A Day in Paris

On Friday, Jenny and I went down to Paris for the day with Liliane and Francois. It was amazing! We took the train out to Bois-Bernard on Thursday so that we could spend the night there and get an early start the next day. We left around 6:30 a.m. and the drive took around two or three hours (I'm not sure exactly, because Jenny and I both slept pretty much the whole way there).

First we went to a mineral expo, which was why Liliane had wanted to go to Paris in the first place. It consisted of tons of people selling all things rock-related - jewelry, fossils, geodes, tools, etc. It wasn't particularly interesting for someone who's not too into geology, but we weren't there that long.

After Liliane was done at the expo, we headed to the metro. The Paris metro is absolutely insane! There are so many lines, and none of them are straight. A map of it looks like a spiderweb or something. The trains are much bigger than the ones in Lille, and something that I thought was a really great idea is that all of the seats flip up when no one's sitting on them to make more space.

Montmarte

So we took the metro out to Montmarte, where we got some lunch in a restaurant at the bottom of the hill atop which sits the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, which is an absolutely gorgeous Catholic church. Then we went up the hill, where we got our first real view of Paris. I believe the top of the hill is the highest point in Paris, and the view is spectacular - you can see the whole city stretched out in front of you, with the Eiffel Tower jutting straight up out of it!

View of the city from Montmarte

We then went inside Sacre-Coeur, which was absolutely beautiful. The church is huge, and has a very high dome with all kinds of paintings on it. There were signs up that said no photography or cell phones and that visitors should be as silent as possible, since the church holds services and people come there to pray. There were many alcoves with little shrines in them for different saints, and lots of candles burning everywhere. A service started as Jenny and I were about to leave, so we stood and watched and listened as the enormous organ played and nuns sang. It was awe-inspiring.

The Sacre-Coeur Basilica

After leaving Sacre-Coeur, we went to a nearby square filled with artists, and Liliane and Francois told Jenny and I to pick an artist to do a portrait of us. There were so many to choose from, but we found one who used watercolors and had a particularly unique style, whereas most of the artists were using charcoal or pencil and drawing people either as realistically as possible or as caricatures. We sat and had our picture painted, and it turned out very nicely.

After that, it was starting to get dark, and we headed to the Eiffel Tower, our final destination. It was nighttime by the time we got off the metro, so the Tower was lit up. It was kind of surreal to see something so iconic in person! We all took lots of pictures, and stood in line to go up for a bit before realizing that we probably wouldn't make it in time for the last elevator going up for the night. But nobody was sad about it, because Liliane and Francois have been there before, and Jenny and I will be back very soon! So we took the metro back to the car, and drove back to Liliane and Francois's home.

The Eiffel Tower!

It was an incredible day, and now I'm super excited to go back when my family comes for Christmas and really get to spend some time in Paris!

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Last week Jenny and I went to see Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I was excited because, after learning the bitter truth that Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are will not be released in France until December, I felt some satisfaction in being able to see a movie that has not yet been released in the U.S.

For those who don't know, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus features Heath Ledger's final performance. He was in the middle of filming his part when he died in January 2008, and luckily for the filmmakers, the fantastical nature of the movie allowed Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law to play variations on his character, completing the role without altering the script substantially.

The premise is that Doctor Parnassus is a thousand-year-old man who long ago won a bet with the devil, winning eternal life. He roams the world with a sideshow-like stage and a small band of performers, trying to convince audiences to enter his Imaginarium, a magic mirror through which people can fully experience their own imaginations. The main plot of the film has to do with the Doctor attempting, through inviting people into his Imaginarium, to win a final wager with the devil, with the help of his circus-like band of followers and a stranger named Tony.

The Doctor is played by Christopher Plummer, who I am convinced would have made an excellent Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies (but, on the other hand, just about every male British actor over the age of sixty I can think of would make a better Dumbledore than Michael Gambon). As always, Plummer is a pleasure to watch. His characterization of the Doctor is convincingly tragic, as a man doomed to live forever in a world where appreciation for his unique talents is dwindling.

I also loved the way the devil is portrayed in the movie - he is a chain-smoking, bowler hat-wearing trickster who is more mischievous than malicious. He is an obviously shady character who loves tempting the Doctor into accepting his bets and always manages to come out on top, but seemingly his main motivation is boredom rather than evil, and Tom Waits makes him almost likable. Another noteworthy performance is Verne Troyer's (a.k.a. Mini-Me), who is great as Percy, the Doctor's long-suffering assistant and closest friend. Rather than being a stereotypical sideshow midget played just for laughs, he is the one member of the company who manages to keep his head on his shoulders at all times, ensuring that Doctor Parnassus stays focused on his task.

