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daniellebachan


13 Blog Entries
2 Trips
28 Photos

Trips:

2008 Adventures....
FRANCE/Europe 2007

Shorthand link:

http://www.blogabond.com/daniellebachan




Cali House Building...

Sacramento, United States


The good times are to come shortly...

permalink written by  daniellebachan on May 24, 2008 from Sacramento, United States
from the travel blog: 2008 Adventures....
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New Orleans: Jazz Fest 2008

New Orleans, United States


5 people, one couple, heavy drinkers, Seth, Thomas and I... all in one car for 7 hours there and 8.5 hours back. But we did party until 5am every night and wake up a few hours after to start it all over again. New Orleans as always treated us to a great weekend and some great company... not so great on the bank accounts though! As always the daquries were strong, the beer was cheap, the hotels were not, the shoes were ruined, the food was AMAZING, the weather was middle of the road and the time was PHENOMENAL!

permalink written by  daniellebachan on May 2, 2008 from New Orleans, United States
from the travel blog: 2008 Adventures....
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Baton Rouge: AKA: The Mother Land!!

Baton Rouge, United States


So the two some of traveling are off again... this time to the Mother Land also known as the home of the fighting LSU Tigers! Just so happened to fall over Saint Paddy's day and well I think this picture taken at 3am just about sums it all up. The mother land will be in full force come football season. you just wait. I will have to admit that the trip while it was short was much needed due to Baton Rouge being my home. and sometimes you just need to go home.


permalink written by  daniellebachan on March 14, 2008 from Baton Rouge, United States
from the travel blog: 2008 Adventures....
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San Antonio Golf Weekend...

San Antonio, United States


So randomly Thomas and I embark upon a last min trip to San Antonio for some golf and good 'ole river walk fun... The golf was bad we played even worse but now we can officially be deemed "The official Michelada tasters of Texas"... and should be deemed so after about 50 between the two od us in 3 days. Thanks San Antonio for our new knowledge!

FYI: Michelada: a mexican import beer mixed with Clamato juice (a clam and tomato juice mix) topped with tons of fresh squeezed lime juice, worchesister sauce, tabasco, and ice. MUCHO BUENO!!!

permalink written by  daniellebachan on March 7, 2008 from San Antonio, United States
from the travel blog: 2008 Adventures....
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Denver Ski Trip and Nature Conservatory

Denver, United States


A week in Denver and Boulder with Thomas, consisted of skiing and trip to the nature conservatory and a great dinner with his aunt and uncle in Boulder ... No injuries on the slopes and no lost luggage... wait I take the lost luggae part back. Great trip all in all.


permalink written by  daniellebachan on February 19, 2008 from Denver, United States
from the travel blog: 2008 Adventures....
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The Notre Dame Cathedral

Paris, France


We went notre dame cathedral today... It was wonderful despite the 5 euro charge to light a candle... So i lit one and the nun said I could keep the other as a souvenir... a new jesus candle with "Notre Dame de Paris" on it... The pictures I got were phenomenal... I had a great opportunity to just roam around... The bells began to ring and agathe and I were separated from each other... So thats when I opted to light my candle and sit and wait for the commotion to cease... It didn't especially when the cardinal came in and the young kids were acolytes in front of him... We had come to visit during the afternoon mass... I learned how to turn off my flash and I got a few pictures when we were leaving of the cardinal giving the mass... It was amazing because half is in French and half is in Latin... How amazing, what a wonderful opportunity... on the negative, It was extremely difficult to even begin to concentrate on the service while people aka: dumb Americans are using flash cameras all around you in your little pew and yelling children... after 5 min of that I was ready to wanna say something but since I was in church I vowed to never use a FLASH camera in a church EVER again... I think everyone else should do the same...

We had a wonderful dinner tonight as well since the parents came back from the south... Agathe and I cooked for 2.5 hours and the dinner was amazing... I found out why she wanted such an extravagant dinner... she had over drafted her account by 1,000 euros... WOW and in the words of her father... "come on Agathe"....

More to come tomorrow after the days events...

permalink written by  daniellebachan on August 30, 2007 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: FRANCE/Europe 2007
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the monet exibit

Paris, France


}We went to the Monet exhibit at the musee d'orsey... It is an old train station converted into a museum... I got a great picture o me from behind looking at the huge 12 foot water lilies of Monet... They also had the girls with the umbrellas and the Japanese garden with the bridge ones... It was wonderful to see his famous paintings and be so close to them... There was a little girl with her linea goes to Monet's garden book and doll and it made me think of me...

After the museum we went to the Les Invalides, the wounded and disabled war veterans hospital built by Napoleon... The building is phenomenal on the inside... The lines were too long to go and see Napoleans grave site, he is buried there because he believed that he should be with those who lost their lives fighting for the country they both loved... Kind of a nice gesture... We went into his personal chapel St. Louis and it is almost 75% covered in gold... It was almost more amazing than Notre Dame cathedral... Mostly because this was for him and only him to worship in,... The walls have all of the flags of the enemies that he defeated in the chapel... It is strange to me to have your enemies flags in a place of worship but, to each his own... This was where we went before he went off to battle to pray... there is one spot where jesus' tomb is recreated in marble where he would pray but, that area is obviously blocked off for us common folks... lol The most amazing thing to me is that the floors we were walking on are the same floors that Napoleon himself walked on and the others in that time... I think its great that the cracks and problems in the floors and cobblestone driveways have not been replaced because that is so neat to me that we can walk on the exact same floors... That is something we don't have at home because nothing is even close to that old in the us but we tend to replace old things in which it in reality is the most amazing part in my opinion to share that.... I tried my best to get a picture inside the chaple but without a flash its hard...

