Days Quatre-Vingt-Sept, Quatre-Vingt-Huit et Quatre-Vingt-Neuf

Day Quatre-Vingt-Sept was another scenic day of Hamburg. A nice little lie in before I headed out on the road, courtesy of Hamburg’s wonderful transit system. First stop, back to Landusbrucken and the tourist bureau to pick up a keychain that I thought was cool; then off to Hammerbrook City Sud and Jungferstein for more “you can only get it in Germany swag” followed by some quick lunch.

It was at this point that I had pretty much given up on getting any sun during this day so I did what I had dubbed the “Blankenese” bus tour. It was a city bus run, about 40 minutes, but the nice thing was that you got to see the city from the other side of the river that ran through Hamburg. Once I arrived at the Blankenese S-Bahn stop, the rain had died down, so I headed back to see if I could climb up Mikaelkirke.

St. Michael’s church, as it is known in English, is one of the highest viewpoints in the city, as the television tower no longer allows people to climb it. At St. Michael’s, you can take the lift or the stairs; I chose the latter for the great exercise it provides! When I got to the top (which isn’t CN tower number of stairs, but a little bit more than Arc de Triomphe stairs) I ran into two Germans who asked me if I indeed did climb the steps, to which I replied “Yes of course!” They wondered if my feet were hurting – I responded with a simple “No, not yet, but probably later!”

The view from the top of St. Michael’s was quite beautiful. While the rain did indeed not exist very much at the top, the wind DID. And how. I was holding onto my dear possessions, fearing that they would blow away. I managed to get a nice picture of the view up top…

… and then after meeting some visitors from Michigan, got a photo taken of me at the top.

It was really a nice way to end my sightseeing day and I was happy that I did it.

I got back to Julius’ house and he was out, but his parents were more than happy to have me join them for dinner. It turned out that it was the anniversary of the day that they first met. I didn’t want to be a third wheel obviously, once I realized this, but it was then explained that they rarely didn’t have guests at this occasion. And as such, as I have so many times on this trip, I was made to feel at home. It was a wonderful meal made by Mr. Koll– gorgeously made meat with rice and brussel sprouts at the sides. He has been making the same meal on this exact day for years, but every time it comes out just a bit different. We exchanged great stories over a great meal, and then retired to the fireplace and listen to some music.

After the first cd had played out, Mr. Koll put on something that I’d never thought that I would ever listen to: Bob Dylan signing Christmas songs. It’s a new release this year and although I do think Bob Dylan is a good artist I am of the belief that he should perhaps leave the Christmas music alone. That being said, we laughed for quite a long time, especially when I started singing along. Adeste Fideles remains the highlight of the evening.

Day Quatre-Vingt-Huit was a Saturday and as such, we all took it easy, until Julius and I headed out to see the Tutankhamen exhibit that was showing in the city.

What a fascinating exhibit it was! You had to go in at a scheduled time, so that they would control how many people were in the area at once. They gave you an audio tour guide, so you’d look for the number on the display panel and would get a 2-3 minute audio summary about that particular time in Tut’s life. Added to that were mini-documentaries on the initial discovery of the tomb when you first started. Although I believe that the majority of the displays were recreations, it was still quite fascinating.

Here is the Rosetta stone, which was written in hieroglyphics, Latin and Greek.

Tut’s mask was quite symbolic of his reign.

When he was buried, it was in four successively small coffins, much like a set of Russian dolls.

And this guy really didn’t have to work in the afterlife… he had over 400 representative symbols doing all his work for him!!! I could go for just one in the present life…

All in all, a great day out, capped by our tour through the “architecture nouveau” district near the harbor. We then popped back to the house in Rissen. Julius was heading out to a birthday party, and his parents had been invited out to dinner, so I changed and then headed back into the city and headed out to see a play. We did get some group pictures however!

Those of you who know me are aware that I can’t speak German very well and as such it was a bit of a relief that this was an English language play. Sadly while the script was weak and the acting a bit pedestrian, it was a fun night out… although this is the first play I’ve ever seen to get FOUR CONSECUTIVE ENCORES?!?!?! Perhaps I missed something…

Day 89 probably can be summed up very quickly. Rissen to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof by S-Bahn. Hamburg to Karsruhle through wonderfully scenic Northern Germany by an ICE train, and with comfortable seating in first class! Karsruhle to Strasbourg by TGV. A quick stopover in Strasbourg, and then off to Lyon by Corail. Not as fancy as the TGV, but hey, it does the job. I got into Lyon around 20h30 – 13 and a half hours after I’d started the day on the train. And then after walking around Lyon in the wrong direction, found my hotel, and crashed.

