Christiane, Klaus, Clem who is a neighbour of Klaus’, and I have started our own hiking group.Today’s hike was to Fintry Provincial park (www.fintry.ca) on the ‘west side’ of Okanagan Lake. It is on land formerly owned by a Scottish “Laird”, James Dun-Water in the early 1900s. A very enterprising and innovative man, he not only ‘rode to hounds’ in this area complete with hunting horns and red jacket, he built a home furnished with antiques brought from Britain, had a very successful herd of Ayrshires, a large orchard, and developed a power and irrigation system from Shorts Creek falls at the back of his property. We walked up to view the ‘triple’ falls and the spectacular view of Okanagan Lake. Fintry, the name he gave his property is almost halfway between Kelowna and Vernon and has campsites right on the lake. The old Dun-Water home is being restored and there is a labyrinth in the garden (based on the one in Chartres which I had ‘walked’ in September 2009! So of course, I walked this one!) This is a ‘borrowed’ image of the labyrinth; there was no-one else besides the 4 of us in the park today! It absolutely amazes me how people from a comfortable, rather aristocratic existence in Britain end up in an isolated spot here, creating another gracious lifestyle! The following are photos of the falls…
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The white blossoms of the Saskatoon berry bushes and the yellow arrow-leafed balsamroot ‘daisies’ are quite prolific this year! ..and here are the tulips and daffodils blooming together in my garden!

First “ramble” this year with the outdoor club. Goose Lake is about 15 minutes from here and is actually on a rancher’s land. The sun came out full force shortly after these photos and by the end of the 3 hour wander, we were very happy to go to Swan Lake Nursery (also a tourist destination) for coffee(ice cream)!
Today, it’s out to the garden to do some underbrush cutting. No lying on the deck in the sun for me today!
This afternoon it’s the last book sorting for the year and next week it’s the big 4 day library book sale.

It’s now 24 hours since I last got out of bed and I’ve just arrived back in my attic rooms in Vernon!
My flight was delayed by 1 and a half hours from Paris so I lost my connections in Canada, but I’m not too much later.
Great to be back here! Katie was able to meet me at the airport; it was so good to realize Canada was still here and all the people I know and care about. It’s great to travel and I’ve enjoyed my experiences tremendously but it’s still great to be back!
Going to have a cup of tea then venture over to inspect my new home at 3005 24th Street, V1T 4N3!

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The house looks pretty good. Now MY work begins…MOVING!

Here I sit, drinking the last of my wine and smearing the last of the smelly(yummy) Camembert on green pepper and zucchini slices. No more baguette! Have checked myself in to Air Canada via my iPod and paid my hotel bill in prep for tomorrow’s flight from CDGaulle at 10:30. I’ll be in Kelowna by 5pm!
SO, I was up early this a.m. for my last pain au chocolat! I decided almost immediately I arrived that my favourite souvenirs of France would become part of me. Happily my clothes still fit!
Off on foot to Place d’Italie for a Brocante (antique or flea market).it was located on the boulevard under the metro (yes where it is well above ground!)
There were lots of people for it and the neighbouring huge sidewalk food market. Today is Sunday and most shops are closed.
The food market is about a city block long and absolutely jammed with people and their tiny shopping carts. You’d think with stall after stall of meats, cheeses, seafood, nuts, olives, bakery goods, ethnic foods, and prepared food like paella that there’d be plenty for allto choose from. But there are LINE-UPS! There’s much chatter and laughter between customers and vendors, so many people come each time to their favourite.

People could barely squeeze by one another but an intrepid (but not at all talented) ‘small tuba’ player followed his wife as she shopped and carried his electronic accompaniment in her tiny shopping cart.
He only played one piece over and over. Guess people were glad his wife was moving!
Later I walked over to the new library (4 towers L-shaped to resemble open books, crossed the Seine over a new footbridge, passed by the grass and glass topped pyramid of the sports and entertainment centre and ended up at Bercy park with all the Parisian families enjoying a sunny warm Sunday afternoon.
There’s so much I haven’t seen and done yet. Well, maybe next year?

Il y a DU MONDE a Paris aujourd’hui!
I guess it’s now the autumn wave of tourists since Rentrer (back to work and school after vacation). Avenue des Champs Elysees was packed with all ages of people both on sidewalks and in high end shops!

