Au Revoir Paris, Hallo Belgium - 9-12-2010

Smug Me on the Metro

Decided to take advantage of the laundromat across the street, and do laundry this morning.  There were a few other English-speaking tourists (Brits and Australians) in there at the early hour so fortunately I didn't have to puzzle out the directions and run the risk of shrinking Rick's shirts . . . again.  Then off to breakfast for a carmelized onion and potato omelette served by a waiter who saw it as his duty to ensure that I correctly pronounced my meal. :-)

Geert at the Louve

With four days of Parisian experience under our belt, we were, of course, fully

Misty at the Louve

qualified to play tourguide and took Misty and Geert to see the Louve and the Arch de Triumph.  We 've got the Metro down cold.  The challenge arises once you get off the metro and try to figure out where you are in relationship to where you want to go.  We ask for directions a couple of times (Geert fortunately speaks fluent French) and we told at least once (in French) "Why do you make this so difficult?  Of course you can see you proceed ahead and and turn right at Rue de Rivoli."  We just prostrated ourselves and apologized for being idiots.

Me and ? at the Louvre

After the morning tour we stopped back at a cafe for wine and coffee and then moved onto a Japanese restaurant for a meal of miso, salad, sushi, tempura, and edamame.  We were, as always, sitting at a table along the sidewalk and weren't reallying thinking about the risks of sidewalk dining, until an elderly Frenchman in short pants, while walking past our table, upchucked next to our table and then without missing a beat, continued on without a second glance.  We relocated to another table.  Aside from that, the meal went well except for the fact that the wait and cooking staff kept leaving the restaurant, our order for edamame seemed to keep getting lost, and we didn't get some of the food that we had ordered or we got food that we hadn't ordered.  I just chalk it up to the gods punishing us for eating something other than Fench food while in Paris :-)  Time to move on to Belgium for some mussels and pommes frites (fries).

Hand of God at the Louvre

The author of our guidebook says that you have to be nuts to drive in Paris and we agree.  Fortunately Geert, a Belgian native, is a wee bit nuts :-) and he efficiently and safely manuvered us out of the city and on our way to the very tiny town of Weindune on the North Sea Belgian coast where Geert's parents have a condo that they graciously offered for our use.  For you cyclist fans, we followed Lance Armstrong's Radioshack for a short distance before Geert left them in the dust.

Lovely Flower Boxes

The Belgian countryside near the coast is as flat as a pancake and very unlike Oregon topography, which has the coastal mountains heading directly into the ocean, hence the waterfalls.  You feel yourself to be in the midst of a far large seaside coastal floodplain.  Clearly there is an import/export business at the nearby ports, but it seems as though agriculture is the primary economy here It took about 3 hours to get to our destination (it would have been 4 if we had followed the speed limit) and so we got in around 8:00, went to beachside restaurant where we were served dinner of Belgian comfort food by quite the perky waitress and finished with a delicious dessert of apple beignets which are slices of apple rings, dipped in batter, deep-fat fried and then topped with powdered and brown sugar, served hot.  Belgian health food, I say.