Off to the Côte d’Azur in the next post!!!

Cheers,
Vick.

Days Quatre-Vingt-Quatre, Quatre-Vingt-Cinq et Quatre-Vingt-Six

So it was off like a herd of turtles I went to leave Strasbourg. After going tram-tram-bus to get to Kehl I did end up making my train (although not in as much spare time as I thought I would) to Cologne. It was a straight through ride, nice and peaceful.

I arrived in Cologne and found the tourist information bureau to start and got myself a map. After some directions from both an employee at the bureau and a random passer-by on the street, I did indeed find it.



Now I’d like to tell you that I did a lot of sightseeing in Cologne. That would be an utter lie. I mean to, I really did. However I was there for one purpose: a game show.



Back in May I wrote away to Wer Wird Millionar in hopes of getting tickets. Normally there would be a two year wait for tickets however after a few back and forth phone calls and emails I got a ticket! So finally the day had arrived. I got to the studio early, at 5 pm for a 5.45 ticket pickup. Interestingly, this is the first time I’ve ever had to pay for a ticket – 24 Euros (that’s about 40 bucks), not that it really mattered. It turned out to be a longer wait than expected, although they gave everyone a chip for a free drink. I kept mine… it was worth sacrificing a 2 Euro glass of sprite.

Around 7 pm we were lead into the studio. Everyone was assigned seating – and I lucked out once again. Second row, on the aisle, closest to the host and contestant’s entrance. SCORE! Plus it was within viewing of the “fastest finger” seats. The German version, unlike the US daily version, still has this feature. They use touch screens, no slapping of buttons.

The warm up comedian came out and was very entertaining. The lady sitting next to me said she was the biggest fan of Gunther Jauch, and just her mannerisms made me laugh. The comedian asked me why I was laughing and I responded with “I don’t speak German very much!”. To which he switched to English, and I explained that I was a Canadian who used to watch the show on cable in France. Which caused the audience to applaud, they were very impressed!

Shortly thereafter Gunther Jauch came out to much applause. He is a very respected celebrity in German and is great at presenting the show when I’ve been able to see it online. I was pointed out again by the comedian, and Gunther was amazed that I was in the audience to see the show. This would play well, as you’ll come to see.

The show started around 8 pm . The first episode started with a Fastest Finger question, as there was no carryover question. I had forgotten how long it took to record an hour long program (an hour, fact) as when I saw syndie Millionaire in NYC it went really quickly. Due to the camera shot, I was visible EVERY SINGLE TIME when a question got asked. Lucky placement I guess!

One of the coolest things that the German version started a few years back ago was the “Ask someone in the audience” lifeline, for lack of a better term. The contestant can have this lifeline, but they give up their second safe point (16 000 Euros), and must declare at the start if they wish to play this option. Everyone did during my tapings. If you think you know the answer to the question when the contestant uses this lifeline, you stand up, and if you are picked, you chat with them one on one. If you are right and the contestant locks in your answer, you win 500 Euros! Sadly I only knew about four questions the entire night (with the language barrier and all, you know) so I didn’t end up standing up.

After the horns went to announce the end of the first show, I was talked to again… they asked me if Canada was good at soccer. Well, I explained, it’s not that people don’t play, it’s just that we’re not that great! We also had a funny exchange to do with one of the questions whereby I revealed that the English version of the German word “pottashe” is indeed “potash” which indeed lead to mass hilarity in the audience.

The second show went quite well as well. I was asked off the cuff during the show if I would recommend Alaska as a tourist destination… I don’t think it’ll make the edit though! No massively big winners, but I will make my German television debut on Monday, December 14th and then will appear in exactly the same outfit, having apparently slept in the studio on Monday December 21st. If anyone knows someone who can tape these for me, I would greatly appreciate it! Leave a comment at the bottom if it’s possible, thanks!

At the end of the show I was asked if we had a Canadian version of Millionaire – I responded that we only had two episodes broadcast back in 2000… once the comedian and Gunther realized that I meant two shows and not two seasons, they once again laughed hysterically!
It was my time to seize my opportunity. Gunther took pictures with all of that evening’s contestants, and then talked to the audience and encouraged them to try and get on the show. The comedian mentioned that I was looking to get a picture with him… and he said yes!

I’m not sure why it’s so blurry but seeing as I was the only person that was allowed to take the picture, I wasn’t about to complain! I got back to town around 11.45 pm, grabbed some dinner and got to bed.
The next morning, Day Quatre-Vingt-Cinq, was a groggy one. Got to the train station in plenty of time to find the Rail Europe office to make my final purchase of train reservations (including, thankfully, the Irun to Madrid trip on the next to last day) and take one sole tourist picture of Cologne:

This gorgeous castle was part of the décor around the train station. I look forward to seeing more of the city when I return in the future at some point!

