of your salad.

xxxx
b

middle earth

2006-11-02T04:24:00.000-08:00

i always found it ironic living in the shires, the actual shires that mr tolkien wrote about when new zealand claims to be 'middle earth'. the similarities tend to end there. apart from the hobbits.
they're nice people, the hobbits. like to eat, like to drink and be merry, they love dancing and having parties. very friendly. totally trustworthy. and despite the fact that not all of them have hairy toes (i'm sure this has got more to do with depilatory actions rather than genetics) they've all got big hobbit hearts.
pascal got to meet my hobbit family and friends and was firmly welcomed as one of the clan.
it's kinda crazy really, to go 'home' when you know it's not anymore; to be welcomed like you've been away for years but continue on chatting like you didn't go any further than the shop.
aiie, hobbit love eh?!

we ventured out of the shires, and crossed the cotswolds popping in on some friendly menhirs enroute. pascal commented that the cotswolds hills are more like a cotswolds bump... i guess if you compare les alpes to snowdonia you might get the drift of it.

middle earth, middle england: where some might equate middle to average i'd say you couldn't get any further from the truth!

thanks for having us, it was wonderful. and we'll see you all in france for a hobbit style camping holdiday!!!
xxxxx
b

ey up!

2006-10-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

phew, after a very brief period of notdrinkingnotsmoking verging on purity it has all been chucked out the window for a last ditched attempt at hedonism. and boy, they know how to do that round here!

welcomed
back up the front
with my reddtich crew.

and the family has expanded....

loads of new faces, old faces, slightly wiser faces.
it has been a little crazy to be back somewhere that i'd never thought i'd be but crazy mad lovely all at the same time. aiie.
so, quite predictably, i'm making this a rather quick entry 'cos i'm off out, down the pub....
xxx
b

draw this

2006-10-20T02:16:00.000-07:00

as we were out walking the other day we passed a window without anything for sale that still managed to catch our eye. the window was filled with portraits: sketched printed glued in pencil in ink in coal. as part of the nation wide thingo (campaign?) 'the big draw' various schools and community colleges around the place are opening up and holding free workshops. so pascal and i passed an interesting afternoon covering ourselves and various bits of paper with charcoal ink glue and arrived at the end with some very interesting portraits of one another and the conclusion that we are very different. pascal preferred to use very simple but in fact very elaborate techniques: single lines, very suggestive. a minimalist. me (and i don't think you'll be surprised at this), i wanted a go at everything. mixing up the medias; not at all suggestive, totally apparent, but a tiny bit secretive at the same time. lets face it, you all knew it: a maximist.
anyway, we were allowed to keep everything we made bar one portrait. the portrait we left behind will be displayed in an exhibition next week (so if you're anywhere round georges rd on the way between elephant and castle and blackfriars, london, look out for the morley gallery).

it was kinda nice to see how everyone sees everybody completely differently despite the fact we've all got 2 eyes.
xxxx
b

nitecar

2006-10-20T02:12:00.000-07:00

i know this picture is already in the collage but i like it so much i thought it deserved a biggerbetterfaster go at it.

paris/london

2006-10-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

so, one minute we're in paris the next we're in london.
not quite next minute (try24hrs later). bizarre.
the weekend past we wandered into the city to do a little shopping. absolute chaos: full tilt consumerism with wall to wall people grabbing things to buy like it was the end of the world. crazy. after all that we needed to escape to a park to try and capture the last of autumn's sweet sunshine. we headed to le jardin du luxembourg where we found the non-shopping half of paris doing the same thing: enjoying the subtlety of autumn. there were people playing chess, people playing cards, kids on ponies, a science fair, people playing pétanque. it was just like one of manet's paintings (but his was at les tuileries, and everyone was wearing tophats)..... we kicked leaves, looked over shoulders at games of chess and cards and tried to guess which people has recently left the science fair.
zip, cross country, cross former battle-fields, past wargraves and mining towns. onto a ferry and plonk, old blighty. we parked up road-side to sleep the rest of the night before driving north to london in the morning, stopping briefly in canterbury for an english breakfast enroute.
and london; big, busy, double-decker buses, tubish underground, not a sign of the wombles.
popped into the kiwi embassy for a quick kiaora and passport exchange (surpirsingly bloke there didn't comment on appauling photos), sampled some delicacies from home like buzzbars and peanut slabs (mmmmmmm) before wandering off to do almost exactly the same thing, but in london. look in on shop windows (carnaby st, regent st, oxford circus)- monopoly anyone?
but then we saw the national gallery was holding a quick exhibition: 'from manet to picasso' and there's nothing like being impressed by impressionism while you're already being overwhelmed.
london, eh? showing us scenes of paris. which is busy sampling bits of london.

