Strasbourg

Me voilà de retour de Strasbourg! I had a fantastic weekend in this cute city near the German-French border. It's only about two hours by train (TGV) from Paris and I've passed it several times on my way from or to Paris, but somehow I never had the time to get off. The only reason I finally made it there was because my dear brother had a competition in a small town on the German side of the border and my family and I thought it would be fun to meet somewhere in between - good choice!

I took the iDTGV early on Saturday morning. As its implicated by its name, this train is a TGV (high speed train) with some special features. iDTGV carriages are usually added to a normal TGV and are always in the second half of the platform which you can access only with a valid ticket. That's pretty neat because it spares you waiting for the controller once you're on the train. iDTGVs are divided in two areas which you choose when you book your ticket online (and we're talking of fully online-booking where you can print your ticket yourself - not like the one "online"-tickets you still have to print at a vending machine). iDZap is also called family area because you're allowed to talk as loud as you want to. They also have promotions going on there and you can rent entertainment equipment like PSPs or portable DVD players. The other area is iDZen where of course, you're not allowed to use your mobile. They even turn off the lights when you're travelling early and specifically ask you to speak quietly.
I don't know whether I'd go to iDZen when travelling together with someone, but being alone it was very comfortable indeed and my current cross-stitching made some good progress.

Once I arrived in Strasbourg, I met up with my family and bf and we conquered our hotel "Le Grand Hotel". As our rooms weren't due to be ready till 3.00 pm we set off for a first explorationary walk through the city centre - and got a little disappointed. It seems that Strasbourgians aren't exactly early birds (okay, it was already around noon) and it took us a while to find a café that was open AND not just a libanese fast-food. Admittedly, later that day we made it down to the more southern part of the isle and had a very good shopping experience (my bf enjoying the various Pimkie-counterparts for men which still haven't found their way to German shopping malls), so it's not that you can't spend both money and time in Strasbourg ;-). Dinner was French pique-nique style (there's a Monoprix at the nothern side of Place Kleber, if you'll ever need to find a supermarket in downtown Strasbourg).

Today, with no shops except for souvenir stalls open we had time enough to do some sightseeing. The cathedrale is superb, I like it even better than the one in Amiens although this one has not been declared a World Cultural Heritage Site (on the other hand, all of Strasbourg's city center has).

The Petite-France district is also every bit as picturesque as I was told beforehand. In a way, it's a European version of Fenghuang with lots of small bridges and traditional houses - though half-timbered and not in Miao-style.

As for culinary experiences, we didn't miss Tarte flambée (the thinnest I've ever eaten) and found a delicious gelateria (on Rue du 22 novembre, right opposite LaFayette). I was a little puzzled that Alsaciens claim "Bretzel" to be a local speciality, so I had to try one of these too - but honestly, it's a very cheap copy of the Bavarian original recipe!! I'd recommend you stay with baguettes *g*.

Okay, that's it for now. Have a busy week ahead of me (Friday was my first day where I really worked from early till late - nice change!). Don't forget to check out the rest of the photos!

First Week

Unbelievable, but I've already been here for more than a week! And there a plein de choses to tell.

Not exactly in terms of work, though. One had warned me that the mice for my experiments wouldn't arrive before the beginning of September, but as I have to be back in Munich by early October, I had no choice but to start a week earlier. Therefore, I've spent most of my time in the lab writing my report in advance. Today I was finally allowed to test the technique I'm gonna use on some old samples, so that makes for a change.

But outside the lab, I did have a great time discovering the different quartiers of Paris. I'm not normally the kind of person who likes wandering nilly-willy through the streets, but Paris is something different. Everything looks so inviting and the weather ist great, too, so that I've taken it as a habit to get off at different stations on my way home and just explore whatever is on the surface. Besides J took me on another little tour (and a lovely pique-nique right at the point of the Ile de la Cité) and I visited an open-air concert on Saturday with one of the girls from the lab.

On Sunday, however, I decided to be a big girl and do something on my own. In order to boost my number of visited World Heritage Sites, I went to Amiens and visited its magnificent cathedrale. Getting train tickets in France is fairly simple in comparison with China - the SNCF does have a website similar to the DB site (www.voyages-sncf.com) (if the link doesn't take you to the right site, try googling - don't know what Mauritus Yellow Pages have to do with French railways). You can buy tickets and pay via your credit card - the tricky part is when you actually try to get them. The ones for the TGV are fine because you can print them yourself. But the ones for Corail (more destinations, but slower than TGV) are issued at vending machines. In theory you simply have to insert the credit card you paid with and then you get your tickets. However, the French seem to use a different kind of credit cards with a chip on them. As my credit card doesn't feature a chip, it was simply not accepted by the machine. And even if you have the code of your reservation - you still need your credit card for proper identification. So after all I still had to queue up at the counter and have the lady there print my ticket - not exactly time-efficient.
And then, if you have your ticket, you shouldn't forget to stamp it before entering the train. At least that's what it says on the ticket. As I was daring (or stupid) enough not to stamp mine on the way back, I discovered that you simply have to see the controller who will sign the ticket to make up for the missing stamp. Easy does it, as a French proverb goes ;-).

Okay, so much for the French trains, but what I actually wanted to tell you is how lovely Amiens is - and how not you should not go on Sundays. Everything is closed down so that my only cheap option for lunch was a French variety of McDo (which I do not recommend). But as I just said, the cathedral was well worth the trip:

Does it look familiar? Yes, right, it is a lot like Notre Dame. But then, Amiens also have so cute little canals with a lot of multi-coloured houses which you definitely cannot find in Paris. Adorable!

Altogether, it was a very pleasant Sunday. And next weekend is gonna be just as good since I'm going to Strasbourg!