My next stop was Hamburg. Julius, one of my former drama students, lived in the area and had invited me to come and visit if I so desired. It was very relaxing to get off the train and see someone with a Canadian backpack… it was Julius! We headed off to his house in the Rissen suburb, easily accessible by S-Bahn from the Hauptbanhof (main train station). Except for the switcheroo of seating at Blankenese (if you were sitting forwards, now you’re backwards!) the ride was nice and calm.

It was great to make the acquaintance of his parents again, as they were very supportive with any questions I had in regards to Julius when I was teaching him. Julius and I then met up with Joanna, his girlfriend, and we headed to the Christmas market at Altona.
Christmas markets are very much a tradition in Europe. Strasbourg has the oldest one, at 400+ years, and Hamburg’s area has many as well. The Christmas market is where you can buy locally made merchant’s wares, but it is also wonderful to go and sample the lovely food and drink. We started with currywurst (bratwurst with homemade ketchup and curry powder), moved on to gluhwine (GLOO-vine; warm seasonal wine), progressed to gelato, and then finally some creation which I’ve forgotten the name of although in essence it was little balls of dough, fried up like a donut, then covered with powdered sugar, which of course ended up all over you. Exciting though!

Day Quatre-Vingt-Six was my first “on my own” in Hamburg. After Julius and his mom had given suggestions on where to go, I ran with them. I started at the harbourfront visiting the tourist information booth, where, as usual, were full of information. One thing I had been recommended was to do a harbourfront boat ride. With your day pass, it is included! They run every 15 minutes and take about 30 minutes end to end, so I did a round trip.

The harbourfront is very beautiful, and I quite enjoyed my view. Next stop was Altona, for a return to the Christmas market, including some more currywurst! My new fave food on the run. I wrapped up the day in Jungferstein, which has the most Christmas markets per capita. I’m quite confident of that fact. So it was time to get some souvenirs!

Yes, there is a store in Hamburg dedicated just to Lego!

And the Simpsons are everpresent at Saturn, an electronics store.

Back at casa Koll we had a lovely dinner and then I took an early night.

Cheers,
Vick.

Days Quatre-Vingt-et-un, Quatre-Vingt-Deux et Quatre-Vingt-Trois

So it was after a very intriguing discussion that I was permitted to take a shower on the morning of Day Quatre-Vingt-et-Un. I say permitted as I had to haggle to get a token for the hall shower. Seriously, Mr. Owner, you have young kids, it’s Friday morning, they need to get to school – if I need to take a shower at 8.30 am it will NOT HURT YOUR BOTTOM LINE.

Nevermind though… because by 12.45 pm I had arrived in Strasbourg! For those of you who don’t know, I took a year right after I was done at MTA to go on their exchange program, and spent October 2001 through June 2002 in Strasbourg. It is a gorgeous city, and I was excited to rediscover it.

I had scored a real nice hotel room on special right in the heart of the downtown. Literally in Place Kleber, it took me longer to get to the bottom floor of the hotel than it did to the tram line! First thing I notice is that there’s a fifth tram line right to where I used to live, in the northeast corner of the city. I started out exploring the centre of town, and then decided to head up to the Robertsau using the new tram line. Everything was still there… the post office, the doner kebab, the residence…

… just as bland looking as ever! But a lot of good memories, that’s for sure. I took it easy for the rest of the night just chilling and walking around the downtown again, before heading off for some nap time.

It was an early start to day Quatre-Vingt-Deux as I had booked a tour at the Kronenbourg brewery. While I’m not a big beer drinker, I didn’t do the tour the last time so I made sure to book into it this time.

Part one of the Kronenbourg experience, after you realize that they actually don’t brew it in house (it’s 30 km south in Obernai) is that you get to go to Beer School. I kid you not, it’s time for L’École de la Bière. I really wasn’t aware of all of the steps that lead to making beer, but it was very informative.

Part two is where you get to see the old brass drum system. It is really quite fascinating to find out that one of these massive drums can hold at least 3,000 litres of whatever you’re brewing. Cool!

Part three and we are lead to the caves to find out more about the process whereby the beer ferments into something drinkable. These barrels…

… used to store the liquids with their capacity in litres marked on the front. We are then taken to see a collage of advertising that Kronenbourg has used through the years. I enjoyed the “What would life be if the Brits had invaded” advertising clips.

Finally, part four, which for most people is the highlight. It’s time for degustation – sampling.