paris par nuit

2006-10-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

tuesday night, on the town, zooming round.
and even that it was midnight, even that it was a tuesday they were all still at it. sipping coffees, leaning on posts, cycling somewhere, driving somewhere, consuming, being consumed by the fantastic city.

paris, non smoking

2006-10-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

2 weeks into the city of couture, culture and cuisine and i think that we've managed to sample a little of everything.
thanks to the generosity of the french government and our status of being 'poor' (and a piece of paper to prove it) we are able to visit many galleries, museums and swimming pools (amongst other things) for free. very nice. although at the centre pompidou i'm sure the patrons spent as much time looking at one another as at the exhibition itself!
we were very lucky to visit the french president's latest gift to the republic: the branly. the design of the building is rather controversial (for those who are the conservative/bourgeoise type): incredibly modern earthy coloured 'boxes' stacked, interspersed with glass walls (which are shaded by what i imagine would be sun-reactive metal venetian-like blinds) and a wall clothed in a great moist plant-carpet. the landscape design is rich, again providing contrasts between texture, colour and the sculptural aspects of both the hard and soft materials. the branly is plopped right smack in the middle of 7th arrondisement: to me and you that means the eiffel tower is right behind it and the rather affluent art-nouveau neighbourhood en-route to invalides is on the other side.
and all that before you get inside the museum!!
the museum houses a vast collection of indigenous art from around the world. most of the art was collected during the period of collonisation, which provokes a thought or two; but mostly i just appreciated the simple and equally elaborate beauty of everything there from musical instruments to rich tapestries, carvings, jewellery and beautifully embroidered clothes. monuments to gods and talismen for men.
and then we went shopping. or at least window shopping (the french call it lecher les vitrines which means window licking!!). my lord. it's a jolly good thing that the government are sponsoring us!!!
however, we need something to ocupy us as we're now up to day 5 in the non-smoking marathon. (although i think i am somewhat more occupied than pascal in the shopping bonanza).
yes, i am a non- smoker!!!!!

this is how much of a non-smoker i am: today we went for a drive around paris (on the perepherique: mental ring road; up the champs elysees: mental shopping district (no window licking from the driving seat, damn!!); round the arch de triomphe: super mental roundabout where there are no rules other than don't hit anyone, which i only just managed to not break!!!) without once fancying a cigarette!!! or killing anyone (nearly killing people doesn't count).

so, the cuisine bit. i guess that ties in with the non- smoking bit as i am currently eating a rather large and varied selection of almost everything (except animals). i hope to have that in check before things get out of hand (thanks again, monsieur le president for the free visits to the swimming pool). i can now thoroughly recommend at least 200 types of cheese, especially the goatish varieties (vegan? abandoned that planet as soon as i became french!!), which can always be appreciated with a glass of wine. :)

la vie est belle, n'est-ce pas?

i'm more than happy. even though the sun drags itself across the sky now in a sulkish fashion indicating that autumn is here; the trees flashing red warning us that winter is on its way. i'm a little scared of winter, but i can't wait till spring!!! loving the french people, life and culture.
xxxxxxxx
b
oh, ps, about to hit the road again in a coupla days, heading towards ol' blighty.

