France

I set off for Normandy for a couple of days and now am back in Paris. Not much to say about Caen really. Went to the Castle of William the Conqueror with an Australian woman who seemed to have no idea at all where she was going so just came with me and then wandered a bit but that's about all. Bayeux, however was a totally different story. It's so quaint -you can turn a corner and see an old water mill with izy growing up the side or a small tudor-style building. It's really very sweet. Anyway... this morning I went to a memorial mass -with members of the royal British Legion and the Ambassador to France- which was so so touching you cannot even begin to imagine. To see all the veterans shuffling up the aisle and bowing their heads in respect of lost comrades. Well naturally it made me cry. What can I say, I'm a sap. It was so moving though. And basically the message was that we have to fight for what is right for tomorrow just like the war heroes did for us. *wipes eyes*. Then after booking my train back to Paris, I went to see the Bayeux tapestry which is really amazing. Even though I knew it was long I really never would have imagined it would be that long and so much work too...well this is my era of history so I enjoyed the whole William the Conqueror Centre. And I remembered the castle types from history... I then figured I had just about enough time to check out the British cemetery -so moving to see all those rows and rows of white gravestones and then the monument which brought my whole day together. In latin: 'We who were conquered by William have freed the land of the conqueror'

Still not much time (it's 4 euros an hour what can I say). Anyway so...people mostly have 2 opinions of Paris: 1- romantic and beautiful or 2- dirty. Well, it's a bit of both. I'm staying in a hostel with the cheesiest name -that would be Young and Happy but it is in the coolest place in town. Actually on the road the guidebooks say to go to to experience the Latin Quarter and it's very fun. I've done all the obvious tourist stuff apart from Versailles which I'll be doing on my return to Paris in a couple of days. I wlked around the Louvre for 7hrs today and my feet are throbbing like you would not believe but when I got on the metro back here there was a man playing a saxaphone on there along with all the crazy people so that was cool! As so many people have said about this to me I feel I must say that I'm not sticking religiously to my schedule. I'm keeping moving along to save money. Now for your info I'm flying to Copenhaguen on the 19th.

So, not much time so will move on to France though Venice was very good. So decided to get an overnight train from Venice to Lyon as they would only offer me a connection via Dijon so that meant 13 hrs. Well, by the time someone decided to jump in front of another train on the tracks ahead of ours, and then I missed my connection, well it ended up being a little more than that. Painfully long. And I was so sure those two pitiful straps were not going to keep me from falling out of the bunk! Anyway I passed through Dijon -where I took a pic of somewhere that was making mustard -because hey, you know it's Dijon- anyway got to Lyon and my guidebook was right Lyon really is super friendly and ethnic and just very very cool. Actually I'm thinking maybe of going there for my year abroad with uni if poss... Not much time so moving right along to Carcassonne... got of train from Lyon and went to ask the tourist office how to get to the hostel. 40 mins walk. And the last bus just left. What??? Sucks that doesn't it! Anyway no choice so off I set. Half an hour later I got to where I thought the next road was supposed to be and there seemed to be a big castle in my way...but happily it turned out I was staying there and it was a walled city...out of time, sorry!