Like most of Gilliam's movies, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is very strange, and very visually interesting. The originality of the story is one of its greatest strengths - it is refreshing to watch a movie which is not based on some well-known property such as a book or a previous film. The experience of watching a movie and not knowing where the story is going or being able to see every twist and turn of the plot coming a mile away is becoming more and more rare with today's movies.

Another strength of the movie is its visuals. The worlds seen within the Imaginarium are bizarre, beautiful, creepy, and always interesting to look at. This is definitely a movie worth seeing in the theater, because the fantastical landscapes simply would not come across the same if not seen on the big screen, where they can be spread large and wide, drawing the viewer in and allowing him or her to really experience them.

The individual portrayals of Tony by Ledger, Depp, Law, and Farrell are pretty good, but as a whole, I wouldn't say that the idea of having Tony transform from one to the other worked particularly well. Having so many distinctly talented actors playing the same character seems like a great idea theoretically, but in this instance, it's almost as if they cancel each other out, and it is somewhat distracting having so many well-known faces pop in and out of the story so quickly. However, bearing in mind that the reason for this method of portraying Tony was that the filmmakers were doing their best to deal with an unexpected tragedy, it's hard to hold it against the film.

There are moments when the story suffers from being a bit too convoluted, but overall, I enjoyed the movie. Though not outstanding, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus contains several good performances and a unique story told with excellent visuals, which is better than a lot of movies these days.

Cap Blanc-Nez Video

Here's a video I made on top of Cap Blanc-Nez. It's so windy in the video that you can't really hear anything I'm saying, but that's okay, because mostly I'm just talking about how windy it is.

Thanksgivings Etc.

This past week has been very exciting, with lots of Thanksgiving-related goings-on. Even though Thanksgiving is an American holiday, and therefore not celebrated in France, Jenny and I did just as much celebrating as we probably would have done at home! On Thursday, which was actually Thanksgiving, we went to a big Thanksgiving potluck party at some friends' apartment. Jenny and I don't have an oven, just a stove-top and a microwave, so we went over to their place the afternoon of the party to do our cooking. Jenny made two big pumpkin pies, for which her mom had mailed ingredients which can't be found here, such as canned pumpkin and evaporated milk. I made my mom's sweet potato casserole, which I had never made before, but turned out wonderfully (and got quite a few compliments at the party, I might add!).

There were around twenty people there that night, mostly lecturers and assistants, so there was a lot of delicious food. There were Americans, French, English, Irish, etc. and a lot of people were celebrating Thanksgiving for the first time ever! Jenny had had her students that day draw hand-turkeys (where you trace your hand and turn it into a picture of a turkey) and she brought them all and hung them all over the wall. And then we all made our own hand-turkeys and hung them up. It was a lot of fun, and I was SO full by the time we left. On the way home, Jenny found some guy's long-term metro card (which costs hundreds of euros) on the stairs going down into the metro station, so she found him on Facebook when we got home and sent him a message, and we were able to meet him and return it to him the next day.

On Friday, we took a train to Bois-Bernard to have Thanksgiving with Liliane and Francois. Liliane had sent Jenny an e-mail asking her what ingredients we would need for Thanksgiving foods, so I assumed that we would be helping her make the dinner. But when we got there, Liliane gave us the ingredients and told us "You're the bosses today!" Jenny and I were both kind of surprised, but we managed to make a delicious Thanksgiving dinner mostly by ourselves! I made mashed potatoes and corn and my mom's sweet potato casserole again, and Jenny made stuffing, her mom's version of sweet potatoes, another pumpkin pie, brussel sprouts, and she and Liliane cooked the turkey. It was all very good, and I went to bed very full once again.

On Saturday, Liliane and Francois drove us up to the coast, which was really cool. We went to a cliff called Cap Blanc-Nez, which is on the beach. It was extremely windy! There were amazing views from the top, and you could see England (barely) on the other side of the water. We then walked down on the beach, which was also very beautiful, and not nearly as windy. After we left the cliffs, we drove to Boulogne-sur-Mer, a city on the water where we went to a big aquarium called Nausicaa. It was cool, but I think both Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg and the Chattanooga Aquarium are better.