I decided to stick to a light beer, Grindenberg (sp?) as although it was 5 pm somewhere, Mark Elton, it was only 11 am local time and I hadn’t had a big breakfast. I then picked up a few souvenirs, including some coasters. I really wanted to get some glasses, but carrying them with me for 3 more weeks wasn’t an option, and after spending 16 Euros to send something home earlier in the week, I wasn’t going to give much more business to La Poste.

I then took advantage of the fact that it wasn’t too deep into the afternoon to do a quick swing by the Robertsau to visit the market... using the new "E" tram line!!!

I loved going to the market every Saturday morning when I lived there; it was so peaceful going to pick up your eggs, cheese, bread etc for later in the week at individual merchants, who were very happy to sell it to me. This time around it was much later in the market’s opening time, and as such, I only ended up buying a small raspberry tart, which led me to buying a doner kebab at the same place on the corner as I did eight years ago. I took the whole lot and walked down to L’Orangerie, a gorgeous park across from the European Human Rights Commission (Strasbourg, BTW, also hosts the European Parliament once a month).

After hopping back to the hotel to freshen up, it was off to the south end of town to visit with Odile Raffner, my former professor at the institute where I used to study, along with her husband, Claude. It was so great to see Odile again – we have been corresponding for years at Christmas time. We spent a couple of hours catching up, talking about everything (including the Canadian way of live, which fascinated Claude) and drinking Alsatian wine (while sweeter than I remember, was still enjoyable). And of course we took an updated picture.

After a quick supper I was off again. I had really wanted to see the local hockey team play a game however they weren’t playing this particular weekend; thus it was off to the basketball game at the Rhenus complex. Strasbourg was in League one action against Toulon. The game wasn’t too packed so I was able to pick up a cheap ticket at 7 Euros – which actually lead me to an excellent seat – front row, just behind one of the baskets.

It was painfully obvious early on that Strasbourg wasn’t going to be victorious – they got creamed by 35 points, worst defeat in seven years – however I find it interesting to see what the “sideshow” attractions were. During time outs, they would alternate between four dancing ladies (who didn’t leave much to the imagination during their can-can routine) and Karim, a breakdancer. I found the latter much more fascinating; the amount of talent it takes to do that fascinates me. In between quarters they had a race between two children who had to put on oversize shows and a jersey and then run to score a basket.

Day Quatre-Vingt-Deux I decided to have a bit of a lie in and then overdid breakfast (hey, for 8 Euros, you would too) before heading outside. Now while I tend to usually find things to do during this vacation, this time, it found me. It turns out that this day was the celebration of the 65^th anniversary of Strasbourg being liberated during the war. So it was with grand splendor that they put on a ceremony, which just happened to be right outside my hotel. Literally.

Later on that day they also lined up all of the military vehicles (or replicas – not really sure) along a side street branching off of Place Kléber which was pretty darn cool as well.

It was also the 20th anniversary of the tram beginning!

I decided, that after having tarte flambée (read: flammekuche – erm, sorry, “Alsatian pizza variation”) on Friday night the other dish I needed was Quiche Lorraine. Yes, I know that I was in Alsace, but Lorraine is next door and I figured les Strasbourgeoises would do just fine. Which they did, as I enjoyed Quiche Lorraine, some more Kronenbourg (this tends to be the cheap beverage in France, and it’s good to boot) and a wonderful cinnamon-sugar crepe with a scoop of ice cream that was just the right temperature to cut with a fork and knife! All this, with good company in the case of two Aussies now living in Karshule and a great view of the cathedral for 12 Euros. Yes, it was just perfect.

After doing some more walking around it was time to meet up with Nicole, who used to be the cleaning lady on my floor in the residence. She, like Odile is retired and as well it was nice to catch up!

Later on in the day, before it was too late, I went hunting for somewhere to eat that wasn’t a sandwich. Sadly, that lead me to Rotting Ronnie’s. But much more exciting was the department store all lit up!

I grabbed a chicken sandwich before heading over to one of four downtown cinemas – all within 5 minutes walk of each other – to see Le Petit Nicolas. I used to watch films all the time in Strasbourg (and it turns out, eight years later, the student price is still 4 Euros) and this one had been recommended. And it did well to live up to expectations – Nicolas is a young boy (about nine) who suddenly suspects that his mother is pregnant and is convinced that he will be kicked out of the house. It was a great film to just sit in front of and laugh, and there’s a wonderful cameo near the start of the film in regards to another popular French film that came out a few years ago… I was happy that I got the reference.

