"Not all those who wander are lost"

It was such a lovely sunny day down on the beach I decided to take a nice long wander up the coast, and I had my camera with me so here's what I passed along the way....

Almost to Wimereux,



and then a homeless man, two evil guard dogs, and a possessed



rabbit had me headed back to Boulogne, via the road this time.

One new turn and I came to a little village I've never seen before, Terlincthun, with some worthwhile sights to see.

some questionable, some cute buildings

A little farther on I came across a cemetary from the Great War. A beautiful resting place near the sea and rolling hills of the French countryside. Stumbling upon history is a fascinating thing and sometimes moving, too. But today it didn't seem very historic at all.

Always feel a little relieved towards the end of my wanderings when I spot this dome :)

Germany

I spent two weeks in southwest Germany with Mareike and her family in Febuary. It was such an amazing experience that I'll cherish for a lifetime. I love experiencing a country by staying with a family because you really get a peek into another culture. Her family didn't speak English so Mareike was the trusty translator for two weeks. Not easy for her I'm sure! There were many questions about the U.S. Her grandmother, who lived upstairs, seemed thrilled to have me there, and she used a pen to put a mark on Cincinnati, OH on her globe so she could always remember where I'm from. They were pretty excited to ask me questions about everything from sports, Obama, health care (very interesting to them), restaurants, what my parents do, and one memorable question from her grandfather was if I heard the story of Little Red Riding Hood. He thought it was outlawed in the U.S. ever since the prohabition because she had wine in her basket. My response was "she had wine in her basket??" and they all laughed and decided they deleted that detail for the American Brothers Grimm's books (am I wrong about this? Was anyone else aware she did? It seemed all the Germans knew that little detail.)


It was Carnival in Germany for about 5 of our days there. Everyone gets dressed up in costumes and celebrates all day long, there's parades, and there's a king and queen in each town who make laws for the holiday. We got dressed up and went to a big tent where thousands of people do the same and dance and eat and drink. It was pretty entertaining. One of my favorite stories about Carnival though came from Mareike's grandparents. I asked if they celebrated it in their youth and they said they did, everyone would wear a mask and go to a masquerade. At midnight everyone would take off their masks and discover who's who. But they laughed about the story, because her grandfather always would always know her grandmother by looking at her shoes- she only had one pair. They were so sweet!




One more story from Germany for now, here's a picture of a particular type of farmhouse that is only found in the Lorraine (this area in Germany was once French.) I thought it was such a pretty farmhouse, right across the street from Mareike's boyfriend. He described the layout of these farmhouses for me; the family lives on the left, and when you go in the front door you can go right and there's a door that leads directly to the barn.

Whew, its been a long time since my last update! At last, I'm back in Boulogne and taking it easy again after a few weeks of travelling. The two week holiday in Febuary has come and gone, and with it my two weeks in the Saarland region of Germany where my friend Mareike lives. Shortly after that, Colleen came to Europe for a whirlwind visit of London and Paris. At last I've been to London! Its lovely, but as luck would have it, I ran into the most friendly, kind people in Paris, and not so much in London so in that sense London is 2nd to Paris for me.

Thanks to perfect timing from mother nature, it feels good to be back in Boulogne. Spring is arriving and it's making me happy. We froze in Germany, and London and Paris were cold and wet. The mistral (uber strong) winds/rain came through our last day in Paris, and since we've just had sunny weather in Boulogne Sur Mer. Its 6pm, and still sunny! I love it. In the picture, you can see there are more clouds now than we've had all week, so I'm making up for lost Vitamin D in Feb! If only it was a little warmer I'd have to be at the beach right now.

Oh I wanted to share my calendars I made back in January with all my free time (only working 12 hours a week max, usually less.) I wrote the month in French (mars-March, avril-April.) I decided to make them since my perpetual calendar just wouldn't stay hanging.

There's so much I want to write down about Germany, London, and Paris, so there will be more to come soon!