tour de france, suite

2006-09-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

bonjour a tous,
je pense que vous aurez tous compris, petits et grands, francophones, francophiles et autres, le billet que rebecca vient d ecrire (si vous n avez pas tout saisi, relisez avec un accent neozelandais et vous comprendrez tout par magie). je note juste a l attention des pointilleux qu il fallait remplacer "trompes" par "erreurs", "ray" par "re", "marron" par "marrant", "freimont" par "fouesnant".
nous sommes donc finalement arrives a paris par la porte de st cloud apres une saison de travail au cap ferret et un joli petit tour de la cote ouest de notre charmant pays. merci encore a tous ceux qui ont pris le temps de nous recevoir, d ecouter nos histoires, de nous servir copieusement de boissons alcoolisees aperitives, accompagnatives et digestives, et surtout de regarder (avec un interet parfois etonnant) les moultes photos que nous avons prises au cours de l annee de voyage (heureusement pour vous, on avait pas mal trie...).
ici a paris, on s installe quelque peu, histoire de recharger les batteries et de visiter quelques musees, prendre des expressos sur les terrasses abritees, s inscrire aux assedics et autres demarchages administratifs pour la forme et pourquoi pas faire un peu de sport, apres tout on aura le temps d aller a la piscine, il parait que celle de la butte aux cailles est sympa.
pour ceusses qui sont dans le coin et qui lisent ce blog attentivement, n hesitez pas a nous appeler!!!
p

tour de france

2006-09-24T14:31:00.000-07:00

bon jour tout le monde!!!
je vais essayer ecrire mon premiere 'blog' en francais.... svp m'excuser pour toutes les trompes....
bon.
on a partie de le cap le 1 septembre pour l'ile de ray ( pres de la rochelle) ou on a fait le camping; l'ile, apres le cap, etait tres marron. septembre est le mois de retrete (du monde qui a fini travailler) donc etait plein des campingcars et cheveaux gris..... les trucs modes nullepart.
on a continue par la rochelle ou on a reste qq jours chez maurice et collette. ils ont un tres jolie maison et jardin la bas avec beaucoup des oeseaux et une piscine du ciel. (le debut de septembre etait presque comme juillet ici, il faut que on prends les siestes chaque jour!)
j'ai decide apres ca que je voudrais etre un retrete aussi (meme que j'ai travailler soulement 2 mois cette annee!!). merci beaucoup a maurice et collette pour tous!!
au nord (un peu) on a reste a cote de le venice vert ou on a loue un canoe (presque un petit disastre.... on ne sera pas dans le prochain equipe olypique) avant reste chez famille bouffandeau (salut!! et merci encore xx) au pommerie (pres du cholet).
encore, plus de famille, la grandemere de pascal, denise (bon jour) et la tante et l'oncle et famille au cholet et apres tous les repas delicieux je ne peut pas imaginer pourquoi je ne suis pas enorme maintenant. oh la la!!! la vie francaise!!! je l'aime beaucoup!!!
on a passe par nantes (je crois que on est presque a bretagne maintenant?) ou on a visite sandrine, julian et petit ewan (un fan des all blacks, meme que il a seulement 1 ans ;) ). merci beaucoup, meme que j'avais mal au cheveaux prochaine jour...
finalement, a britagne ou on a trouve les menhirs, megolithes et toutes les choses prehistorique et du cidre et crepes aussie. les bretones sont fous (j'ai lu asterix quand j'etais petite!!). c'est tres jolie labas, et je crois (a ce moment) que c'est le region plus belle du pay. un autre tante et oncle de pascal habitent a freimont (je sais que ce n'est pas ecrit comme ca, mais si tu as besoin le trouver c'est a cote de quimper) quand on etait labas c'etait l'anniversaire de carole et on a eu la chance a celebrer avec la reste de la famille.
(merci beaucoup jeanpaul et carole xxxx)
on a reste chez jeanpaul et carole (ils ont un apartement a quimper) pour qq jours pendant on a fait les petits tour de britagne par voiture (le temp, meme que il a fait beau, on avait du vent aussi).... les petit villes du moyenages, fortifie avec les eglise enormes et les chateaux du les histoires des fees. magnifique.
et avant tu peut dire 'bon jour, ca va?' on etait sur le perefirique (??? la route ronde environ paris) dans la pluie avec du monde. bien venue a paris!!!

wow, that was really hard...
don't think i;ve ever written anything so long in french ever.

i was going to translate it but i don't think the language i use is that complicated, so if the google translation thingo doesn't work (and i'm sure it will) you'll have to use your imagination and i promise i'll write more, in english, next time.
xxxxxx
b

allez les blacks!!!!