The European Parliament was having its monthly session starting on day Quatre-Vingt-Trois and as a result, I had to vacate my hotel room. I ended up switching to a chain motel up in the north-west corner of town… next to Auchan! Auchan is your run of the mill hypermarket… with everything you could imagine in one place. For the most part at least.

Back downtown I stopped off at the Gare Central to pick up a couple of magazines for the upcoming train rides, and saw this sign:

It turns out that they’re working on extending the Strasbourg tram over to Kehl! Very progressive thinking, Strasbourg.

Finally it was time to make my one last friend connection. While I failed earlier to reach my former juggling teacher (turns out he wasn’t in that day, natch), it was time to meet up with my old Chiffres et Lettres club. Sadly there were only three members left from when I used to be there, but it was great to catch up with them and I was happy to share the news about my upcoming cameo on the tv programme.

And then we got down to work – 2 sets of 20 rounds! It was hard to shift my mind back into playing the game in English after a monstrous amount of time playing it in English. However, I didn’t do too bad, scoring 116 and 112 in the two sets, including a time near the end of the game whereby myself and the newest player to the game were the only ones to find the top scoring word.

It was my intention to go see the EU parliament session but alas C and L got out later than I expected so I headed back up north to go get some final things at Auchan. And stop at Flunch. Flunch is basically your run of the mill all you can veggie eat place – so I took advantage of that and gorged on mashed potatoes. Yes, now we’ve descended into describing eating habits, it would appear.

In any case, this would bring my time in Strasbourg almost to an end… but I will be back again someday!

Cheers,

Vick.

Days Septante-neuf et Quatre-Vingt

Since this is mostly a game show entry, I wish to remind you that the Monday November 16^th episode of Countdown is in the post below (“Countdown intermission”)

I do hope you enjoy and feel free to comment away!

Day Septante Neuf was indeed day three in Paris, and I profited with another good rest, and headed out “on the town” at around 10 am. I did some walking around in the morning but the main crux of the day was that I was going to be attending a taping of the France 3 game show Questions Pour Un Champion.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Questions. I saw it when I was in France the last time, with a bunch of friends:

Questions is a trivia game, with three distinct rounds.

The first round is Neuf Points Gagnants – “Nine to win” – where initially each question is worth one point, and the first to nine advances to round two, at which points questions become two points each, qualify a second player, finally they raise to three, and qualify the third player and the fourth is eliminated.

Round two is Quatre à la suite – “Four in a row” – each player, in order of their qualification from round one, picks one of four available topics (or, for later qualifiers, what’s left) and answers as many questions as they can in 40 seconds with the hopes of getting four in a row. Best two scores move on to Round three which is called Face à Face – “Head to Head”, where players are read increasingly easier clues to discover the answer to a “who am I” or “what am I” riddle. Winner can either take an amount of money and quit the show, or try to come back and win five games in a row, thus winning a jackpot that usually hovers around 20,000 Euros.

Now that we’ve gotten the mechanics out of the way, a bit about the taping. I arrived at 1 pm for a 1.30 pm taping, and at 1.30 pm, 57 seniors rolled in. I was, by far, the youngest person in the audience by quite a mile. Not to say that they weren’t friendly; once they heard I was from Canada they were more than happy to chat with me about my home and native land.

They taped three episodes that afternoon. As you can see we were in the festive season…

… One minute we were celebrating the holidays and then next…

… HAPPY NEW YEAR! In TV land it was already 2010. I’ve got a new year’s date with host Julien Lepers; this will actually creep out most of the people in the archival picture above.

Speaking of Julien, he was nice enough to pose for a picture with me during a taping stopdown (which they seem to take a lot of, mostly on whims). He also signed a copy of the picture you see way above.

One of the more interesting things I found about this taping is that it’s the first show EVER that I’ve been able to take pictures DURING the taping. As long as we didn’t put a flash on, not a problem. Which looks something like this:

And apparently some celebrities like to play the game too… ladies and gentlemen, Jimmy Fallon everyone!

Ok, not so much, but our champion Jerome was on quite a roll that day. A couple more pictures… first off, les mains sur le buzzer…

Then, doing my best Julien impression (this is mostly a gag for a certain UK based game show website):

All in all, a good day at the studio, even if the warm up guy sucked up to Julien just a bit too much. Not to say he was bad, it just got tired, quickly.

The taping let out around 7 pm so I made tracks to the Arc de Triomphe to climb it. Not so on this evening; due to the France-Ireland football (read: soccer) match, everything was closed early. I decided to come back the next evening, and after picking up a computer game at Fnac, I grabbed a crepe next door to the Moulin Rouge where already those supporting Algeria (in another football match, I was told) had taken to rioting (ie. Smashing bottles all over). As such I chilled back at the hotel (which, while affordable, is pretty much low key as you can get).

