The Birdman

Although we have been in Germany for over a week and there is much to share all I have in this short post is a link to an iCloud journal and a few photos.

 

While walking just outside of le Louvre, we encountered a man feeding birds. The journal is made up of pictures I took and a journal entry that Max made. For those of you that, like me, don't know French, you could probably use google translate.

The Birdman.

Actually, while I'm on the topic, I've really enjoyed photographing birds and Thomas in particular has enjoyed feeding them. Makes for a good combination.

This was from one of the beaches of Normandy, where the Allies created an artificial port years ago. On the left you can see Marj, Max and Thomas throwing bread.

Marj was generous enough to let me use her awesome lens. For those who speak canon, it was a 70-200 f2.8 IS mk II. I had so much fun, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Notre Semaine en Paris

Greg here.
We are off tomorrow for Germany where we will be visiting with friends and family in a series of smaller towns.  Smaller, that is, compared to Paris where we've been sightseeing for the past week.

I've got some ideas for future posts but at this time all I have are a bunch of pictures that you are welcome to preuse (Paris set on Flickr) and a youtube video. 




As always, the video looks better fullscreen and resolution.  Being new to this whole blogging thing, I'm a bit nervous about whether the embedded video will play properly.

So, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqLxjx7bx9w&list=UUrCh9GscWiH3Ft5qJe9Ie6A&index=1&feature=plcp

Extra points if someone knows the music source.  Hint: its from a soundtrack from a lovely movie shot mostly in Montmartre, a district of Paris.

Au revoir!

Vimy Ridge

Greg:  Back in Winnipeg, Vimy Ridge Memorial Park in Wolseley offers a place to cool off in the summer splash pad, do flips on the swings, or even to kick soccer balls into garbage cans.  Given our close ties to Vimy, we set out to visit the 250 acres given by France to Canada in perpetuity.








Cynthia:  The monument is really a beautiful work of art.  The sheer size of it is really impressive and our pictures don't really do it justice.  Unlike some of the other historical war sites we had visited, this monument emphasizes the horrible price of war, the suffering of soldiers and mourners as well as (supposed) values of Canadians eg compassion for the helpless.  The visit was well worth it though I'm not sure how much our boys absorbed.  We also toured the trenches and tunnels neighbouring the monument.   Would advise a trip here for any Canadians touring northern France.

 


Max: I thought that the trenches were very interesting, before we visited the trenches i didn't know very much about them or about the war itself. I learned that the tunnels could be up to 1 km long.

Cathedral of Rouen

Greg here.

You may notice I added a "follow by email" widget just to the right.  I hope that it is simpler than the "subscribe to" method of following along with our posts.

Today I was able to upload a bunch of photos to Flickr.  If you care to see more pictures, take a look at the first two sets of photos: France first days and Normandy.  If you have trouble accessing them, please email me I will fiddle with the permissions.

I'd like to share with you some photos that Thomas took the other day.  At the Cathedral of Rouen, Thomas took a pile of pictures.  Once again, he impressed us with his artistic eye.

Capturing the space

Thomas put together a few of these photos in an iCloud journal.  I'm sure he would be pleased if you left comments for him below.  BTW, the Cathedral of Rouen was the tallest structure in the world from 1876 til 1880.

Tour of Normandy

Oh the French do know how to eat well.

We're spending the first part of the trip with the Speiser clan.  Greg's brother Russell with wife Marj live in a suburb of Paris doing Christian mission work.  Their home is our home here in France.  Mom and Dad Speiser (Larry and Marie) have joined us for a nice two week holiday together and we've just spent the last three nights touring Normandy.  We've scaled the magnificent Mont St Michel, toured numerous D-day beaches and other WWII historical sites and capped off the trip with lovely strolls along the harbour fronts of quaint and touristy Normandy towns.

Mont St Michel

On our first day we stopped for a little urban picnic by the grand Cathedral of Rouen. (Cynthia: "are there open liquor laws in France?".  Russ: "yes, you must open the liquor.")  I was naturally delighted when Marj reproduced similar picnics on subsequent traveling days and looked forward to our outdoor midday feasts: fresh baguette, red wine, Emmental cheese, foi gras, hard boiled eggs, cured meats, creamy yoghurts and bakery delights.

Urban picnic in Rouen

Check out the German bunker in the background.

 

On our final day we could not leave Normandy without taking in their gastronomic specialties: fresh oysters by the harbour market and cafe crepes with a bowl of cider.

Max about to eat his traditional buckwheat crepe.  Note the 'bowl' of cider.

Welcome to Ricewhine

Welcome to Rice Whine: the official blog of the Speiser-Sawatzky travel extravaganza.  In six days we depart.  First stop—Paris.  In time we will see France, Germany, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and hopefully a few more countries in south east Asia depending on time and money.

FAQ:

Why this combination of Europe and Asia?

Greg’s brother and sister-in-law (Russ and Marg) have lived in Paris for many years and we have never made it there as a family.  My brother and his family (Rob, Anjali and Fischer) are living in Singapore until 2014.  We thought we could combine these destinations into one amazing trip.

Why Sept-January?

Greg, a high school teacher, was able to get a semester off from work and thus we are taking off during the first school semester.

Are you going to home school the boys?

                Yes, we are going to “home school” the boys.  (Emphasis on quotation marks!)

Are you ready?

                Ha ha ha…

My hopes:

1. Many adventurous and “wow” moments seeing completely foreign things
2. We connect and have fun as a family.
3. We eat  good food.
4. Thomas (the 8 year old picky eater) eats food other than rice and bananas.
5. Boys learn things.
6. I get to read and listen to music and learn to play chess and get better at scrabble…
7. That I forget about work within a few days.

My fears:

1. Serious illness/injury
2. More stress than fun
3. Boys get skinny
4. We often wish we had just stayed home and not gone at all.
5. Messy diarrhea
6. Bed bugs
7. Constipation from eating only rice and beans.
8. Rabies (we did get the shots!)
9. My colleagues discover many instances of gross medical negligence among my patients.

The next few days will be full and also very critical.  I find myself stressing over things that I know are inconsequential (what size shampoo container do I take…it is four months but a big bottle is too big…) because I have this feeling like I should be stressing over something.  Preparing for this type of trip is all very new and challenging.

It’s really hard to believe this is really going to happen soon.-

-cynthia