2006-08-26T08:15:00.000-07:00

blimey, it's been about 10 years since i last wrote and i can't even remember what i wrote or where i was so it's kinda difficult to comment on the inbetween.... so i'll go in reverse order:
i've just finished watching the all blacks totally cream south africa in a very scrappy match (t'was the springboks, messy bastards). i watched it with pascal and an audience of french gentlemen; the game was commentated by two french blokes which was a source of constant amusement for me listening to them pronounce the names of the kiwi players. it's always nice to watch the home team, even better when they kick arse!!
the weeks previous to that has seen us both working like slaves in a town called crap ferret on the atlantic coast in the south of france. while the location itself is stunning working every day for 2 months and sharing a house with the people you work with isn't ideal. n'er mind. it's nearly the end of the season and time again for us to hit the road.
the pair of us work for 'emma photo', pascal works fulltime as a photographer and i teeter between being lab assistant (developing films) and surf photographer (standing almost waist deep in the sea trying to take pictures of kids having surf lessons). while neither of us will become millionaires doing it we've earnt enough to buy a car (maggy, peugoet 205, extraodinaire) and to keep us in food, petrol and wine before the next job.
we started taking some surf lessons last week. i should have done it earlier then i would have appreciated the sometimes dire expressions on the kids faces i try to photograph.... let's just say that i don't think pascal and i will be entering in the surf competition at the end of the week.
oh, right, i just looked at the blog and noticed last entry was from the other hemisphere. oops. don't know where the others went.
so. we're in france.
we spent a very brief 3 months hopping, bumping, walking and wobbling our way through south america. the original plan was to hitchike to colombia to catch a cheap plan to europe but you know how we are about plans. we nearly made it but at the last minute chickened out of going to colombia for fear of being kidnapped/blown-up (or both). and i'm not even exagerating. colombia has a very long history of guerilla warfare and not too long ago foreigners became the target, kidnapped and held to ransom (or simply escorted to the cashmachine). about 2 years ago they entered the guiness book of world records for the amount of kidnappings in one year (5000+). fortunately for colombian tourism, they've recently returned to the traditional methods of funding guerilla activity by cultivating/selling coca. however, there's still a few living out in the sticks who haven't got wind of the new trend and every so often snatch someone...
i am serious.
the day before we were going to go there colombia experienced its most peaceful, troublefree elcetions in more than 10 years with only 12 people being murdered during the polls.
right, so we didn't go.
we hung our in ecuador (which was surprisingly cold and rainy) for a bit. trekked a wee bit in peru. looked at llamas in bolivia and drunk far too much coffee and wine in argentina. as you do.
we hit the road again friday (hoping) on our little tour de france. obviously we shall be visiting the region's vinyards en route and camping like peasants. i shall try to give you an honest review (of both) more frequently.
xxxxxxxxx
b
oh, ps, i'm nearly french!!! got a work contract listing my nationality as french and am currently 'signing on' as well!!! never mind being able to order myself a coffee!!
x

discheveled

2006-06-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

back from the salar, bec and i.
bad hair day...

heureuse et heureux

2006-06-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

pascal et moi au salar uyuni, bolivie. altitude: 4800m et trop tot le matin.....

ché chavez

2006-05-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

he's the man of the moment, the man to watch: hugo chavez, venezuelan presidente and all round south american hero....
this man seems to be achieving in these early parts of the 21st century what bolivar and guevara tried before and failed in. the man's got oil money, the man's got balls. he's sticking his finger square up the US nostril, advising fellow south america nations how to recaim their precious oil fields and thus keep the profits and power. he's buying arms off the russians.he's having cups of tea with the libyans. he's selling subsidised oil to poor neighbourhoods in the US and making similar offers round loondon...
he's all over the news, signing trade agreements with bolivia, oil agreements with ecuador, buying argentina's foreign debt...
of course, the united states has "branded the man a demagogue and is trying to destablise the region"
and as with all good leaders, the man spent 2 years in prison (before being pardoned) and has fought off numerous protests and an attempted coup...
keep your eyes peeled. i'm kinda hoping he's going to continue to be the thorn in the bush administration's side, the bad smell that won't go away and maybe might be able to change something, something big, in america.

arriba y bajo

2006-05-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

hola amigos,
it's been an age since i wrote last; the road has slid past with remarkable ease....

