Paris, France

After a long overnight train and surviving the broken air conditioner
of our coach, we arrived in the city of love to find it raining. And
rained all day, it did.

Out first adventure of the day consisted of a thirty minute ordeal to
try to find a way to London that was economically feasible, but it
just wasn't meant to be. After hearing the advice of our ticket agent,
we agreed to travel to Brussels, Belgium in lieu of London. Chocolate
and waffles here we come!

After settling in at our hostel, we ventured out for lunch to a place
Daniel frequented when he was studying abroad in Paris. La Top Gun was
excellent.

We then met up with the New Europe walking tour for a three hour wet
adventure through the city. We had a really funny Australian tour
guide, but the rain and our combined knowledge of the history of Paris
made it seem like we could have benefited more by frolicking on our
own. At least we can say we have walked through Paris in the rain!

Afterwards, we took some well needed showers. Daniel and I discovered
that we managed to sunburn ourselves pretty decently in Nice (ouch!)!!
We better use more sunscreen next time!

We headed to dinner on the Champs Élysées, courtesy of my parents! We
found a Belgian restaurant that served superb mussels, and we had a
great time picking away at those and talking over breaking bread.
Thanks Mom and Dad!

To end the night we watched the last Harry Potter movie. We originally
planned to see it in London, but that plan went south fast after 500
euro Chunnel tickets. We all enjoyed the last installment of our
childhood series and are very sad that it is all finally over.
Mischief Managed!

Tomorrow we head to Normandy!!

Tim

Nice, France

Nice, FRANCE!

Hi everyone! Today was such a relaxing day, and it will probably be our last until we get back home. All we did was hang out on la Cote d'Azur in the touristy but lovely Nice, France. At first we weren't too sure about coming here because the beaches are ROCKY instead of sandy. We took Daniel's word on coming here and boy am I so glad we did, Nice is the ultimate Medeterranian/Provencale spot with really delicous food; its llike France and Italy had a food baby.
This morning we checked out of our hostel and headed to the local market to buy some wholesale breakfast. We got four pains au chocolats and four croissants for four euro. After, we headed to the beach to spend the day in the sun and eat our breakfast. The view on the beach was gorgeous! The water was a very vibrant light blue with a deep dark blue color in the distance. The rocks really weren't bad because they are very small and smooth. The water was so cold, but we all ended up going for a nice swim. We just layed on the beach and popped in the water whenever we needed, it was so refreshing!
For lunch we went to another café and we all ordered pizza AGAIN!:-) I orded a pizza Provencale with olives, eggplant, peppers, basil, and lots of cheese, and the boys got a simple but delicous Pizza Magurite. As soon as we finished lunch we went to get some amazing icecream. I must say I am absolutely in love with Passion Fruit icecream so I get it every single chance I can. After we just headed back to the beach to enjoy the sun even more. Daniel and Tim got a little sunburt but hopefully it will turn to tan ...really soon! We decided to head to the Monoprix once again to try and buy dinner. I am very proud I bought a ggreat one for only two euro. Nice was so amazing. We are off to Paris in an hour and a half!

Nice, France

It's late. I'm tired. Our day:

5:30--Wake up
6:00-- Walk through Lourdes in the pouring rain to the train station
6:30--Get on train
8:30--Wake up again
8:45--Sit in train station
9:45--Sit in train station
10:45--Sit in train station
11:45--Sit in train station
12:15--Get on train
12:16--Begin playing Catan
13:15--DANIEL WINS CATAN!!!
13:16--Begin playing cards with Guillaume, a small, cocky, French child.
14:15--Play another game with Guillaume.
15:15--Play another game with Guillaume.
16:15--Guillaume gets off the train. We are sad.
16:16--Begin playing game 2 of Catan. Completely forget Guillaume existed.
17:15--Still playing Catan. Daniel has 37 rock and nothing else.
18:30--Get off train.
19:00--Check in at hostel. Consider showering. Go to dinner instead.
20:00--Eat the best pizza of our lives. Is that really how you spell pizza?
21:00--Eat the smallest crème caramel. Ever.
21:30--Watch the Women's World Cup Final.
21:50--"I hope we go into overtime!"
22:10--"We're gonna win!"
22:30--"Okay, now we can't lose!"
23:00--Daniel feels urge to strangle Australians rooting for Japan behind the bar.
23:01--Quickly leave the bar.
23:15--Walk home along the beach.
23:45--Meet a kid from WashU. He was cool. Can't figure out why he didn't get into Emory. Too bad...
1:09--Going to bed!!! Goodnight :)

