DAY 1: The flight was hilarious, as I decided against sleeping and spent most of the 6 hours watching one movie or another (I had to watch "The Royal Tenenbaums" three times in order to catch the whole movie). I must say, Air France is really cool. Plus, I had a window seat and no neighbour, so talk about leg room!
When I landed at Charles de Gaulle, it was strange that I didn't feel more excited, more foreign. "This is France..." and that's it. After I practically waltzed past customs, my next task was to find the shuttle bus that took me to Gare Montparnasse. When I finally arrived at the station, I asked a couple of ticket agents what to do with my ticket, then fought my way into an empty seat on a bench and watched the display board flip the letters for the different train departures for two hours. The train ride to Tours was uneventful, except when I almost got off at the wrong station. Once safely in the correct station, I anxiously awaited the arrival of Jocelyn, who would be my guide for the next couple of days. I soon found out that people in France are chronically late, and Jocelyn was no exception.

The rest of the day was spent recovering some sleep, meeting Jocelyn's international roomies, Meike (from Germany) and Marina (from Romania), consuming Jocelyn's experimental cooking (an egg-rice mixture that was quite good) and drinking an alcoholic beverage out of a flower vase (I wish I got a photo of that but alas, me without my camera...).

DAY 2: The next day began with croissants and baguettes and a French game show on TV. The day began kind of late, actually, and the rest of the morning was spent sight-seeing, namely the market on boulevard Heurteloup, the Palais de Justice, the Hôtel de Ville, and a shopping mall (Gallerie du Palais). A quickie lunch, a stop at Jocelyn's apartment, and then it was off to ESCEM, Jocelyn's school-away-from-school. Met a great many of Jocelyn's classmates, tried typing with a French keyboard (where's the @ key??), and even took in a French class. After another short rest stop at the apartment, we headed downtown on the bus but was prevented from going all the way to the Loire by a student protest (a.k.a. "manifestation") in the main square (as it turns out, I was visiting France at an interesting point in political history). We ended up walking the rest of the way, first stopping at the Basilique St-Martin, then Place Plumereau, and finally reaching the river. Had a late dinner in a wonderful resto called Le Petit Patrimoine. I experimented with the Boudin Noir, which had a very familiar taste, but I couldn't figure out what it was (it wasn't until later on in the trip that I discovered it was blood sausage).

DAY 3: Woke early to catch a train to Langeais, a little village with a château in the centre, just like in a fairy tale. It had a moat and everything. The major features of this particular château were the elaborate tapestries and intricate floor tiles. We returned to Tours by noon and visited the school again. By mid afternoon I had to go back to the apartment to gather my things and catch my train to Lyon. After about six hours I finally arrive in Lyon. I was nervous when my friend Louis was nowhere to be found, but it turns out he had gone to the platform to wait for me, and I didn't see him and went straight into the station. We made our way to his apartment on one of the two "mini-mountains", called La Croix Rousse. Very nice view of the Saône valley. Louis was a sweetheart and gave me his room while he slept in the little loft area.

DAY 4: Louis ditched school the next day to be my personal tour guide, although he admitted that he had never actually taken a tour of the city himself. With a little trepidation on my part, we headed out. Walked up to the top of Fourvière, the other mini-mountain. A number of churches, narrow cobblestone streets, student protests, and other sights passed by as we walked all over the city. A large statue of Louis XIV on a horse and a nice view of the Rhône (at this point the fourth river of France that I had seen) were the highlights of the day. But my time in Lyon was really short, and before I knew it I was on a crowded TGV to Paris. Once again, Jocelyn was late...extremely late, actually, and caused a minor panic for me. Her train had been delayed due to a "client problem". But, thankfully, everything was okay and we made our way through the métro (three different transfers) to our hotel in the Latin Quarter.