We also went shopping all day almost yesterday in Les Gallaries Lafayette it looks like a cathedral inside... sure puts Saks in NYC to complete shame... We didn't buy anything partly because its all galleria in Houston prices but it sure is fun to look around the 6 story department store...

Tomorrow we are goign to Notre Dame Cathedral, The Moulin Rouge and The Pigall.... Plans migt change but as of now at 1am thats the plan...


permalink written by  daniellebachan on August 29, 2007 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: FRANCE/Europe 2007
tagged ParisBuildings

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Le Vendange- Vineyard Harvest

Lansargues, France


The VENDANGE is the most difficult thing physically that I have ever had to do... besides the climbing of the Pyrenees in France last time I was here... Lets begin from the breakfast... started at 6am consisted of coffee, tea and juices as well as a million types of bread and fruit (healthy compared to our fatty waffles and whatnot).... Then we were briefed on the events of the day....
My team of three set out to cut the grapes... we were told how o cut them so we didn't cut one of our fingers off (it has actually happened every year)....It was about 98 degrees outside and we are rolling around on our backs and crouched down cutting grapes... then loaded them into big buckets weighing about 30 lbs each... then the team of loaders came around with a huge tractor and loaded the buckets into the big dump truck looking machine where the stems were to be removed and the seeds taken out as well as the skin removed for the grapes...

All of the wives cooked all day and came around with snacks and water about every thirty min so that gave us some extra energy and fuel to keep on cutting... We had lunch for 2 hours of mussles and boiled shrimp during the hottest part of the day... The rest was well deserved as well as needed...

After the lunch we went back out until sun set when the harvest is over... whatever was not cut that day would not be included into the bottle... The vengange is more for the best of all of the wines... the 150$ bottle grapes are hand picked and thats why it is so good as well as expensive...

After the party began in which the 6 course dinner was served and 2 lambs were roasted as well as about everything French you could imagine was served... The party had a live band and servers... talk about a party too bad we all were covered in dirt and grape juice and smelled awful...lol The party lasted until 3am... The rest of the weekend we rested and continued to eat and drink in celebration of a great harvest and past season... The wine was featured in 6 books with 4 out of 5 stars in each... So the sales for the next year will be excellent due to the ratings...


Needless to say I am still so sore from the lifting and cutting and still have all ten fingers so it was a great harvest... Minus the wine headache that will be there for a few days...

On Monday before I left we got to go to the beach it was a bit freezing but, it was fun because its pretty dark blue water and with the weather this past week this was a nice change...





permalink written by  daniellebachan on August 27, 2007 from Lansargues, France
from the travel blog: FRANCE/Europe 2007
tagged Harvest

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vendange: the wine harvest

Montpellier, France


I am leaving tommorrow for the vineyard so updates and pictures soon...

permalink written by  daniellebachan on August 23, 2007 from Montpellier, France
from the travel blog: FRANCE/Europe 2007
tagged Vineyard

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Back in Paris...

Paris, France


So as you can tell I am back in Paris hence the writing on this... I wanted to keep an accurate log of the travels so this stop had to be made.
It has been raining for 2 days now... I am a little fed up with the rain... its hard to go and see things when it is pouring outside, I guess I have my own little hurricane Dean over here... We walk everywhere and we have ot do it in the rain its not cool when we have to go to the grocery store and then tromp home in the flooding streets lol... Just imagine all of the bags you get next time at the grocery and then imagine having to walk 20 or so blocks with them in your hands... Its unreal no wonder why everything is in such small portions...

We went to a dinner party at one of Agathe's friends house... She is in film school and speaks English very well... Its unreal how all of her friends feel like they don't speak English well but it is almost perfect... The royalty was not at the party but the others were very very intelligent... asking about my views on stem cell research, gun laws in the US, Hillary and obama, voting stats in the US, religion differences, why I like GWBush, smoking laws in LA, and drinking laws in the US.... That is all I can remember now that we spoke about but keep in mind this is ALL in English, they preferred to speak in English to practice... One of the best speakers who is 24 said he learned English slang and other words we use from playing vidio games online where you have a live connection to other players and you speak and also from watching TV shows in english like law and order and friends... How cool is that? I could not even begin to watch French TV and start to speak... It was good to have intellectual conversation with young adults because that rarely happens in the us... I tried to explain that we do not have dinner parties we have keg parties but it was difficult.. lol

I learned some fun phrases... like if you are the one to pour the last of the wine bottle the phrase is " get married or kill yourself" in one year lol... Also when you cheers someone you ahve to look them in the eye or it is bad luck and you must cheers everyone... not like us lazy people from across the room... the other fun thing is you ahve to do the 2 kisses on both cheeks to EVERYONE... it took about 20 min to do it at the party because there were about 20 people there... wow again I could not imagine... The students at the party said they admire me for being so different from other Americans because I have an opinion and I also know when to say it and when not to, that is the French peoples biggest problem with American students...

After the party the metro was closed at 2am so we had to call a taxi and wait in the rain it was fun because the taxi that picked us up was a Bently... never in the US you almost need to clorox your body after a taxi in the US... this was wonderful but it should have been after the 40$ price...

I will be in the south for the weekend doing the vineyard harvest so i will update with pictures and stories after I return on Monday...

This is of before the rain started I LOVE this picture...



permalink written by  daniellebachan on August 22, 2007 from Paris, France
from the travel blog: FRANCE/Europe 2007
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