not long after i wrote last we arrived in Cusco, Peru: Incan empire capital city and tourist hub. Not surprisingly, the town itself is beautiful, nestled in a basin beneath the hills. Nearby treats include the Sacred Valley, Machu Pichu and Choquequeroa: ancient Incan ruins. machu pichu, of course, is the big draw card. but with nearly 1000 visitors daily it is no longer the Inca trail shrouded in mysticism and ancient wisdom, it is the gringo trail, stamped squarely with dollar signs.
so, being as we fancy ourselves as explorers we decided to head to the lesser known Choquequeroa. more recently rediscovered and restored (seriously funded by the french government: merci beaucoup!) and substantially more difficult to get to.... we bused from cusco to a small (3 house) town and caught a collectivo (shared taxi) down to cachora. 'civilisation' as we know and love it, is fast approaching: the dust road is being improved and concreted in places and the trail out the other side of town, towards the valley and ruins, is being widened into a road.
we opted against hiring a horse, deciding to carry our food and shelter on the trail that went: 32km, 1400m down, 1500m up.... very steep. very. hot and dry. mad insects that bit every bit of you... bleeding incas!!
all moaning aside, the effort was well rewarded by one of the most amazing historical sites i have ever visited. on top of a 3100m hill overlooking a steep, green and well cultivated valley, cheered on by snow capped mountains. all to ourselves.

after the punishment of the previous coupla days arriba y bajo (up and down) we knew when to draw the line and get ourselves a horse. the journey back to cachora was easy by comparison!

and back on the road again, from the relatively isolated and unpopulated mountainside to the hustle and bustle of lima, capital city... diesel stink and bouncing colonial vibrancy. movies, bars, cafes. caught between a rock and a hard place me, i love them both!!

nothing else terribly memorable to report about peru; we zipped up the coast on a series of overnight buses and crossed the border into steamy ecuador, banana capital of the world and producer of panama hats....

as always, photos to follow!
xxxxx
b

titicaca? sans blague

2006-05-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

ca faisait une paye que je ne vous avais pas donne de nouvelles, mes tres chers, excusez moi. je vous ecris de copacabana, en bolivie, pas au bresil. c est pres du lac titicaca, ce fameux lac qui nous a tant fait rigoler enfants (quoique j en vois, encore depasse la trentaine, qui se goncent...). le climat est pur, on est a 3800m d altitude, l eau est froide et les vieux sourient de leurs dents en or, ca fait belle lurette qu ils n ont plus de vraies, moi je m en suis cassee un bout en mangeant leur espece de noix dures comme l email diamant.
la bolivie, ca fait une dizaine de jours, peut etre meme une quinzaine, qu on y est, et on adore. avant ca, nous avons laisse l argentine. desillusion. notre projet de vivre au moins quelques mois a buenos aires a ete abandonne bien vite, faute de trouver un travail un poil plus qu alimentaire.alors on remonte vers le nord.
a humahuaca, nord ouest de l argentine, pour la premiere fois, on s est sentis en amerique du sud: avant c etait les villes a l air europeennes, les autobus luxueux et les gens qui vous demandent des renseignements dans la rue, incognitos on passait. des humahuaca, ca change: petites vieilles machouillant la feuille de coca, petits vieux ressemblant a guy roux qui serait reste trop longtemps a bronzer sur le banc de touche, les gamins crasseux et ebouriffes, les bebes suspendus dans le dos de leurs meres adolescentes.les routes boliviennes sont belles, grandioses; et chaque village ou on s arrete nous offre un sourire: ici, c est cette petite fille qui joue a cache cache avec nous, la, c est cette maman qui va fierement faire ses courses avec son landeau tout neuf en guise de chariot (le bebe toujours traditionnellement dans le dos).
a copacabana, c est repos (sauf aujourd hui ou on a loue un petit bateau a voile; a savoir pour la prochaine fois, le matin, ici, il n y a pas de vent ; pas loin de copacabana il y a la isla del sol, l ile ou apparemment le soleil est ne, d apres les incas ; sans vent on n a pas reussi a l atteindre , mais pour ma part je prefererais aller sur l ile ou le soleil a ete concu, c est surement plus excitant...). j ai degote un petit hotel avec vue imprenable sur le lac; de l autre cote, c est le perou. pour l instant, ca a l air nuageux par labas. on attend ici que les nuages degagent, et quand le ciel sera clair, on fera de meme.

¿como se llama este llama?