Day Quatre-Vingt was to be my last full day in Paris. As a result there was a checklist of some things I needed to get done. Walk through Montmartre, check. Buy postcards, check. Buy train tickets, check. One of the less “checkable” things that I did, because I didn’t want to rush through it was to sit and have a chocolat at the café made famous in Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, le Café des 2 Moulins. I’ve never had a hot chocolate that wasn’t pretty much delivered to me done up… but this one had the chocolate sauce poured into the cup, and then you added your own milk. It was wonderfully good. I sat down and wrote a couple more postcards and snapped a couple of pictures.

This is the pig lamp (albeit blurry) from Amélie’s bedside table. Or at least a replica.

In the back of the café there is a big poster from the movie to remind you… if you hadn’t been bombarded by the fact that Amélie is their big marketing track – you can even become a fan of the café on a certain social networking site.

One of the things that I like about Montmartre is that although it is touristy, it’s not nearly as touristy as many other places in Paris. As a result I really love just walking around the area. I decided to do one more hike up the stairs in front of the Basilique Sacré-Coeur, and as you can see, the weather very much was on my side.

After jetting off some more emails and trying feverishly to get some more things done correspondence wise, I started to make my way off to Saint-Denis, a northern Parisien suburb. Everything pretty much is accessible by either Metro or bus in Paris, so off I went. After a few switches, I arrived at Garibaldi station, and about a half hour later, I found myself sitting in the audience of Des Chiffres et Des Lettres.

Now, let’s get one thing straight. I can hear a couple of you going… “wait, you went to Paris and you spent two of four days at tv tapings?”. Well here’s the thing. I’ve been lucky enough to have been to Paris twice before and in those two times I went hell bent for leather and went to everything touristy imaginable. Part of this trip was going to be taking it easy, and those of you who read this blog don’t have to work too hard to figure out that I’ve already been to tapings in Montreal and New York, so yes, I went and saw another game show!

Des Chiffres et Des Lettres (DCEDL from here on in) has to be the easiest show to get into. Physically, I mean that. I went to studio three, opened the door, hung up my coat, and took a seat. That was pretty much it. I got chatting with a mother daughter pair from Paris about why I was there to see the show, and then I did a survey around the audience and saw that yes, once again, I had lowered the average age of the audience. I don’t get why you hip kids aren’t going out to see these awesome shows? Ah yes, I mean you with your Secret Story and your À la recherche d’un Nouvelle Star.

In my scan of the audience I notice someone I recognize, and I start, for the lack of anything else, freaking out. (That’s for you, Mister Al).

Chatting with an audience member is Patrice Laffont. Nowadays, Patrice among other things is the original presenter and now producer for DCEDL and is presenter for La Liste Gagnante (known elsewhere as Who Dares Wins or The Money List). However, I know him mostly from presenting Pyramide in the 1990’s on France 2 and the granddaddy of all French game shows, Fort Boyard.

One of the audience wranglers obviously sees that I’m freaking out and says “Patrice, il y a quelqu’un ici du Toronto qui veut te rencontrer”. I go up to Patrice, explain I’m a big fan (especially of FB) and ask if I can have a picture, and he says yes!!!!

I am over the moon at this point, and there’s other audience members looking at me pretty strangely, but I really don’t care. I have just met Patrice Laffont. Next stop, Guy Mongrain. The audience wrangler then goes off and gets me a signed postcard! I actually had my new Fort Boyard book with me… but I just didn’t act fast enough! No complaints though.

About 15 minutes later, the team of Arielle, Bertrand and Laurent enter. Laurent is the main presenter, Arielle deals mostly with the letters/words and Bertrand (who was hired immediately after winning twelve games back in 1975) takes on the numbers/calculations. Unlike Countdown, DCEDL went computerized about five years ago. Players now actually use touch screens to enter their answers and all numbers and letters are “dealt” out by a central computer. No picking of an inverted-T for the numbers, for example.

And guess what? After celebrating a Happy New Year with Julien yesterday, I get to do it again at DCEDL. Before each episode, the hosts also record a “coming up” bumper, which for the first show managed to be the ONLY pick-up they had to do the whole time. Very professional!

The show is pretty much shot as broadcast. Their format is Numbers-Letters-Letters x2, 2 head to head “duels” and then another six rounds as stated earlier in this phrase. During one of the last letters games one of the highest scoring words had a Canadian origin. As they had been informed a Canuck was in the audience, they asked me off the cuff if I ever used the word… to which I responded not really! Pretty sure that won’t even make the edit.

