Une excursion d'une journee a Strasbourg - A day trip to Strasbourg

We took a day-trip on the super-fast TGV ('Train a Grande Vitesse' - 'high-speed train') - (say 'teh-zheh-veh' with a dodgy French accent) train on Friday to Strasbourg.  It's a beautiful city with a village-like feel to the city-centre, much of which is pedestrianised and great for ambling around.  I had been before to the European Court of Human Rights as part of the 'Human Rights Project' at uni and loved the place.   Strasbourg is right beside the German border in Alsace and also close to Switzerland.  It would normally take around 4/5 hours by car but the new eastern line on the TGV took us there in around an hour and a half.  

The quaint city centre has lots of wee canals and is great for aimless wandering.

Paul and Max demonstrating 'aimless wandering'

We'd planned on seeing quite a lot of France this way as the TGV can take you from Paris to Marseille on the south coast in just 3 hours!  However, it seems that Max isn't keen on the supersonic speeds as the air pressure must hurt his ears.  We often felt our own ears pop slightly when the train would go through a tunnel, but if he wasn't sucking, he would cry each time this happened.  It was such a shame as he got quite worked up but was fine after a wee feed - until the next tunnel!  I don't know if it was really sore for him or if it was just that he wasn't used to the sensation, but it's definitely put me off the TGV.  We'll just need to take longer breaks in future and stick to the slow trains!

On Saturday evening, two Greenock characters came round for pizza and drinks - Skully and his pal, Graeme.  It was great to chew the fat with people from home!  They're both teachers and were over for their September weekend holiday.  Max of course got up to join in the fun until the boys headed out at around half 11.  It was Paul's cousin, Neil's birthday and they went out to some pubs around Chatelet.  Paul remembered the next morning that he and Neil had wisely used their 'bike pass' and travelled home by bike from the pub.  The same bike.  They're both 31, but still think they're not too old for a 'backie' when there's only one bike.  There were no cuts and bruises, which is miraculous given that they were moroculous!  I'm conscious that this blog is rapidly filling with anecdotes from Paul's drunken antics.  He does work some of the time!

The morning after the night before ... Paul and Max recovering on Sunday!

Sunday was a beautiful day so it was perfect for the fete that had been organised in the park beside us.  An orchestra played theme tunes from famous French movies and there were loads of people having picnics and just sitting singing with guitars.  People seem to make the most of the parks here as apartments tend to be tiny and most flats don't have gardens.  They also make the most of picnics too - I find myself staring at the amount of great looking food that comes out of their big, proper picnic baskets.  Whole roast chickens, savoury rice, cheeses and wine.  It certainly puts our jam pieces in cling film to shame!

Paul's convinced he saw Max dance to the beat of the music ...