2006-04-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

bolivia:
brown hills, red hills, yellow hills, hills on top of hills: mountians; snow capped, volcanic, smoking, non-smoking, steaming high altitude. planes: simple, blinding white salt, dusty, crusty, beige and carpeted green wet and swampy...lagos of red, lagos of green, white lagos, blue. phallic cacti standing proud above the scrub, offering green, red and pink fruits to the herder of llamas or sheep or goats. cacti hudling together, sharing the secrets of the herders, of the hills, of the planes. llamas, llamas, llamas, all called bob. villages moulded carefully from mud bricks, knocked up, knocked down, biodegrading, steel reinforced and thatched with desert fluffiness.
mineral rich with borax, sulphur, zinc, silver ore.
or metal poor bumpy roads winding, curling, clinging serpentine to the hills and striping the planes. leading to the same place while braiding and weaving inbetween; the silver mine draws silver lines across the landscape, importing fancy electricity
while most villages look on in awe.
bolivia: altiplano: SPF15 days and 3 blanket nights.

poverty line

2006-04-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

so, we arrived in b'aires, smiling, pleased to have arrived at our new home after months in getting here. i found work almost immediately: teaching english, as predicted.
so, 3 times a week i traverse the city in a sweaty train, imitating a sardine to teach english to people with prospects.
the journey takes 2 hours either way, the class lasts 3 hours... i earn 9 pesos for each hour in the class and none for the hours on the train.
the train rumbles past the highrises; it rocks past suburban slums where people live in recycled housing and recycle cardboard and paper to earn their pesos; it passes fields where people play polo and slinks into landscaped stations eloquently named 'bella vista' or 'hurlinghman'....
the contrasts are vast.
i later return to the backpackers bubble that we're staying in: a place where kids who are travelling on their parents' money and stay out drinking all night and would never know poverty if it came up and pinched their scrawny bums. the inhabitants of this mini republic spend the debt of small nations on beer and pizza weekly and think it's great that buenos aires has such an active recycling scheme.

it's been ages since i last made an entry here.
and with luck my next one won't be so grim. i guess it's just city living, noise and bustle and traffic fumes and a 12peso hangover with sleepless nights chucked in for good measure.

xxxxxxx
b

paradise in the polynesian triangle

2006-03-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

i'm sat now in santiago, chile, colder than i expected....
the last few months have seen us sunning ourselves and swimming on all sorts of lovely beaches.
the last part of our journey in new zealand was beautiful, i guess as expected. we spent an amazing 6 days trekking on the queen charlotte track in marlborough sounds; one of the craziest tramps i've ever experienced. the track is serviced by water taxis which offer luggage delivery services for an extra $10. but being as we were camping, and are gluttens for punishment, we carried our own gear and stayed in the DOC camp areas. along the track there were several other options for accomodation, ranging from our luxury blue tent overlooking empty, golden sanded beaches, to the squalid but historic furneaux lodge (hope they don't read this blog, they might sue me... far from squalid) with all sorts in between... places to buy cappucino, sip on cider and watch the rugby. craziness. and as you might expect the track was busy. people of all sorts of ages and abilities walking. but we still managed to find some beautiful spots all to ourselves and the weka...(cheeky indigenous, flightless birds that nick off with your stuff when you're not looking, and even have a go when you are!)
so, a quick, easy hitch through the north island stopping briefly in wellington, hamilton and auckland and then on to tahiti.
tahiti was nothing like we expected. after 3 months in aotearoa, where we were greated everywhere with smiles and friendly faces we were more than a little suprised to find all these people living in a postcard paradise looking so miserable, despite the 'tahitian' welcome of singing, dancing and flowers. we didn't do much, sat on the beach, swam, tried hard not to sweat too much.
another wee hop across the pacific to the other edge of polynesia and we landed in rapa nui: isla de pascua, easter island. and here we were again, welcomed, but with genuine smiles. everyone there referred to nueva zelanda by its maori name aotearoa. the language of rapa nui (other than spanish) is incredibly similar to te reo maori and i was surprised by how many words used in conversation i could understand. crazy. on leaving the airport we met a chap named tuti who invited us to come and stay at his house. it was, in fact, his 2 nephews aged 7 and 8 who made one of the highlights of my stay there. not long after we arrived we were invited on a fishing trip and it was while we were being burnt to a crisp on the back of a ute, bouncing along the coastal roads that we discovered that the weather was proper scorchio and so our plans of walking around the mostly deforested island where there were few sources of water were immediately cancelled. we did manage one overnight camping expedition though to the site of some fallen moai. it was one of the most beautiful evenings i've ever had: the full moon lighting the stones made the whole landscape somewhat surreal.
another quick leap back in time (travelling backwards, totally crazy) deposited us into the funk and grime of santiago.
hooked up on the net, pascal has put a few photos on for you to enjoy, and here's a collage i've made of us, a few of the moai and a beautiful sunset we enjoyed and some piccies taken along the queen charlotte track in lovely te wai pounamu: south island , new zealand.
xxxxb

