Back to Blighty

After a scorching couple of summer months in Lyon - 30+ degrees and sunny essentially every day - we booked a week at the end of August to go to England and were hoping for cooler temperatures. Apparently someone forgot to tell England because instead we got six days of hot and sunny weather! We arrived on the afternoon of the 22nd and were met at the airport by David and Howard, James' brother and dad. Pulling up to the house on Highfield Road meant our vacation was on and we were very happy to be back in Birmingham again. 

We had a lovely homemade lasagna dinner Thursday night with James' family including his Grandma and Nan. Friday was a nice relaxing morning at home and around the house. We played a little 'bat and ball' in the garden which warmed us up for tennis at the Hall Green Tennis Club. It had been a year since James and I played in High Park in Toronto but we had fun even though we were clearly outmatched by Dave and Howard. Fortunately for doubles we paired one weak player with one strong player!

That evening we went out to meet up with James' friends. After a standard couple of beers while watching sports at Pete and Kieran's we headed to town and went out to a couple of bars to once again take in the nightlife Birmingham has to offer. Sadly no chips in naan this time though post-bar!

Saturday we had very important plans: seeing the first Aston Villa home match of the season against Liverpool. I've been through two seasons of football with James now and it's safe to say that my first season was the worst one the team has ever had, but with the addition of a new manager a year ago, the smart and suave Scotsman Paul Lambert, things have been looking better. I also happen to have a bit of a crush on this man so I was pretty excited to see a live match at Villa Park instead of on a small computer screen in Toronto. Unfortunately they lost 1-0, not the result we were hoping for, but it was nevertheless fun to be there and see the insanity of thousands of Villa fans singing and shouting in the stands. It was packed trying to leave the stadium and the lineup for the train was exceedingly long so we opted to walk a ways out to catch a bus to town and then the train home.

We made it an early night because we were off on a day trip the following day to visit James' friends Tom and Hannah who are expecting a baby at the end of September. Sunday morning we headed off to New Street station and caught a two hour train north to York, a beautiful city about 20 minutes by train or 45 minutes by car from Leeds where James and Tom met studying history at university. Tom and Hannah met us at the station and we started out by walking along the wall which surrounds the city and which was originally part of a fortress. York has a rich history including the Romans and the Vikings and also has lots of medieval streets and buildings. It is a top destination for tourists from Britain and around the world.

We stopped at a pub on the River Ouse for a drink and some nibbles and got a little ahead of ourselves and ordered everything on the snack menu! But we won that battle, even though we scoffed at how much food there was when the server brought it to the table. We set off to walk around the streets of York which are pedestrianized during the day, and since it was a bank holiday weekend the streets were packed with visitors enjoying the good weather. We passed Clifford's Tower which was part of York Castle and meandered through the streets to reach York Minster which is an enormous cathedral with a beautiful green garden where we took a quick break from the sun on a bench in the shade.

After all our walking we were feeling like a treat and since it was tea time we headed to The Parlour, the restaurant at Grays Court which is a boutique hotel behind York Minster. We enjoyed a (deceivingly small) piece of chocolate cake and a giant brownie with tea and relaxed in the beautiful quiet garden.

We walked back to Tom and Hannah's house and hung out for an hour or two before they drove us back to the train station. After such a warm day in the sun the train ride home was freezing so we were happy to get back to Brum and get picked up by James' mom Sharon. After a sound sleep we had a lazy Monday morning while getting ready for an afternoon barbecue with the March side of the family. It was delicious and filling and after digesting we played 'French cricket' (though it doesn't exist in France) which puts the batter in the centre of a circle trying to protect his or her shins with the bat while the players in the circle throw the ball at the batter to get him or her out. Needless to say I need some more practice with a cricket bat.

After dinner we went over to James' friend Andy's place where he and his wife Holli were hosting James' friend Luke, who now lives in Sydney, and his Australian fiancée Katherine. Andy and Holli have a big, beautiful dog named Roxy so the six of us took her on a nice stroll through a nearby park. Afterwards we managed a second dinner of sausage, mash, gravy and veggies. If only I had taken a photo of the mountains of mash and gravy on the boys' plates - it was ridiculous. And of course they ate it all! These three guys have known each other since they were five years old, and this was the first time the three of them had hung out together in several years so it was lucky timing we were all in Birmingham at the same time.

