Summer Holiday - Day 13 (Sainte) - evening

The night before the "Big Day", friends and family gathered at the Piquard home. Here's the happy couple.
Greg with his usual facial expressions. Who knows what he's thinking!
Jen and Jonathan arrived. Anne-Lise and Greg are saying their hellos.
Jean-Pierre, Anne-Lise's dad, chats with Rob and Malcolm while a sneaky video camera looks on.

Summer Holiday - Day 13 (Sainte) - daytime

First thing in the morning, I headed to the Cathédral de St-Pierre for a guided tour. Here are some pictures from the top of the bell tower.

You can see the spire of Eglise St-Eutrope in this shot.

Behind the trees on the left is Le Mairie where Anne-Lise and Greg will get married.

There's a sort of chess board in the courtyard below.

Next stop was L'Abbaye aux Dames, a former convent.

The domes in the ceiling have been filled in with wood which makes the accoustics great for early instrumental ensembles, such as those studying in a school on site.

The balcony seen here connects directly to the convent dormitories through a passageway. This is where nuns would take part in worship services.

This garden has numerous herbs and the pathways are made of crushed blue glass.

Here's a view of the church and dorms from behind.

Summer Holiday - Day 12 (Sainte, France)

The morning started off with a bit of disorientation. The hotel where I was staying is located on a round-about which gives signs towards destinations rather than street names. Unfortunately I had no map, so I started walking down a street towards some restaurants. I saw some pedestrian signs for to tourist attractions, so I followed their directions. One sign directed me to a roman ampitheater by following the path below.

As I was leaving the site bursts of rain kept on occurring so I would seek cover under the trees along the path.
I then followed directions toward Eglise Sainte-Eutrope. Here's a view of the crypt where the first services were held. Sainte-Eutrope brought Christianity to Sainte in 1st century AD.
I took a brief tour of the church above-ground too.

After having a filling Caesar salad, which included egg and chicken, I went back to my hotel room for most of the afternoon. Here's a view out my window.

In the evening I ventured out for dinner, having pizza for dinner. I wandered down towards the Charente river and stopped for a dessert crepe and cider. As I crossed a pedestria bridge, I noticed several people looking at something in the water...it turned out to be a family of animals that I still have not managed to identify.

During my meanderings, I wandered by the Arc de Triomphe which used to be at the beginning of the roman bridge across the Charente River leading into Sainte. It was moved when the bridge needed to be moved and the water was rising and eroding the shoreline.

Nearby was the Musée ancienne.

Heading back towards the hotel, I passed by the Office de tourisme...they definitely didn't skimp on their accommodations!

They had such lovely gardens too.

After that, I headed back to the hotel for a good night's rest.

Summer Holiday - Day 11 (Leeds - Manchester - La Rochelle - Sainte)

Day 11 started really early with a taxi arriving at 5:30 a.m. to take me to the train station. I traveled to Manchester Airport where I took a plane to La Rochelle, France. The scary thing? La Rochelle airport may actually be smaller than Iqaluit's!!! I and a fellow traveller navigated the public busses to get ourselves to the train station. Since we had a few hours before our respective trains, we visited a nearby bistro for beer/pop and a snack of ham and cheese on a baguette. Views from the train showed the greeness of that area of France.

Anne-Lise, Greg and José met me at the station and whisked me off to my hotel to check-in. Then we went back to the Piquard residence for swimming and dinner. Talk about hospitality!

Summer Holiday - Day 10 (Leeds and Harewood Hall)

Although rain tried to bring us down, Anne and I explored the Harewood Hall grounds on Day 10. We passed by Harewood Arms where we celebrated my parents' 25th wedding anniversary a few years ago. As we headed towards the main house, we stopped by the local church. Before entering the Hall, we had a cup of tea and enjoyed the view.

After touring the Upstairs, we had lunch in the Courtyard. It's interesting to see how rain over time has eroded the stone columns.


After visiting Below-stairs, we headed back to catch the bus. and back out through the arch.

Summer Holiday - Day 9 (Harrogate - Leeds)

Next I took the train to Leeds to visit Anne. We had yummy Wensleydale cheese on toast for lunch. Then we headed to the Royal Armouries to learn about the code of chivalry. We enjoyed a cup of tea and cake by the locks before returning to Anne's home.

For dinner we ate a delicious lamb dish with rice. :)

Summer Holiday - Day 8 (Harrogate - Saltburn-on-the-Sea)

Grandma, Heather and I took a daytrip to Saltburn-on-the-Sea. Heather had heard of the town but never visited so we headed towards England's coast with the North Sea. On the way we took a short break near Thirsk. Great views, don't you think?

Here's our first view of Saltburn-on-the-Sea.

The funicular tramway was quite the experience. Only 65 pence per ride and 71 degrees!

Heather's on the pier with the tramway and cliff in the background.

Grandma and Heather before we headed back to Harrogate.