After the first show it was time for the European game show tradition of munchies. They do treat their audiences well.

Before the second (of three shows) started, I asked Benedicte, my initial contact for audience tickets at the show if I could go and get a picture with the on air team. She said of course, and took it for me.

I explained to Laurent, Arielle and Bertrand how I watch the show on TV5 Canada back home and that I use it with my French students (no lie!) to practice vocabulary and that I was recently on the British version. We chatted a bit about that too.

All of a sudden I hear “vas lui chercher un micro, on va lui interviewer”. I immediately process what’s going to happen. They sit me down in the audience (everyone moves around between shows… look! New people!) in the front row and tell me not to yell into the microphone when they interview.

I was, in a bass-ackwards way, going to be on Des Chiffres et Des Lettres. The show that I have watched for I don’t know how many years, and played for so many more, wants to chat with me ON AIR.

Here.

We.

Go.

I actually am a bit nervous at this point. I’ve appeared on air so many times, but never in French! Don’t screw it up. Don’t screw it up. Don’t screw it up…

“Et aujourd’hui nous avons un Canadien ici dans le studio, il viens de Toronto, voici Ryan”.

And then everything seems to flow just fine. I am aware the camera is on me but don’t look directly into it. They first ask what I do, and I explain that I am a French and drama teacher, and they say that they have not met many Anglophone FSL teachers. Arielle asks me to explain what I do with my class, and I respond that I play the game before starting every class. She and the others are flattered and say that it’s the first time they’ve heard of someone playing it for the sole purpose of teaching students French as a Second Language. We then segue into my appearance on Countdown, and I managed to get in a quick hello to my Strasbourg Chiffres et Lettres club that I used to be part of. They also complimented me on my French, saying it was excellent for a non-native speaker. I like to think that I do have a good grasp of the language, although hearing it from natives is a nice bit of an ego-boost – ha!

It all seemed so quick, but yours truly will make his French television début on January 1^st, 2010 on France 3. While TV5 Canada does broadcast it, it might be behind by a bit, but I will contact them to find out the date that it will air on my home side of the pond. Not sure about TV5 Monde in Europe for my UK friends, mind you. After it airs, I’ll be sure to post a clip online.

The second show came and went. I was having fun enjoying everything that had already happened but also the fact that I was actually doing well playing along. I noted this while chatting with Arielle after the second show, and she was extremely supportive and really was pushing the fact that I should keep practicing and said I would be an excellent candidate for the show.

I think I shall.

I then discovered something… in France, the show runs six days a week; back home it’s only M-F airings. Show three featured a new player (they play best 2 out of 3 on DCEDL) and a good game once again.

On the way out I of course thanked everyone profusely on the production team that I was fortunate enough to meet and got Arielle and Bertrand to sign my new computer game which I had almost returned! I think it will get good use once I get home.

I ended up riding for the most part pack into the centre of Paris with two people that I had chatted with at the show. It was nice to ride with someone I knew when we were all packed liked sardines!

It was time however to do my favourite “touristy” thing in Paris – climb the Arc de Triomphe. Things started bizarrely as two older teenagers (ie. 16 or 17) asked me if I would escort them to the top of the Arc – turns out you can’t climb it yourself if you’re under 18. No problem, it’s only about 200 stairs up to the top.

Once I got there, I just took it all in. It is absolutely GORGEOUS to view the night, lit up like a Christmas tree. I have a hard time describing how powerful I find that it is.

After about 10 minutes of walking around, a female, probably university age, asks me if I will take a picture for her and her mother. Again, not a problem, I know how hard it is to get some to take it for you for the most part.

We get talking… and it turns out she goes to Cleveland State University. There is someone who reads this blog (if not two people!) that have affiliations that I know of at CSU – one is a graduate, the other one is currently there studying. So I hit it off with Angela and her mother, leading to a lot of chatting and silly pictures such as this:

Which her mom took excessive amounts of! After awhile of joking, we said our goodbyes.

Not ten minutes later I see them again in the souvenir shop and we decide to go get a quick dinner on the Champs Elysees, and they have some questions about travelling around Europe which I am happy to sit down and answer. Four weeks riding trains, planes and automobiles (literally) and I’m a pretty good resource. As a thank you they pay for my dinner! What a nice treat… this is the part of the trip that I enjoy the most, meeting people and just having fun. I leave them my business card and then head back to the hotel. It’s time to pack up and move onto my favourite place in France… Strasbourg! My old stomping grounds, it’s time to get to know you again.

Cheers,

Vick.

Countdown intermission

Working on getting the blog updated dear readers... just a bit of internet connections here and there.