The day before we left we had another day trip planned with Sharon and Howard to go to Stratford, about a 40 minute drive away. Sharon, James and I took the train there in the morning and Howard met us by car a little later. We went by the birthplace of Shakespeare, however opted not to go in as it was something exorbitant like £15 to enter! Instead we checked out the adjoining gift shop/bookstore before continuing on around town and over to the River Avon. We took an old fashioned ferry across the river to meet Howard before walking along the river and crossing back over it via the bridge to find ourselves some cider. 

Feeling ready for a bite after our afternoon drink we headed to the Baguette Barge and sat in the park watching all the tourists shuffle about. Next we checked out the church where Shakespeare was baptized as well as buried. Kind of hard to believe I was standing in the same place he had at one time, and where he now lies for eternity.

We finished the day by popping over to a family friend's house. Jo has known the March family forever, first meeting Howard at the tennis club when they were younger, the same one we had played tennis at a few days earlier. She had us over for a drink in her garden and to chit chat a bit before we hit the road back to Birmingham.

Wednesday morning it was time to go back to Lyon, so we said our goodbyes and made some tentative plans for our weeklong visit at Christmas. But before that, in just under two weeks, Sharon and Howard are coming to visit us in France. Time to start planning some city tours!

A hike in Grenoble

At the beginning of July there was another U of T alumni event following the one in Paris, this time in Grenoble, a city a little over an hour to the southeast of Lyon. I had known of Grenoble for a long time since my aunt, uncle and cousins lived there during my uncle's sabbatical in the 90s. However I didn't know much about the actual city itself. It's home to about 60,000 students due to its many post-secondary institutions, especially in the science sector. Like Lyon it has two rivers running through it that join up, le Drac and l'Isère. It is in a valley surrounded by breathtaking mountains on all sides, which keep it quite toasty in the summertime. The event was for a (gentle) hike up to the Bastille which was a military fort at the top of the mountain in the centre of the city. One of our newly-made friends from the Paris event, Antonio, was also going so we met up with him in Lyon and took the train together to Grenoble. 

We stepped off the train and headed toward the meet up spot where we were to find Raluca, the alumna who was hosting our visit. It was just the four of us doing the hike but we would be joined by two others at the top where we would be eating lunch. On our walk to the park entrance we coincidentally passed a restaurant with a familiar name so we had to snap a photo:

How random is that! Considering we have all lived in Ontario at some point when studying at U of T it was quite the coincidence. We reached our starting point near the Porte de France at the entrance to the Jardin des dauphins and off we went to meander through the paths of the Bastille.

The shot above is of the bubble-like cable cars which you can take from the ground level across the river up to the top if hiking and sweating isn't your thing. Locally they are referred to as les boules. We passed lots of very athletic people on our trek to the top, as Grenoble has quite the extreme-sport population (conveniently the Alps are a short drive away). People were full-on running up steep inclines and I even saw a guy carrying his bike making me think there was a mountain biking area somewhere. Also at the top of the Bastille is an obstacle course of sorts, called the Acrobastille. It involves climbing, tightrope-walking, ziplining and many other adventurous manoeuvres. For more information here's the website to the Bastille: http://www.bastille-grenoble.fr/english/index.html.

We met the two other alumni and settled in for lunch at Le Téléferique restaurant. Very delicious food with spectacular views! James and the two other men (whose names I can't remember) ordered steak frites, Antonio and I had giant salads, mine being la salade grenobloise, and Raluca had pasta. The desserts were beautifully presented and quickly devoured.

After lunch we made our way back down the opposite side of the mountain to mix it up a bit. It was an extremely hot day, not unusual for Grenoble, so we maximized on being in the shade when we could.

From this side we were coming out at the Porte Saint-Laurent, but just before leaving we stepped back in time with a stop at the Musée archéologique Grenoble-Saint-Laurent. This incredible museum (in French: http://www.musee-archeologique-grenoble.fr/) is actually in a church that was discovered to have been built upon hundreds of years of history. Originally a mausoleum from the 4th and 5th centuries, then a church crypt from the 6th century, and later a Benedictine priory. In 1986 it became a museum while doing archaeological digs, but was then closed from 2003-2011. In May of that year it was reopened after extensive renovations and the addition of platforms for visitors to stand on and fully appreciate the astounding discoveries in front of them.

Though it's not a very big museum I wish we'd had a little more time to spend here, just to really take it all in. Trying to process seeing skeletons from hundreds of years ago just lying there in front of you is definitely something. And we saw monetary artifacts from two millennia ago! But I'm sure we'll be back to Grenoble since we didn't get to see the actual city itself. Something to look forward to!