DAY 5: Started the day late. Headed to the Louvre first. Saw everything I wanted to see (the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo) and then some (Napoléon III's apartment). At lunch Jocelyn and I met a nice couple from Chicago who had the impression that we knew what we were doing since we could read the french menu. Walked around in the wet to see St-Chapelle (really nice stained glass), the Palais de Justice (it looked like they were filming a movie), and the Nôtre-Dame (but the line for the tower was extensive). Tried to get into Les Invalides to see the tombeau de Napoléon, but it was closed by the time we got there. So, not as much sight-seeing done as I had hoped. After collapsing on the bed in the hotel for a little while, we headed out in search of food and found a very cute restaurant called Jardin de la Mouff, which featured a garden full of gnomes. I had thought about going to the Eiffel Tower after dinner, but the fatigue took over, so Jocelyn passed out in our room while I worked out the itinerary for the next day.

DAY 6: My logistical skills really shone today, as I had the whole day timed to military precision. Of course, even the best laid plans go awry. I thought the Panthéon was open earlier, but it was not. So a few photos and a wrong turn later, we ended up passing by the Sorbonne, surprise detour #1. Made it to the Nôtre-Dame a little after 10 and was able to climb to the tower this time. Nice view of the city, and a good vantage point to watch the marathon that was taking place. Next stop: Arc de Triomphe. I went up by myself (already a full workout...too many stairs in this city!) and took a nice photo of the Champs Elysées. The lunch-shopping break was leisurely, although I was almost suckered by a bunch of Chinese people who wanted us to help them buy Louis Vuitton bags.

The rain made it difficult to take a photo of a fountain at Place de la Concorde, but I managed to balance the umbrella somehow, and got a photo of the Obélix as well. After stopping in yet another church (the Madeline), we headed to the Jardin des Tuileries. While sitting by the fountain we witnessed an altercation between two ducks, who seemed to be fighting over a female that paid no attention to them. Our next destination was the Cimitère de le Père Lachaise, where famous people like Jim Morrison and Chopin are buried. Creepiest place ever, especially when you're semi-lost and pass by tombs that are half open. Walked to nearby Montmartre to see the city from the top of the mini-mountain and to see the Sacre-Coeur. During our search for a place to eat, we found ourselves standing outside the Moulin Rouge, surprise detour #2. Unfortunately the whole area was devoted mainly to adult entertainment, so we took the métro to our final destination, the Eiffel Tower. Ended up eating at a restaurant just beyond the Trocadéro called the Malakoff. We didn't go up the tower (when you've been to the top of the CN Tower, everything else is pretty much the same, except shorter), we just hung out at centre of the base, looking up. Also, it was freezing, so I can only imagine how much colder it would be at the top. We walked up the Champs de Mars, and finally headed back to the hotel, where I literally flopped on the bed and didn't move for several hours.

DAY 7 (departure day): Didn't hear the alarm this morning, so the "I'm going to be late!!" panic set in. Luckily enough, we were able to catch the correct RER train that would take us almost non-stop to the airport. We said a quick goodbye so that Jocelyn could get back to Gare Montparnasse to catch her train back to Tours. After checking in, I turned around and bumped into Jocelyn, who had missed the train by two seconds, so she went to the ticket office at the airport and exchanged her ticket so that she could leave from Charles de Gaulle instead. I stood in awe for a moment, realizing that I was in the same airport, in possibly the same location where U2 shot their "Beautiful Day" video. I did some duty-free browsing, grabbing a bottle of wine for my dad, and then realized I was late for my boarding call. Another stroke of luck hit, and my flight had been delayed.

On the plane, I was moved from my front row-centre seat to a window seat to accommodate a lady and her young children, and found myself sitting next to a member of the Canadian basketball team, who had just finished a season in Switzerland. I tried to remember his name when I saw highlights of the World Basketball Championships later that summer, but they all looked the same to me, and unfortunately Canada is not that strong in basketball.

So ended my Adventures in France. At this point, I have covered four continents, but I would love to see more of Europe. I think I'm going to end up tackling it one country at a time, which I think is nicer than a whirlwind tour of 10 countries in 10 days, or even better than a backpacking attempt. We'll see what happens. For now, I'm going to concentrate on my own country.