A week in Paris

Wow, Jas and I arrived in Paris on Thursday and after a 30 minutes métro ride we found our apartment.  We slept for a couple of hours and then began what turned out to be an action packed week.  Cedar wasn't going to join us until later in the week so we saved the "big" sites for her arrival. Our apartment was in the 2nd arrondissement, on a pedestrian only street, so we spent many hours exploring our neighbourhood.  We decided to visit the museums by starting with the present and working backwards in time.  We first visited the Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum which houses art from 1905 to the present. 

Jas waiting for the museum to open.

We then spent an afternoon wandering through the Musée d'Orsay where we really enjoyed all of the Impressionist work.  I can understand why teachers in France can visit museums for free as the artwork inspired me to include more art in my teaching!

We spent a couple of hours wandering through the gardens at the Musée Rodin which were designed by Rodin himself!

Le Penseur ( The Thinker)

We finally made it to the Musée d'Orangerie, the museum designed by Claude Monet to house his incredible 'Water Lilies' set of paintings.  There are eight paintings that show the passage of light from morning until night on the pond.  They are housed in two huge oval shaped rooms, four in each room.  Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take photos in this museum.

Smashing the piggy bank

Jasmine breaking the piggy bank that Tante Laura made for Cedar in 1997.  Time to head to the bank and deposit her savings.  Ice cream is expensive in Paris!

Europe summer 2013

We're packing our bags and getting ready for our next big family trip.  Watch out Europe, here we come!
Cedar's heading to Switzerland on June 26, Jasmine and Jennifer are heading to Paris on July 3 and Martin is meeting us later in the summer.  We plan to travel by train and bicycle through France, Germany and Austria.
Here's Cedar at the airport just before she left.  She flew Vancouver -  Paris - Zurich.

Home again

We arrived in Vancouver to the chilly weather and are slowly getting used to being back home.

Some shots and thoughts

Vendors selling everything from sunglasses to sticky rice to the passengers on the bus.

Cedar enjoying the boat ride and our capitan, below, with a confident smile moments before the engine quit. After about half an hour's tinkering he managed to get it running again.

Taxis drivers are very eager for our business. Once while riding in a taxi we had another driver come up to us and ask us if we wanted a taxi. We're still not sure if he was joking or not.

Here is a picture of the crowded train between Thailand and Cambodia. Humidity was up near 100% and the temperature above 35 degrees.

The border crossing between two kingdoms: Thailand and Cambodia.
















Koh San Road in Bangkok is a pretty crazy place and quite the shock for us coming from the rural quiet of Laos.


















































































ts and landslid es.



Next to Afghanistan and Angola, Cambodia is the most heavily mined country in the world.

It is estimated that between 4 and 6 million unexploded mines still litter the country side. Since 1979 more than 40,000 Cambodians have suffered amputations due to land mines.

The other social cost is that vast tracts of land are unusable due to the presence, or possible presence of land mines.


This is the main highway between northern Vietnam and Laos.

We checked out the Communist Party; it was pretty dead.





Cell phone coverage is excellent in Cambodia. Despite only earning $35 per month, our guide and park ranger, has spent $50 to purchase a phone.

There are more than 4 million phone subscribers in Cambodia (35% of the 14million population). In contrast, only 31% of Cambodians have access to safe drinking water.

Despite talking on his cell phone he was a very knowledgeable guide and pointed out lots of things we would not have seen on our own, for example, the gecko in the picture below.



































































I ran out of gas in a little village. Half the kids in the village came out to watch the "gas station" attendant fill the tank with gas from 1 litre glass Pepsi bottles.

Pictures from Laos, Bangkok and Angkor Wat

Jas not too happy to be riding a goofy little pink bike.

Jen riding over what would be considered a stout bridge in Laos. Cars and trucks have to ford the river here when water levels are low enough.Othe right you can see the road. The only place I ever passed through customs and immigration drinking a beer. You've got to love Thailand.

Very humid is an understatement.

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  I don't think Cedar and Jasmine would be so happy to go swimming in these rivers if they knew what kind of creatures were lurking beneath the surface.
  
  
  
  

A monk in Bangkok.







Not sure if Cedar's new friend is a boy or a girl. You've got to love Bangkok.

Gas station, Cambodian style.