It was a great weekend! I love seeing new parts of France. Sometimes during the week when Jenny's working and I don't have much to do I feel like there's no reason for me to be here, but going places like Cap Blanc-Nez makes me glad I'm here. I want to see a lot more of Europe before I leave!

Here are some pictures I took.

Cap Blanc-Nez

Across the channel. I left this photo at a higher resolution than the others, so you can really see the detail when you click on it. You can barely make out something on the other side of the water, which is England!

Jenny on Cap Blanc-Nez, trying to keep the wind from blowing her hat off

Cap Blanc-Nez from the beach

Hating George Lucas

This past weekend, Jenny and I watched the Star Wars trilogy (you know, the real one, not the prequels). I had downloaded the three original movies since the copies I have are on VHS rather than DVD, and I sadly did not have room to bring videos when moving to France.

Unbeknownst to me, however, was the fact that the versions that I downloaded were George Lucas's updated "Special Edition" versions - the ones he re-released in 1997, with added scenes, newly inserted CGI shots, etc. The versions that George Lucas considers to be the definitive versions of the three original movies, and everyone who is not George Lucas considers to be a crime against his or her childhood. How lucky I was never to have seen these bastardized versions until now.

Watching the first two, the original Star Wars (or A New Hope) and The Empire Strikes Back, was relatively bearable. There were definitely cringe-worthy moments when something very obviously and hideously computer-generated appeared onscreen, disrupting the flow of the movie, but I tried to ignore them. The worst part of watching the first two was, of course, the scene in which a very computer-generated-looking Jabba the Hutt confronts Han Solo in Mos Eisley, and the majority of the dialogue is repeated word-for-word from Han's exchange with Greedo. But for the most part, I was able to ignore the changes in Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, as irksome as they were, and simply enjoy the movies.

But The Return of the Jedi was a different story. From the early scene in which a cartoonish-looking CGI band replaces the original band at Jabba's palace, singing an absolutely ridiculous song that would be laughable if it weren't so tragic, a parade of poorly thought out and clumsily executed changes plagues Lucas's new version of the final installment.

Most disturbing of all, however, was the ending. The happy tribal-sounding song that plays as members of the Rebellion celebrate their victory with the Ewoks is gone, replaced by an entirely new song. And then, the final touch - as Luke sees the spirits of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda joined not by Sebastian Shaw, the man who plays the face of Darth Vader as he dies a few scenes earlier, but by HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN! THE GUY WHO PLAYED ANAKIN IN THE PREQUELS!

Rather than having Anakin Skywalker appear as he is presented in this film, creating a connection the significance of which is immediately apparent to the viewer, Lucas inserts the image of an actor who will be completely unknown to someone who hasn't seen the prequels. Christensen's presence also made me realize that this was not the 1997 Special Edition, but an even newer version, released after the prequels were made, and demonstrating once again that George Lucas simply does not know when to stop.

Sorry to rant, but I just couldn't help myself. I guess this goes to show the perils of downloading.

Laundry, Cooking, Monkeys

Two new blog posts in one day! Can you believe it? They started out as the same one, but then one evolved into an in-depth discussion of Glee, and this is a "boring stuff about my day-to-day life" one, so I figured they should be separate entries. I'm actually thinking about starting a new blog that will be dedicated to my ramblings about movies, TV shows, etc. (see my entries on Glee and District 9 for examples of what I'm talking about), and keeping this one more about my life and being in France. What do you think?

Anyway, I have spent a very large amount of time this week doing laundry. Jenny and I had a huge pile of dirty clothes in our room, and we'd only done one small load at a laundromat since moving into our house until this week when we got our own laundry machine and dryer (in the picture, the dryer's on the left, and the washer's on the right). The other thing is that we can only run one machine at a time, either the washer or the dryer, because of the way the electricity's set up in the kitchen. So with those two combined factors, I have spent much of this week doing laundry. The good thing is, since it's in the kitchen, I can just switch loads when I need to and otherwise go about my business. The dryer is a "condensation" dryer, meaning that instead of having a connection to the outside of the house, it just has a plastic drawer in the bottom where all the water collects, and you empty it every time you run it. It's kind of cool.

