A Canadian's Christmas in England

Merry Christmas! Or Happy Christmas as they say in England, where I spent my second ever Christmas away from home. The March family were happy to have James and I there this year (and we were very happy to be there) since last year James did Christmas Orgill-style. I'll get to the pictures and details of the visit in Birmingham, but first a little hilarity from our pre-departure experience...

I was working the morning of the 21st and so the plan was for James to take the suitcase that we were checking to the airport and I'd meet him there since I was leaving directly from work. We had a couple bottles of wine, some jars of french delights and some other heavy items but without a scale at home we couldn't know how heavy the suitcase was until James arrived at the check in counter. Turns out it weighed 29 kilos - nine over the limit and FlyBe charge €20 per kilo! James called me in a panic while I was on the tram to the airport explaining that as it stood we would have to pay €180 to check our bag on the flight. As there was no way we were going to pay that he had started unloading some items into our carry on, but since we had a lot of weight to cut back on he also started layering on more clothing. Sadly I have no photo of him from when I arrived at the check in to meet him, but he was wearing a sweater, a hoodie, a scarf, a trench coat, a T-shirt in each pocket of his coat, and his hat. Impressive. He had already gone back once to see what the weight was after he reorganized but unfortunately we were still 5 kilos over. We were able to take some more items out and put them in a bag I had with me, but as we were doing so we discovered the main culprit: my roughly 8 lb/4 kilo bike lock had been left in the bottom of the suitcase! I hurriedly put it in my carry on and when we re-weighed the suitcase for the third time we magically came in at 19.4 kilos. That, however, was not the end of the airport adventure. Going through security my carry on was flagged due to the bike lock since according to airport staff it could be used as a weapon on board, something which the kind security officer demonstrated while holding it. Thanks for that visual! So at that moment our flight was about 20 minutes from take off and yet I had to back track through security and pass the check in counter to reach the information office where you can check items that are unsafe for travel. Once I finally made it to the gate where James was waiting I had just enough time to go to the bathroom before we boarded the plane. Once we were mid-air we ordered a cider and high-fived to our eventual success!

We got to Brum in the late afternoon and for dinner ate the classic 'James March returns' meal of Sharon's lasagna before watching a mix of the Strictly Come Dancing finale and a darts competition, the latter of which inspired us to head upstairs to play darts in David's room. Howard and I teamed up against the brothers and beat them in two straight matches!

On Sunday we wanted to catch the last day of the German Christmas Markets in town - the second largest in Europe - so we walked to the train station and met up with James' aunt Debbie and her family. We walked around in the very nippy weather before settling on some snacks and of course mulled wine and beer. Almost everyone got the bratwurst in a bun, but I satisfied a years-long craving for currywurst while Sharon and Howard got freshly-made potato pancakes with cheese on them. So good. Moving on through the markets we went to see the ferris wheel and the brand new Birmingham Library which was proudly showing off the Aston Villa claret and blue colours (much to the dislike of Birmingham City fans). They also had a skating rink up for those who dared to attempt it (props to Honda's sponsoring - shout out to Wayne!).

 

After warming up in a pub called The Post Office Vaults nearby with some lovely brews, we headed to Moseley for another round at the Patrick Kavanagh or the Pat Kav as it's known (which I fully admit to initially thinking was called the Packed Calf...accents can be tricky!). Then we were ready for a superb Moroccan feast where I inhaled my tajine of lamb with yogurt, mint and sage while the others enjoyed a mix of seafood and chicken. When we finished eating, James, David and I headed back to the Pat Kav to meet up with a couple friends before calling it a night.

Monday was a hideous day for weather in the UK as you might have read, and the winds and rain were wreaking havoc for all the Christmas travellers. James and I had planned on finishing up our shopping that day in town but gave it a miss and had a nice, lazy day around the house instead. For dinner that night we had some truly British fare: toad in a hole! It is essentially sausages baked into Yorkshire pudding with a side of onion gravy and it is as good as it sounds. Christmas eve was a much nicer day so James and I caught the train in to town and did a nice and efficient hour and a half of shopping before heading back home. We had a little visit with his Grandma as well before our next dinner of roasted ham which I could not get enough of, along with the requisite horseradish and hot mustard. We listened to a beautiful carol ceremony in Cambridge and broadcast on TV and I sang along to every one that I knew, which was most of them! As a lifelong singer and former chorister I have always adored classic Christmas carols and choral arrangements since the tradition in the Orgill household is to sing at church Christmas eve. Well this Christmas eve broke that tradition in a big way since in England everyone goes to the pub! We put on our Christmas jumpers and met the guys at - where else - the Pat Kav - for a full five hours of drinking. And somehow, because of the miracle of Christmas, no one was hungover. Hallelujah.

We rose on Christmas morning to open up our stockings and then got ourselves dressed. Dinner was served at 2:30pm and we listened to the Queen's speech which came on at 3pm - a tradition in the March household. A little later on it was time for presents and we all got some wonderful gifts so another big thank you for those! (And a quick shout out to my family who got me a new phone for Christmas and my birthday - totally unexpected and extremely appreciated - and of course I cried when I opened it.) The night finished off with James' aunt and her family coming over for drinks and to play great-grandpa March's tabletop game of Skittles. The ideal is to swing the ball on the string in an arc and to knock out as many pins as possible - I assure you it is harder than it looks!