tahiti ile de paques santiago

2006-03-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

de nouvelle zelande, nous partimes pour tahiti. deception. c est fou comme on peut sentir, des l arrivee dans un nouvel endroit, de bonnes ou de mauvaises ondes. dans ce cas-la, direct, mauvaises: quand, a la sortie de l avion, on est accueillis par des joueurs de ukulele et des vahines qui vous offrent une fleur, ca parait bien, et puis on fait la queue, et un douanier vient chercher ses amis dans la file pour les faire passer devant tout le monde; ca le fait moyen. notre premiere intention etait de dormir sur une plage (on est arrives a 20h30): deconseille par la nana de l office de tourisme, "a cause des agressions", me dit elle a mots couverts. on file donc vers le plus proche hotel, et on rencontre un francais qui vit depuis 10 ans sur l ile et d emblee me parle de la violence quotidienne, de viols, d inceste. bonjour le paradis! on change d ile le lendemain, moorea. programme accompli: sea, sex and sun. de retour sur papeete 3 jours plus tard, un local nous dit ne pas nous promener dans les rues mal eclairees; on prend le bus local pour l aeroport, et pele-mele, on voit des gamins se battre sur un parking (genre fight club), un couple se bagarrer (au passage, l homme etait a poil), et enfin, au duty free de l aeroport, la blague du jour: une femme dit a une autre:"comment c etait la journee de la femme?" (ce jour la, c etait la journee de la femme a tahiti, peut etre en france aussi, je ne sais pas); l autre dit "bof"; la premiere repond "au moins aujourd hui tu t es pas fait tabasser", et rigole.en resume, tahiti, n y allez pas! il y a plein d autres endroits sur terre aussi beaux et ou les gens sont plus sympas.

changement de decor complet sur l ile de paques: muy tranquillo!dans le temps, l ile s appelait qqch comme tea te ara, qui veut dire "centre du monde"; ils ont du faire la tronche quand les premiers europeens ont debarque; du coup, ils ont change pour "rapanui", qui veut dire grande moule ou un truc dans le genre. des braves gens, en somme.on a un peu rate les lieux touristiques de l ile, car avec le decalage horaire, on se reveillait un peu tard. et puis il fait une chaleur d enfer pdt la journee, donc marcher 6 heures pour 3 jours entre les differents sites (comme c etait prevu) n est pas vraiment une option. finalement, on s est debrouilles pour camper pres d une plate forme de moais pour la pleine lune (la photo de moi jouant aux pois (prononcez po-i-ze) a ete prise de nuit, on voit les etoiles). magique, cette nuit la!!!

depuis hier, on est a santiago, mais on va pas trainer. encore 2 nuits ici, et on file a valparaiso. retour a santiago, et on file a mendoza.au passage, comme je suis deja venu a santiago par l est il y a 2 ans, je viens de boucler mon premier tour du monde. yoohoo!

auckland, veille du depart

2006-03-03T17:32:00.000-08:00

et nous sommes bientot prets (dernier shopping, derniere lessive, empaquetez le tout, melangez) pour le depart vers tahiti. ile paradisiaque sans doute. non, non, je ne suis pas blase. mais on ne reste que 4 jours sur place, donc ca va etre que plage et plongee. ils annoncent un rafraichissement des temperatures labas, 29 degres au lieu des 32 habituels. heureusement, j ai toujours ma polaire avec moi. rien que de penser a l eau bleue turquoise a 25, ca fait des frissons.
je me demandais si j allais vous faire un resume rapide de nos trois mois en nouvelle zelande. c est simple: si pres du depart, j ai deja hate d y revenir. tout me plait ici, de l atmosphere si detendue qui y regne a l agitation jamais speed des villes, des paysages grandioses aux petites plages ou il n y a personne, de la montagne majestueuse a l ocean pas si fique que ca. j adore. oui, peut etre un jour j apprendrai le haka. mais je sens que la nouvelle zelande et moi seront une belle aventure, dans quelques mois ou quelques annees.
on arrivera le 14 mars a santiago chili, apres tahiti et l ile de paques. on aura surement pleins de choses a vous raconter, alors soyez prets!

