Paris!

Tony and I got up before the sun, which is actually very difficult to do at the moment, and made our way to St Pancras station to the Eurostar terminal to take the first train over to Paris.

This trip, we decided to drop the dogs off with a dogsitter so no friends are watching our place this weekend. We plan to meet up with our friend Matthew and have a grand old time visiting this magnificent city.




It was an easy train ride from London to Gard du Nord in Paris, and from there an easy metro ride to our hotel.

We couldn't check in, so we dropped off our luggage and headed across the street to the grocery store to grab a quick Almond Croissant and Cafe Grande Creme before heading out for a day of walking sightseeing in Paris.

We'd been to Paris before, and had hit most of the major sights, so this trip was going to be a bit more relaxed.

We decided to do the Latin Quarter Walking Tour from Rick Steve's book. It is a very old section of Paris, and it is quite picturesque.

We visited St. Germain des Pres, a largest church in Paris. It is magnificent and very, very old. I believe it is older than Notre Dame, and just as impressive on the inside. They had a magnificent organ that someone was playing. Soo cool.


For Lunch, we stopped at a cute sidewalk cafe that Rick recommended and had a Croque Monsieur (a grilled cheese sandwich with ham) and a glass of wine. It felt so French.

We ultimately made our way to Saint Sulpice Cathedral.

If you saw "The DaVinci Code", this is the church that features at the beginning of the film where the fictional Priory of Scion met and hid a clue regarding the location of the Holy Grail.

It turns out that the book takes a lot of liberties with reality, and there is a plaque inside the church explaining how much Dan Brown distorted the truth.

There were a lot of other people who must have been visiting this site for the same reason, as they were all taking pictures of the Obelisk and the Calendar line that Dan Brown turns into the mysterious "Rose Line" in the book. It is an amazingly beautiful chuch with a massive organ that would be wonderful to hear sometime.

We met up with Matthew and his 89 year young mother at Sainte Chappelle Church.

From there, we headed off to dinner at Tony's favorite Parisian restaurant, Au Petit Tonneau. They may have just opened for dinner as we were the first customers in the restaurant.



We also met up with, Lisa, an expat blog buddy of Tony and a friend of hers who was visiting from Las Vegas. The restaurant is a classic small Paris restaurant, that has absolutely wonderful food - the potatos gratin is amazing. Marie the owner/chef is a wonderful gracious woman, and a fantastic chef.




Tony and I decided to treat ourselves to the Chateaubriand. DELICIOUS!

It was a wonderful dinner with lots of french wine and talk and food.






After dinner, we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. It made for a wonderful evening. A perfect end to our first day in Paris.

UK Driving License

My official UK Driving License arrived today in the post. It's been about a 3 month process to get it, and I am the first of my group of ex-pats to go through the process. Thankfully, one of my supervisors had gone through it a few years back and was able to advise me.

I was able to use my CA Drivers License, but technically after 1 year in the UK, I am required to have a permanent UK Drivers License. After 3 months of residence, I am eligible to apply. So after about 6 months of being here, and the realization that my US license was scheduled to expire on July 2nd, I began the process.

The process runs like this. You send your Passport and US Drivers License to the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority), and as a US Driver, I get a Provisional License which allows me to drive for up to a year with all the benefits of my US license. After that year, I would be limited to the same limitations as the standard provisional license, which are that I would be required to have a fully licensed individual who is over 21 and has been licensed for a minimum of 3 years to be in the car with me. That and I would have to have the big "L" brand of shame plastered on the car. Technically, I would also be unable to rent or use my Streetcar membership.

There are 3 tests that you have to take. The first is a 50 question multiple choice Theory Test. The second is a Hazard Awareness test, which checks your ability to recognize hazards and react within a timely manner. Both are done on a computer at a test center. In preparation, I studied a 450 page book containing questions and the Motor Vehicle Handbook. I also registered with a Website that had mock tests for both. It tracked my improvement until I felt confident enough to take the test. The site did an excellent job in preparing me as I passed both. I even got a perfect score on the Theory Test.

The third and final test is the Practical test. For this, I signed up with "Red", one of the many driving schools around town. My instructor, Vitor, was a patient man, who got that I'd been driving for many years, but needed, as he put it, to learn to drive "like the English". He taught me many things, and corrected a lot of my bad manual shifting habits. Licenses here are given as either Manual or Automatic. If you take the Manual Practical Test, you can drive both automatic and stick. If you take the Automatic Practical Test, you are only allowed to legally drive an automatic car.

I thought I'd be confident in just a couple lessons, but after the first lesson, it was clear that in order for me to drive at the level required to pass the test, I would need more practice, and more lessons. Vitor caught me driving on the wrong side of the road only once.

The biggest hurtle was to learn how to do the roundabouts properly. To be honest, I still don't feel 100% in this area. I'll just have to practice more. After passing the first 2 tests, Vitor signed me up for the Practical Test. Some centers have a small a passing margin as 20%. We signed up at a test center that is just outside central London that had a passing margin of 40%. The difference in margin is a result of the driving conditions in the area. My test was at the Borehamwood DVLA center, which is a little more rural and suburban. For the last few weeks before the test, we had our lessons in that area so that I would be familiar with the roads and areas that the examiners might trip me up.