I actually took photos of womens shoes at one shop You’d need a taxi to take you from one end of a room to another with these items!
After p’tit dej here on Rue Daguerre, it was off to a disappointingly small market in the Bastille area BUT I discovered an amazing garden walkway in mid-air -apparently 4.5k- that once was a railway
line and is now the Viaduc Promenade Plantee. Quelle belle
surprise!
By bus back to rue St Michel where trucks with mega sound systems
and happy youth ‘drum and bass’ thumped by! This was near the Sorbonne but don’t really know why this was occurring.
Walked from here to Place de la Concorde and the Orangerie where Monet’s Nymphiades (water lily series) are housed along with numerous other artists of the late 1800′s to 1930-ish.
I love being able to get up close enough to see brush-strokes, dabs, smears, or swipes of paint that create the images! (excuse my painterly vocab)
The effects of artworks in all musees is somewhat defused by the numbers of people taking photos of themselves and the art piece. And of course tour groups will monopolize an area until their guide has finished ‘the lecture’.
So from the sublime, I walked along the Champs Elysees!

More impressive than Versailles in a different way was the cathedral at Chartres! And it only took about 60 years to complete in the 13th century! For all the stone building blocks, carving, (high) Gothic arches, associated flying buttresses (to allow natural light in thru’ the many and marvellous stained glass windows), 60 years seems such a short time given the ‘techniques’ of the time!

Altho’ very dark in the cathedral itself, apparently in it’s time it had been beautifully painted. Our amazingly knowledgeable tour guide, Malcolm Miller, has made the study of this cathedral his life’s work and he pointed out patches of original paint on pillars and statues after 800 years!
Sainte Chapelle, near Notre Dame in Paris displays these colours well and even these are enlivened by colours superimposed by light thru’ the stained glass windows. At first I thought Ste. Chapelle a bit gaudy with vivid blue ceiling and gold stars. It is difficult to imagine the old grey-brown-blackened interiors to have been colourful.
An amazing day of sights and insights!

Sept 16
Up early to check out of one hotel and store luggage then rush off to the train to Versailles by 8:15!
The day was cool and breezy. The immensity of the Versailles ‘estate gardens’ and the opulence of the Palace

and it’s history was overwhelming. (and so was the number of tourists!)
So eventually we found the Potagerie du Roi (fruit and vegetable garden) in the town where we ‘humbler sort’ were more comfortable having our sausage, smelly cheese, baguette and wine picnic.
… more comfortable because it was warmer, only one or 2 tourists, AND Mary was in her glory inspecting this hectare garden! Lots of espaliered pears and pommes, including several Canadian varieties!
(the garden is now an agricultural school)

So Mary and Peter arrived at my luxury large room (can hold maybe 4 people for aperos). After downing the pepper tartine spread on cucumber slices avec olives on the side (which are kept coolish inside the wrought iron railings outside the window), and killing the fancy labelled bottle of wine, we went across the street for a raclette
dinner. This meant we had to cook our own meat in hot oil on an electric element built right into the table. A very enjoyable meal ending with Ile Flottant!
It seems again very odd that when nExt we meet it will be in another country. We will also be meeting Wolf-Christian’s parents shortly after we arrive in our respective cities! The world is definitely getting smaller!

Ah, une bouteille de Baron de Lestac Bordeaux 2006 in my hand. I must let it breathe for half an hour. Sounds impressive, n’est-ce pas? Well it was about $5 and maybe 2006 was a poor year?
The label looks very expensive anyway!
Yes after another day of walking and bussing thru’ Paris neighbourhoods, the wine is welcome! (It’s tough work figuring out the where’s and how’s!)

Today’s neighbourhoods were Montparnasse then Champs de Mars (near La Tour Eiffel), then the cross-town bus to Cimitiere Pere Lachaise (where I did NOT see Jim Morrison) in the 20th Arrondissement. Of course I had to have a sidewalk coffee about 14:30!
This morning I had to do boring laundry to start with but doing food shopping does not seem at all a chore! I love the neighbourhoods!
Tonite Mary, Peter and I will share their last dinner in France (for this season!!!) so I’d better open the wine for aperos.

All over in 2 ways:
Wolf-Christian has returned to Germany this evening and we have walked All over in Paris.

Yesterday it was around the Centre Pompidou to view modern art and a female artists exhibition on the ‘beingness’ of women. Intense! And then all thru’ the seemingly touristless area around there known as the Marais.
Dinner was confused as we lost our directions on the blvd St Germain and ended up in a torrential downpour just before arriving late and WET.
Today Mary and I spent hours in Printemps and Galeries Lafayette, 2 fabulous “department stores”. Each is divided into 3 huge and beautiful old buildings – After all the looking in these stores, we bought tea towels!
After another huge walk from L’Opera area, we met Peter and Wolf-Christian for our last few hours of his visit. What fun to all be meeting in Paris! And too bad it was so short!
While looking for a peculiar little bookshop called Shakespeare and company, we wandered by Notre Dame. It seems so odd that this famous cathedral was just a ‘ by the way, we have to pass Notre Dame to get to the bookstore’!
After all the walking we rewarded ourselves with a great East Indian dinner at a restaurant next to our hotel.
Tomorrow, Versailles?