It was a fabulous holiday and great to spend time with everyone that we saw. We were also able to Skype with my parents, my Grandma, Becka, Wayne and the boys as they had their Christmas in a winter wonderland back in Canada. A massive thank you to the March family who made my Christmas experience in England just perfect!

Cluny & Fuissé

As mentioned in my previous post, while Candice was in Lyon she and I took a day trip on the Saturday to the small, medieval town of Cluny. Located to the north of Lyon near the city of Mâcon, it has a rich history based around a Benedictine abbey that was founded in the 8th century. Seeing as how Candice was a student of medieval studies she was pretty excited to visit Cluny and get her fill of history from back in the day!

We caught the train around 8am and after catching a connecting bus we arrived around 9am. The bus stop was essentially a roadside drop off and we immediately saw a horse-drawn garbage truck - yes you read that correctly. I'm not kidding, see the photo below to believe it. We strolled into town to find ourselves a little breakfast settling on some warm croissants (heaven!) before stumbling across a market with fresh and local delights. We bought some small goat's cheese niblets (not the technical name but I can't recall what they were called), some freshly-made fromage blanc and I also bought some ginger-pear jam. It was bitterly cold so we needed to locate some warm beverages immediately and settled on a cafe that was so categorically French it was amazing. I went for my standard chocolat chaud and Candice got a coffee - which in France means an espresso. We snacked on our fromage blanc and listened to the cacophony of old, French men speaking at loud volumes to each other ripe with humour in the cafe. A thoroughly French experience that I love.

And then it was time for the abbey itself. We were there just after it opened so it felt like we had the place to ourselves which was pretty amazing. The first thing you see is the foundation charter from the year 910 followed by a timeline along the walls of the entrance room. Next up was a 3D partly-animated video on what it would have looked like in all of its forms throughout the years. Once the movie finished we walked into a courtyard and were just stunned by the height of the building in front of us. The grand transept (and last remaining one) is a whopping 30 metres high; the true height of which you begin to grasp once you enter the building itself. Again being the only people in there was a fortunate moment to have to ourselves and you could really take in the history of the immense space in silence.

Adjacent to the transept are a couple of chapels to the one side and to the other is the cloister from which you can see the tower of the transept. We walked around the grounds as well and checked out a building nearby which was housing a photo exhibition in the vaulted ceiling cellar and displays artifacts from the abbey on the upper floor.

It is certainly a site worth visiting if you're near there. I'm glad Candice suggested it because I might have never gone otherwise. Since most detailed information on the abbey online is in French, here's a link with a bit of history for the keeners out there (Dad) that's in English: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/cluny-abbey.

After a very cold two hours of walking around the abbey it was time for lunch and we had arranged to meet up with my and James' friend Antonio who we know through UofT alumni, and who conveniently lives not too far away from Cluny. He suggested an Italian restaurant he knows called Le Forum which makes the best pizza (and as he is half Italian I believe him). We strolled over a few blocks and crossed a little river before coming upon the restaurant at the same time as Antonio. It was like eating in someone's old house with low, vaulted wood ceilings and was nice and cozy. The pizza also lived up to its reputation and was mouth-wateringly delicious! Feeling satiated we hopped into Antonio's car and he took us on a tour of the area making sure to stop at an old French castle with panoramic views. The castle is privately owned so you can only go so far as the gate, where we were met by the "guard" dog. Surrounded with the fall colours and this massive stone structure allowed for an excellent series of photos.

We drove on through the countryside until we came to Antonio's town of Fuissé. The area is covered in vineyards, and that includes the land surrounding the back of his house shown in the photo below of Candice. A well-known wine made in this area is called Pouilly-Fuissé which comes from the aforementioned town and the name of the hill on which the vines grow. So being an adventurous trio we went for a hike up the hill (though it felt like a small mountain) through umpteen vineyards and passing some chestnut trees. 45 minutes later we got to the top of Pouilly to be rewarded by the breathtaking view of la roche de Solutré, the limestone escarpment captured in a picture below.

The walk down was much quicker but even though we'd warmed ourselves up by hiking we were ready for some hot tea and snacks. Antonio's garden is impressive so he makes his own verbena tea which we got to enjoy, and Candice and I both got great big paper bags full of fresh rosemary, thyme and sage (though the evil US customs took Candice's from her sadly). We enjoyed some tartines with a variety of toppings including Antonio's homemade jams and chestnut spread as well as some local honey. You can always count on interesting conversation with Antonio and we discussed lots of different things from music and movies to living in Toronto to food and languages. After a glass of locally-made Pouilly-Fuissé he took us to the train station and we headed back to Lyon. It was one of those days where you get to see and do so much that you are exhausted mentally and physically but we had a solid little séjour and were super lucky to have Antonio take us around. Merci!