Monday, March 26, 2007

Another India photo...
Somebody had to pay for this trip so I sent Valerie out to pick rice for the day. She is smiling because I haven't told her the plan for the day.
India photo...
I look serious here but I am really just trying to hold back my happiness to be Varkala on the Arabian Sea following a massage and a swim. Or maybe it was constipation.
India photo 2...
Valerie is bigger than the Taj Mahal. It is crazy how small this building made of marble really is. :)
A few India photos since I forgot to post them when I blogged.
I couldn't get any closer. They were a bit more vicious than I expected. They act like they own the place or something.

Weekend Trips

One of the things I really like about living in France is its proximity to everything. You can travel through several countries in just a few hours making it great to take weekend trips just to visit a particular city. For instance, last weekend we flew over for a night to London. (Literally 24 hours!!). We took the equivalent of Southwest airlines over and if you buy in advance it costs less than 100 euros round trip.

In addition we belong to an apartment exchange site on the Internet and a woman from London let us stay at her flat for the night. We didn’t have too much time to socialize with her since we only had 24 hours to enjoy London but from what we got to know of her she was extremely nice. Originally from India she had lived and worked as Teacher in London for the past 30 years. Now, she spends her time enjoying life traveling as often as possible to make up for all the time she couldn’t travel while teaching. She was unhappy we didn’t stay longer though. Next time we will. J

Her flat, was near Wimbledon which in reality was a bit far from the center of London but we didn’t mind. It was just like having a free bed and breakfast in a city that normally costs at minimum 100 euros/night.

Anyway, we have done this trip a couple of times, since I love to go over to London to drink a beer in the pubs, eat fish & chips, Indian and Thai, as well as to have a full size coffee which is non-existent in Lyon (you only find espresso shots in Lyon). I still haven’t figured out why Starbucks hasn’t expanded here with its success in Paris. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that Nice will be next since there are so many English people there. On Valerie’s side, she typically enjoys the same things minus the fish & chips and coffee but also adding a Whopper at Burger King.

The only problem with these trips is that the weekend always goes by to fast. And, of course before it is over we are already planning our next trip.