I'm becoming quite the housewife - another thing I did this week was make a delicious meal inspired by something I ordered at the Pancake Pantry in Nashville one time. I don't remember exactly what it was called or exactly what was in it, but I tried to make something similar, and it was really good. To make it, you fry potatoes, green peppers, onions, and ground beef in a skillet, then mix them all together. Then you make a couple of eggs sunny-side-up and put them on top. Then you put shredded cheese and salsa on top of it all and mix it all together. Mmmmm. I should have taken some pictures of it, Adam Chan-style. Maybe next time.

Not much else new, aside from a bunch of planning for my family to come - researching car rentals, train tickets, and such. Thanksgiving is only a week away, and I'm sure the holiday season will fly by after that. I'm looking forward to it.

To end this entry, here's links to a couple of YouTube videos of monkeys doing gross things that made me laugh pretty heartily:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdA-y6J-KnY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRc8njN6C-E

Glee

Jenny and I have been watching the new show Glee, which is about a high school show choir, and therefore it has a lot of music in it. They sing at least two or three songs an episode. This is the show's first season, but the pilot aired back in May as kind of an advertisement to generate interest over the summer. When I originally heard about it, I was very interested for several reasons - first of all, it has a lot of singing in it, which I like. Second, there's a couple of people who interest me in the cast - Lea Michele, who was one of the original stars of Spring Awakening on Broadway, and has an absolutely amazing voice, as well as Jane Lynch, who's been really funny in various movies and on the show Party Down. And finally, I heard about the show through a video posted on YouTube which showed the cast singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", which is one of the most irresistible songs of all time.

I'm still not really sure how I feel about the show yet. I like the music and the fact that they try to incorporate a lot of different styles - from stuff you hear on the radio to hits from the '80s to showtunes. And there are some really good singers in the cast, partially because a lot of them have backgrounds in musical theater. On the other hand, most of the characters are very one-dimensional and uninteresting (the dumb jock, the bitchy cheerleader, the idealistic teacher), and some of the storylines are pretty stupid. For example, in one episode, the closeted gay kid tells his dad he's practicing for football when he's really practicing dance routines, then goes on to actually join the football team and help them win a game by teaching the whole team the dance to Beyonce's "Single Ladies". Maybe it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but the complete lack of subtlety and the abundant tearjerker-ish moments that are mixed in suggest that the show is trying to be more than just a satire.

My other major problem with the show aside from the relatively lame storylines and characters is the way the musical numbers look. The problem is that the songs are all pre-recorded, and for some reason, it is VERY obvious that the actors are lip-syncing. I don't know if this show does something differently from other modern film musicals in the way it films its musical numbers, because I think lip-syncing along to pre-recorded tracks is very common when filming a musical. But on Glee, at least for me, the fact that the actors are lip-syncing is so obvious it's distracting. I know for a fact that all of the actors do their own singing, so I'm not sure what exactly the problem is, but on nine out of ten of the musical numbers the voices that are heard do not even remotely appear to be coming out of the mouths of the actors onscreen.

But there are also good aspects to the show. Several of the actors really stand out - Jayma Mays is very lovable as Emma Pillsbury, the guidance counselor with OCD who is secretly in love with Will Schuester (the Spanish teacher/leader of the Glee Club, played by Matthew Morrison, who is the main character and sadly, one of the most boring ones). And several other members of the cast, including Chris Colfer as Kurt Hummel, Lea Michele as Rachel Berry, and Mark Salling as Noah "Puck" Puckerman, manage to outshine the mediocre roles written for them. But for me, the best part about Glee is being introduced to music which I'm not familiar with. Since the songs are drawn from so many different genres, I come across a lot that I don't know. Of course, some of them are pretty bad, but on occasion there's a song I really like which I've never heard before. For example, last week's episode featured "Defying Gravity" from the musical Wicked. I had never heard any of the music from Wicked before, but I absolutely loved this song and ended up downloading the rest of the Wicked soundtrack.

Ultimately, Glee is a mixed bag. I'm not sure if it could hold my interest if it weren't for the music, but even though the show isn't one of my favorites, there's at least enough good about it to make me want to keep watching.

Life in Lille

Once again I must apologize, because it has been a very long time since I last posted. I was going strong, posting like twice a week, but then I was without internet for a month and fell out of the habit. But I'm trying to post more often now! I really am!

Anyway, things are going pretty well here in Lille. Thanksgiving is next week, which is exciting, although Jenny and I haven't finalized our plans yet. And it's less than a month until my family comes to visit and we all go to Paris! And of course, Christmas is drawing very near, which always gets me very excited. I really do think that the Christmas season is the "most wonderful time of the year". I can't wait to break out the Christmas music, but that must wait until after Thanksgiving. You can't start listening to it too early, or it isn't as special.