I took the day off work for the test, and took the train out to Borehamwood, where my instructor met me, and we had a quick and final review lesson. Then it was time for my 45 minute driving test. My examiners name was Burley - a very nice friendly man, who made an effort to make me feel comfortable and relaxed taking the test. We drove around the neighborhoods, and some of the country roads. He had me do a 3 point turn, a Reverse around the corner, and the Emergency Stop. All maneuvers that I'd practiced with Vitor over and over again, so that I knew where the examiners would want to see me stopping and observing to make sure conditions were safe.

In the end, I passed the test the first time out with only 3 minor faults. You can get up to 16 before you fail, so I did pretty good. I'm not sure how much driving I'll be doing in London as public transportation is excellent here, but I'm ready if I want to.

Warwick Castle

The following day, we visited Warwick Castle. It is AMAZING - something right out of a movie.











The castle dates back almost 1000 years, and is often sited as the best preserved medieval castle in England.



It's like being at some crazy Renaissance Faire. I can't wait to bring my brother here to see this. He will love this. Even Tony got in the spirit of it.

The weather cooperated, and the rain cleared up to afford us with some spectacular views from the tallest turret.






























A lot of the castle was restored in
the 1800s. It is managed now by the same company that runs Madame Toussauds Wax Museum. They have decorated sections of the castle with wax figures and other set dressing to show what it might have been like.


It isn't as hokey as it sounds as it is well done, and they allow you to take photographs, which isn't allowed at a lot of other castles. If this is what it takes to protect these historical treasures, then I am all for it.

They even have a large catapult that is set up for demonstrations across the river. Unfortunately, we did not get to see it operate as that would have been really spectacular to see.

Strattford Upon Avon

As part of my learning how to drive in the UK, I decided to do some overnight trips out of town. Strattford Upon Avon was highly recommended as a wonderful country town to visit. It is also renowned as the Birth and Burial place of William Shakespeare.





This time, I booked the shared car from the car club to which I belong, and Tony and I packed the dogs into the car and away we went. It is about a 2 hour drive up the Motorway. And this time to increase the difficulty level, I drove stick. My ultimate practical driving test would be using a stick shift, so it was time to start learning how to do it here in the UK.



We arrived at the Alveston Manor Hotel where it is purported that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was first performed on the lawn in front of the hotel. It was a very comfortable hotel and just an easy walk across the river from the main part of town. Most importantly, it was dog friendly.

We arrived in time to have a nice pub lunch and a pint, and join the local tour of the town. Shakespeare is obviously the favorite son of this otherwise cute and relaxed country town - definitely a different pace from the craziness of downtown London.


Everywhere, there are the half timber style buildings that typify the classic English country style. Some are truly old, while others are modern built to look old. The town has done a wonderful job to maintain its image.

We took a lovely 2 hour walking tour of the town, and visited the church where William Shakespeare is buried. I couldn't help but remember my English Literature teacher from High School, Margaret Chaconas.







The church is a small country church that sits along side a lazy green river - a serenely beautiful setting.









Inside is the grave of William Shakespeare, where he is interned to this day. Many people from that period were buried, but their bodies later removed. Luckily, he is still there. It was humbling to be this close to a man who has had such a huge impact on world literature and theater.

We also visited the school William Shakespeare attended as a child. It is still a school to this day. I can only imagine the pressure upon those students knowing that such a literary genius preceeded them there.

Many of the homes that William Shakespeare or his heirs lived in still stand in some manner, or have been reconstructed. We didn't go inside any of them, but they look like the quaint English country homes one might imagine.

Unfortunately, the main theater at the Shakespeare Center was undergoing construction. I'd love to go back to Strattford Upon Avon to see a play and spend another relaxing weekend soaking in the English Countryside.

Roses?

Spring is fully underway now in London. And nothing crowns this season more, than the arrival of the most royal of flowers - the Rose. Roses are blooming like crazy in the different parks throughout London, and the British are crazy for them. The parks here have these amazingly beautiful flower beds featuring some of the most beautiful roses I've ever seen.

There are these amazingly dark red roses, and then some varigated roses that go from peach to pink.






And the dark red ones smell amazing. . .








It is a wonder to see them go from small bud to giant flowers that are bigger than my hands. And strange to imagine that only a couple months earlier, the plant appeared as nothing more than twigs sticking out of the icy mud.









I've never been a flower person, but the longer I am here, and having survived a rather bleak and dark winter, the blossoming roses become a real treat.






I've even seen the dogs stop chasing the squirrels to give the giant blooms a sniff.

London Pride 2010

London has its Gay Pride celebration on July 3rd, the day after my birthday. Tony, Matthew, and myself took the tube down to Oxford Circus (the heart of London), and found a spot on the curb.









It was a raucous event full of crazy people having a lot of fun.




There were the typical Gay Rights contingents, scantily clad men and boys, and various groups wanting to attract gay money.













There was also members of the police force, army, navy and various other British servicemen and women. That was really neat to see.










That evening, Tony and I went to the Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath, a large park in London, for an outdoor concert by Rufus Wainright with our deer friends Alan and Wendy.






The venue reminded me a bit of the Hollywood Bowl, though we sat in lawn chairs on grass instead of benches on cement.








We brought a pitcher of Pimms (a traditional British Summer Cocktail made with lemonade, sliced cucumber, sliced fruit, and mint) and a picnic dinner.







It made for a lovely evening.