Lourdes, France

When we arrived in Lourdes, France last night I was more excited than I have ever been in my life. Lourdes is this beautiful city tucked into the rolling Pyrennes Mountains. Today was possibly the most beautiful and holy day of our lives so far. We filled every single moment of today with prayer mass prayer prayer and more mass. We woke up bright and early (7am) to catch the morning pilgrim service. We didnt know exactly what this pilgrim service entailed, but we ended up doing different things with it all day. At first we thought the English speaking group was not going to show up, but they did at the very last minute (good thing, or else Tim wouldve had to deal with French all day long).
The first thing we did was go to the English daily mass in a chapel where we met a priest who met Chris and Stephanie Lafitte while they were here! I love doing things with English groups in Europe because we get to hang out with a bunch of British, Irish, Canadian, and Austrailian travelers too!:-) After mass we went exploring, and then we participated in Stations of the cross with our group. The stations in Lourdes are all situated on a mountain, and they are huge and made with beautiful gold looking metal. They statioms were probably the thing that fed my heart the most today, it was just exactly what I needed! After the stations we went to lunch and ate some REALLY yummy sandwiches for super cheap. I love French sandwiches beause they put lots of butter on it along with the ham and cheese! After lunch we did some intense rosary shopping, and then we went back to the sanctuaries to go to the grotto and pray in the cathedrals and basicilas. The grotto was such a holy experience. We stood in the exact place where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette. We stck around and prayed and filled our containers with holy water to bring back.

We stopped in the cathedrals and the crypt where the relics of St. Bernadette are. We then met up with our English group again to go through the footsteps of St. Bernadette. We visited where she was born, where she grew up, her parish church, and the convent where St. Bernadette studied and became a sister. Being where she was, created such a feeling of closeness that I have never had before with my beloved saint. After we finished that we participated tha Eucharistic procession through Lourdes and it concluded with a wonderful hour of adoration in the huge underground basilica. Strait after that we headed to Vigil mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Rosary because we will be on the train most of tomorrow. We had a ravishing three course French dinner for super cheap. Vevelty French potato soup, chicken with amazing crisp skin, French green beans, bread ofcourse, and icecream and creme caramel for dessert. Our waitress was soo amazingly nice, and kept complimenting our French:-).

The grande finale was the breathtaking candlelight procession that all the sick and other pilgrims participate in. Everyone lights their candle and we all say a rosary in 5 differnt languages together. It was so beautiful to begin and end Lourdes with this. During the ceramony a cute little French nun came up to us and just started talking to us. She was soo cute, it made my night.

As we end our trip here in Lourdes we want everyone to know weve been praying for you very hard, especially those on Aggie Awakening, The CRHP retreat and all our family and friends back at home.
Big Hugs,
Love,
The Tres Amis

Lourdes, France

So today we got on a metro. And then a train, and then another train, and then another train, and then we walked. This took up about 90% of our day.

Pros:
We discovered that we can travel together and not be cranky. Kind of...
Sailors of Catan? Sweet.
5€ lunch. Dessert included.
Tim the Spaniard is born.

Cons:
It is HARD to sleep on a train. Except for Maria. She's got it down.
Banks on strike in France=no cash. Food? Maybe we'll become gypsies...
We discovered that Maria can not get her backpack down from the luggage storage spot on the trains.
Tim's phone does not hold charge long enough to finish a game of Catan. Not even close.

Of course, we are now in Lourdes. I won't say too much about this though because Maria is going to do a big blog entry on the city/our pilgrimmage tomorrow. I will say that we went to a candle-light service tonight that was pretty cool... despite the fact that our candles were malfunctioning :p

Look for videos on my FB wall going up later tonight!

En-FRANCE en-core,
Daniel

Madrid, Spain