te wai pounamu

2006-02-11T23:22:00.000-08:00

haere mai i aotearoa!
here's some piccies we've taken while we've been on the road: 38 rides, 160km of tramping (bush walking kiwi style), 22 dehydrated meals and 127 dead sandflies. and almost every second of it we've been smiling (with the exception of some of those more muddier moments on stewart island and one or two sandfly fiestas on the coast). we've not once dismantled the tent in the rain, not to say rangi (sky father) hasn't shed any tears on us, quite the opposite! the sun's been more than plentiful.
it's been 100% pure nz: home, almost as i remembered it.
xx
b

une semaine dans la nature

2006-02-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

nous etions prets, enfin, quasiment, pour faire un trek de 5 jours de part et d autre du harper pass, qui va de arthur pass a lewis pass; vous aviez devine que c etait un trek dans la montagne, mais ici c est pas haut, alors ca aurait ete facile. comme nos plans changent a la vitesse d un tgv paris marseille un jour de non-greve, le matin du depart, nous options donc pour deux jours de marche aller et deux jours retour; avec au milieu un arret dans des sources d eaux chaudes. le premier jour etait royal, 6h de marche a bon train; on pose la tente pres d une riviere; on se couvre d insecticides pour eviter les sand flies (ceux qui n ont jamais mis les pieds en nouvelle zelande ne peuvent pas savoir de quoi je parle: les sand flies sont de ridicules petites mouches qui, des que vous vous arretez quelque part, n ont de cesse de vous harceler et de vous pomper votre sang, comme des moustiques, a la difference pres que la, ca fait mal). bref, le bonheur. la nuit tombe, comme elle le fait generalement quand le soleil se couche; nous tombons egalement, de sommeil. vers minuit-5h du matin (a peu pres...), la pluie commence a tomber, elle aussi, decidement. et ca a dure 24 bonnes heures. du coup, on a glande sous la tente, mange la moitie de nos provisions (la premiere rando ou je prends du poids), et nous repartimes le lendemain dans l autre sens. adieu veaux vaches cochons sand flies et sources d eau chaude.
le retour fut tranquille.
hier enfin, apres avoir appris de la bouche d un neo zelandais moqueur notre decevante defaite face a l ecosse (je lui ai donne rdv en 2007 en france et en 2011 en nz), nous avons ete voir le premier match du super 14, otago contre canterbury. y en a t il dans l assistance qui savent de quoi je parle? non? tant pis je continue. le match etait sympa a regarder, mais l ambiance etait tres calme, un peu comme quand le luxembourg joue l azerbaidjan en match amical sur terrain neutre, vous voyez ce que je veux dire: quelques timides holas tenterent de decoller, pas de chant de supporters, pas de bagarre a la fin du match. decevant.
on passe encore une semaine a christchurch et apres on file vers le nord. yiiiiippppiiiie!

no, we're NotMad

2006-02-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

hello again!
we've moved to a better, stronger , faster weblog. hopefully this one will give us a reliable service with links to all our lovely photos and stories of where we are and what we're up to.
so far this year:
we've done sod all.
yes, that's right! SodAll.
such are the joys of being a nomad.
plans for this year are somewhat more detailed and some of them even topsecret. (nomad doesnot equal spy, or prostitute either).
so, prepare yourself for yet another way to waste time on the internet looking at photos and learning another language
xx
b

pour les francophiles et ceux qui ne savent d anglais que "to be or not to be", je prends le relais pour vous souhaiter la bienvenue sur notre nouveau blog, qui je l espere satisfera petits et grands.
au programme du blog: nos recits de voyage, nos aventures, nos photos.
venez partager avec nous et amusez vous bien
bises
pascal