As of today, Jenny and I have a washing machine and dryer in our house, which is awfully nice. We found them at a used appliance store and brought the dryer home (with the help of Francois, of course!) on Friday, and the washing machine was delivered this morning. I'm looking forward to doing laundry where I live, which I haven't done since my freshman year in Morrill. I liked living at Crossroads West, but one of the downsides was definitely the gross, sketchy basement laundry room.

On Saturday, Jenny and I went to a raclette party, which is kind of like fondue. You melt cheeses in these little pan things, and then pour it on breads, meats, potatoes, etc. It was delicious, and I was very full afterward. Then on Sunday, Jenny and I went to the Palais des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts), which is about a ten-minute walk from our house. We thought that it was free on Sundays, but it turns out that it's only free the first Sunday of the month. It was no big deal though, because it only cost about four euros each. I was not particularly impressed with the collection, but maybe that's just because I'm much more interested in modern art.

To end this post, here's a picture of a friterie that's near our house. "Frites" is what they call french fries here. This place is awesome, it's basically kind of a fast food-type cafe, where you can get hamburgers, sandwiches, pizza, frites, etc. for pretty cheap, but it's all freshly made and really delicious. Jenny and I have been going here a lot!

Return to the Interwebs

Well, Jenny and I finally got internet at our house! It is really nice to have after spending a month with no way to get online except to ride the metro out to Lille 3 and use the wireless there. What we got is called a Neufbox, which is this box you pay for through the phone company, and with the package we've got we pay 30 euros a month for internet, phone and TV. And we can use the phone to call landlines in the U.S. for FREE!! We might also be able to call cell phones in the U.S. but I'm not sure yet because we've been told different things by different people. So it's a pretty great deal, and I think it will make life a lot easier.

Now that I have internet again, I'm hoping to be posting a lot more often. In the meantime, here's some of what's happened over the past month:

-Last week was Jenny's mid-semester break, which we mostly spent relaxing and lazing about our house, in addition to taking care of things like laundry, shopping etc. We played a lot of rummy, watched a lot of movies, and slept a lot.

-Last Sunday, Sarah (who is a lecturer at Lille 3 with Jenny, and is also from UT) had Jenny and Kathleen (who is also recently finished at UT and is doing an assistantship in Lille) and I over for lunch. First we went to the Wazemmes market, which is a massive open-air market held every Sunday. There was a ridiculous amount of people there! After that, we went back to Sarah's, where she cooked us a delicious lunch. After lunch, we watched Muppets Take Manhattan, which is always good.

-Halloween was last weekend, but it doesn't seem to be as big of a deal here as in the U.S. Jenny and I went to the Citadel, which is a big park area in Lille, and walked around there, where there was a kind of kid's carnival Halloween-type thing going on. There's also a free zoo, which we hadn't been to yet, and that was pretty cool. And as we were walking through the Grand Place (which is the big square in the middle of the city) on our way home, there was a huge group of people doing the Thriller dance! We were going to go over to Sarah's to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, but didn't end up going because we were both starving and we wouldn't have had time to eat anything. So we came home and made delicious burritos. And we even had one trick-or-treater come to our door!

Rhinos at the zoo, play-fighting with each other.

-I've been reading a lot. Lille 3 has a really good English Library, where Jenny has been checking books out for me. I read A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, which was pretty good, and re-read The Children of Men by P.D. James, which I've decided is one of my favorite books. It's the book on which the movie is based (which is also one of my favorites), but they are really quite different. I highly recommend it. I also re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which Jenny had bought at the airport before we left. After finishing it, I was feeling empty and sad from leaving the world of Harry Potter behind, so I decided to re-read the whole series and am now on The Chamber of Secrets. I haven't read them in quite a while, and they're just as good as I remember (and SO MUCH better than the movies, although I think I have learned to appreciate the movies for the severely limited, flawed things that they are).

-Liliane and Francois came over last week, and of course they brought us a bunch more stuff. They have been so nice to us! Then they took us out for crepes, which were delicious. We also ate an epic six-hour lunch at their house on Friday. Their niece Alice and her boyfriend David were visiting Lille for the weekend, and they came and picked us up and drove us out there. It was pretty insane, I am certain that I have never sat at a dinner table for that long before. Then on Sunday, Alice and David picked us up again and we toured an old coal mine.