In the meantime, feel free to enjoy THE SHOW OF THE YEAR. This is the Monday, November 16th episode of Channel 4's Countdown. You may be surprised and recognize someone.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Enjoy! Hopefully an update with more exciting news in a few days.

Cheers,
Vick

Days Septante Six, Septante Sept et Septante Huit

Day Septante Six will not really go down in the history books as the best day I have had thus far. I finally rolled out of bed around 10.30, showered, forced down some breakfast and headed off to grab the train to Bruges.

Bruges had come highly recommended to me by Jeanette. And it was very beautiful.






However.

It was not really my day. I did some walking around Bruges, picked up a couple of souvenirs, saw some of the gorgeous architecture. But then, all of a sudden, I was in the POURING RAIN. And I do mean pouring. I was soaked bone to bone, and I threw in the towel.

I figure, in writing this, that throwing in the towel for the first time in 76 days does not make me imperfect! I headed back to Jeanette’s and we started preparing for dinner.

Around 8 pm we started dinner with her boyfriend Pierre and diplomatic friend Diana. It was all nice chatting and everything but I only found some energy around 10 pm when we started playing a rousing game of Hearts. Diana, bless her, was gracious in becoming the “third runner up” in the game of Hearts. We reassured her that if the winner, or the other two runner ups, could not fulfill their duties as Hearts champion, she would assume the post. I don’t think that will be happening however.

The alarm went off at 6.40 am on day Septante Sept. I got up, packed, showered, breakfasted (?) and after Jeanette called me a taxi, we had a nice hug and then I headed off. The taxi driver thought I was insane trying to get to the Gare du Midi in Brussels during the rush hour; not being 100% fully aware and healthy, I tended to think the 20 Euro fare was a steal.
Train, Brussels to Paris Nord (on Thalys), uneventful, GOOD. I got to the station and for the first time in two days, felt like I actually wanted to eat on my own volition. A pain au chocolat never tasted so good.

After dropping my bags off at my hotel around noon, I was told that I could check back into my room at 3 pm. I decided to go exploring. My hotel in Paris in in Montmartre, the 18th arrondissement (Paris is divided into twenty of these, which start in the middle and go out and around like a shell), is also the same place where they filmed that delightful movie Le Fabuleux Destin D’Amelie Poulain which I first saw when living in France in 2001 and pretty much is my high water mark for movie watching. So I was happy of course to see once again Le Tabac des Deux Moulins (just up the road from the Moulin Rouge) as well as the Cathedrale Sacre Coeur.
I was feeling slightly better around dinner time so I decided to venture out a bit… if nothing else to get in some fresh air. I picked up a Panini and then headed over one metro stop and watched a play called La Salle des Profs. It was actually quite entertaining, and it was my first experience of theatre in Paris. I got back to my room around 9.30 pm and then just chilled for awhile, before hitting the hay.

Day Septante Huit was again a sleep-in day… I have been able to get to 8.30 am most days in the last little while which I am most enjoying. Where I am staying is a low key hotel – I have a room, but there are hall toilets and hall showers. So just after nine I jumped in the shower and then got some breakfast, before heading out for the day.

For the first time in about five days, I felt great, so I was going to take advantage of the situation! My first stop was the Eiffel Tower. It was a bit windy out and a bit rainy, and since I have previously climbed the stairs, I decided to pay the few extra euros and take the elevator all the way to the top. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that cold at the top.


It does tend to get a bit busy, but actually it wasn’t that bad, considering it’s the middle of November. I grabbed a few shots, including the harsh reality of how far away from home I actually am…

… before heading back down. You have to take the elevator between the 2nd and third floors, however, between the ground and floor two you can do what you please. I decided to take the stairs back down just for something different.

On the way down before the first floor I met a nice couple from Edmonton and we swapped stories for a bit.

At the bottom there is a post office where you can mail off postcards and have them stamped as proof you were up the Eiffel Tower! Which I took full advantage of!

The next stop was the Champs D’Ellysees. This is the major mucho expensive shopping street in Paris, with the Arc de Triomphe as one of its anchors. I decided to save the Arc climb for one of my evenings here in Paris, but did a bit of window shopping and actually bought a book at the Virgin Megastore (it’s about Fort Boyard – surprised?) before heading off to my fave Montmartre internet café (1,50 Euro for one hour – what a steal!) to check up on some messages.

I was kind of tuckered out at this point so I just decided to head back to my room to have some downtime. Yes, I am having fun on this trip but I needed some time to remove myself from it so that I would still have enthusiasm for the entire rest of the run.

Which, after some downtime, I do!
Cheers,
Vick.