Les adventures françaises

July 14, 2015 / Dwayne Hodgson

June 30 to July 9 / Cauterets, Lourdes & Capbreton, France

The last few weeks in France were spent doing a few more typical touristy past-times, including:

Hiking in the Pyrénees

We stayed in Cauterets, a winter ski resort and site of a recent Tour de France stage. From there we hiked in the Pyrenees National Park at the Pont d'Espagne, and the Cirque de Gavarnie.

Pilgrimaging to Lourdes

While making a one-night stop at Lourdes, we visited the Our Lady of Lourdes pilgrimage site. Although we are not Catholic, it was still very moving to see the thousands of people coming there with their prayers and ailments and to hear the prayers spoken in so many languages.

Surfing in Capbreton

Our friend in Paris recommended staying in Capbreton at her friends' surf hostel. Although we are not surfers, we were game to try and signed up for some lessons. It was surprisingly hard, although the waves there were great.

Full disclosure: these pictures below of pro surfers are not us! But rather, they represent what we were aspiring to do. To be honest, after an hour of lessons, we had all just managed to stand up on the board, if only for a few seconds.

So I thought that I should practice a bit on a skateboard before our next lesson.....

Navigating the French Healthcare System

Not a good idea, as it turned out.

Once I saw the second elbow on my right wrist, I realized that my trip was over. The paramedic gave me some ice during the 24 km ride to a clinic in Bayonne, but it was 4 hours until the doctors put me under to reduce the fracture. I woke up with this splint and a sinking feeling.

Three nights, some new French vocabulary, and miles of red tape later, we were medivaced via Bordeaux, Amsterdam and Toronto to Ottawa.

Now i am experiencing the thrills and chills of the Ontario healthcare system, both as I await my own surgery and because Isaac also fell and broke his wrist once we were back in Ottawa!

Quite the crash landing, indeed! Still i am glad that this only happened during our last week of our trip, and that we only ended up missing the last 6 days of our planned itinerary.

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categories / westerneurope, france
tags / france, hiking, mountains, surfing, beach

Research at Beach Resorts

October 23, 2014 / Dwayne Hodgson

October 6 - 13, 2014 / Bodrum - Bitez, Turkey

From Izmir, we headed south by otobus to the city of Bodrum, and then took the dolmus (local minibus) to the nearby town of Bitez. The area is famous throughout Europe as a package holiday and yacht destination, and you'll see signs everywhere in English, German, Dutch and Russian.

The beaches typically have deck chairs right down to the water's edge, and then local restaurants and bars that serve Turkish and international food for double what we'd paid in other towns. We spent a few afternoons at the beach, and our road-schooling those days consisted of calculating the ratios of skin to tattoos to bathsuits -- on average 10:8:1 -- as well as the impressive degree of sunburn that the average European tourist can achieve of the course of a 7-day holiday.

Okay, I've never been much of a beach guy, but it was nice to take a dip and watch Trish and the kids actually float (in the saltwater). We also went on two interesting excursions:

a boat ride to visit several bays in the area -- each with their own beaches, bars, tourist shops, and requisite camel rides -- we decided to wait until Morocco. We all had a great time swimming in the unreal blue waters of the Aegean Sea.
a visit to Bodrum's Castle of St. Peter -- a fortress built by European Crusaders (staring in 1404) to guard the harbour, and taken over by the Ottoman empire in 1522. This castle is exactly what my 8-year-old self used to imagine a castle would look like: square turrets, ramparts, ramps, dungeons, layers of defences and a really nice coffee shop. This castle is also the site of the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology , which houses an amazing collection of artifacts from the various cultures that lived here.

Through an American that we met on the train back from Ephesus (Hi, Brant!), also met up with an Australian family who are also travelling through Europe. It was great to connect with David, Nikki, Rex and Jessica, and we even had them over to "our house" for dinner one night.

Due to a couple of snags with the Air BnB apartment that we were renting -- Note to self: Turkish swimming pools are drained in early October -- we elected to leave Bitez a day early. This decision, as we later learned, would be very significant......

Oh no! a cliff hanger! My kids hate that when I tell them bed time stories. Stay tuned...

In the meantime, here are some pictures from Bitez & Bodrum. Roll the tape, Stan.....