-We figured out our plans for Christmas! My family is coming to visit, and we're going to spend five nights staying in Paris together, before coming back to Lille for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to seeing them all, and I'm also quite excited to go to Paris!

I'm sure there's plenty more I could write about that's happened in the past month, but that's probably enough for right now.

Thriller dance!

Our House

I haven't posted in quite a while because we still don't have internet in our new place yet. The only way I am able to get online at all is to come to campus with Jenny and get on the University's wireless network, which is what I am currently using. Hopefully soon we will have internet at home, but who knows.

Anyway, we did indeed get moved into our new house, and it's great! There are, of course, a few things that suck about it, but for the most part Jenny and I both really like it! I think not having a home for such a long time really helped me appreciate how great it is to have one.

It turns out that we will be living there by ourselves - we realized after we moved in that the fact that the bedrooms do not have doors would really be a problem for more than just Jenny and me, and also that the common areas would be kind of small to share between more than two people.

Our mailing address, for those who are interested, is: 22 Rue de Douai, 59000 Lille, France. And here are some detailed pictures of what our house looks like!

The entry room/dining room. It's kind of weird living somewhere where your door opens straight onto the sidewalk. Most of the furniture in this room (and the rest of the house) was given to us by Liliane and Francois!

Jenny and my room. As you can see, we are still living out of our suitcases.

The short hallway between the upstairs rooms

The spare room upstairs

The staircase

The kitchen, downstairs adjacent to the entry room. And it has a refrigerator!!!

The doors to the toilet on the left, and the bathroom on the right. It's weird, because these are directly across from the windows in the kitchen which look out onto the sidewalk, so if you're on your way to or from the shower in just a towel, anyone who cares to look in can easily see you.

Parc Jean-Baptiste Lebas, a park that is about a block away from our house

AT LAST!

View Larger Map
Our house in Google Street View! It's the white one on the left - double-click the front of it to get a straight-on view!

Today is our 29th day in France, and tonight, if all goes as planned, we will finally, for the first time, be staying in a place of our own! Yesterday we signed the lease, and Liliane and Francois rented a truck and helped us move the majority of our stuff into the new place. However, there was still some work to be finished up in the new kitchen, so we went back to Bois Bernard last night.

Today, the guy who is doing the work on the house is supposed to be finished by 6pm, and another guy is coming by to turn the gas on so that we will have hot water and everything. After Jenny is done teaching for the day, we will head over to our new home!

The only bad thing is that we will be without internet and phone for a little while until we have time to get that set up. We will still be able to get online at the university, though. And it will be totally worth not having phone or internet for a little while to finally have a place of our own!

Vimy Memorial

Today we returned to Bois Bernard once again and Liliane and Francois took us to a war memorial near their home. It was called Vimy Memorial and it was for Canadians who fought in World War I. It is located on a battlefield where Canadian forces had an important victory over the Germans. There is a huge memorial to all the dead and MIA Canadians who fought in the battle, and the trenches and tunnels used during the battle are preserved.

The area is actually owned and run by Canada, and there are tours led by Canadian students who are brought over to work at the Memorial for four months at a time. Tours are given in both English and French, and we took an English one. It was very interesting, and made me very happy that I've never fought in a war, especially in a trench.

Jenny in front of the Memorial

Jenny between the towers - the Memorial was huge

The other side of the Memorial

Looking out from the Memorial - part of the reason the victory that took place here was so important was because of the strategic advantage of being able to see for miles

People aren't allowed in the woods that have grown up around the battlefield because of the possibility of leftover artillery shells

There are a ton of sheep around the memorial - the tour guide told us they are there to keep the grass short - a job that would be too difficult and dangerous for a person because of the craters left behind by explosions and the possibility of leftover shells

A view of some of the trenches - these were real trenches, preserved in cement, although during the war they would have been taller and narrower

The entrance to the preserved underground tunnels

...and the tunnels themselves

This is What France Looks Like...

Bois-Bernard is the village where Liliane and Francois (Claire's parents) live

This is a cool house I saw

In France, mailboxes are yellow

There are bakeries everywhere

Beware: man-eating snakes ahead

A street-view of Lille

The inside of a church I wandered into

Jenny in Bois-Bernard

Gare Lille-Flandres - the main train station in Lille

Downtown Lille - called "Centre-Ville"