A leisurely Sunday

Read about the first part of the weekend here.

Sunday morning in Vichy, we went out again after breakfast. We went through the same park, and this time we sat down for a while. I took some photos of the scenery this time...

sitting down

what they were looking at, in case you were wondering

I asked them to look over here for a photo (the girls whose faces were hidden pronounced themselves very satisfied with the photo, so I didn't take another one)

And then the guys decided to take their turn when the children left.

Julien

Camille

Julien and Alexis (actually Alexis was the first one to go on it, but I didn't get out my camera quickly enough to get a photo)

After that we went to the town centre.

a passageway (argh, the name of the passageway is lost in the sunlight :( )

a church

We didn't exactly plan to go to the town centre in the beginning...we went because Julien insisted, saying that if we were in a town, we had to go and see the town centre! I must say that I kinda agree...even though I didn't find it quite that important. :P But the centre was really pretty...so it was lucky we went!

some pedestrian street

a square we crossed going towards the town hall

the other side of the square

the rather "special" post office :P

I had fallen back (again) while taking photos, so they were waiting for me under the tree. Here I was approaching them, so they were turning around to continue...just as I was going to snap a photo of them all under the tree. Oh well...

the town hall

we stopped for a while on the steps

Camille's photo

I think it was after that that we went to buy the bread...or had we done it already? Anyway, on the way back, we passed a small marketplace where the sellers were just packing up their stuff...and Camille D decided to buy some strawberries. While he was looking at the strawberries, I discreetly snapped a couple of photos of the flowers at the stall beside it (beside the strawberry stall, that is) (and discreetly because I wasn't sure whether the seller would be happy with me taking photos :P )

the roses are gorgeous :)

nice flower arrangement

Camille with his strawberries
He bought four trays, which makes 1kg in all! (for the seven of us)

When we got back, it was barbecue time again, with pork chops this time.

This time Julien's in charge of the grill.

After that I think we played some more UNO while waiting for the time to pass...Marion and Yi were taking the train at about 3:30pm so that they could be back in Lyon in time to watch the final World Cup match at 8:30pm. Since I wasn't going to watch the match, and Camille and Julien were leaving at 5pm and 6pm respectively, I decided to take the next train to Lyon at 6:30pm. (which would arrive at the Lyon train station at 8:30pm, too late to get home and watch the start of the match :P )

After sending the football fans off at the train station, we returned to Camille's house and played UNO again...until when we had to leave for the train station again to see Camille D off. This time Julien and I brought our bags along as well...no sense coming back when the two trains were an hour apart. Before leaving I managed to get a photo of Camille's magnificent cat (the only decent photo I got, even though I took others)

meow

At the train station we played UNO again after Camille D left, and again after Julien left. I guess that was our "pastime of the day" :P

playing UNO at the train station...the other people there probably thought us a bit crazy :P

All three of us left from the same platform (this one), so that made things a little simpler...we could practically play until the train arrived.

By the way, I kept losing at the end (actually I kept losing that weekend)...Julien who had just learned how to play that weekend beat me right before getting on his train (we were the last two). Oh well...better luck next time...I hope! :P

Vichy water

Let's blog about Vichy!

Marion and I took the train from Lyon after work on Friday, while Julien and Camille took their trains from their respective towns, both changing to the same train in Paris. Whereas for Marion and me it was a simple 2-hour journey, for the boys it was a different story...

Anyway, to avoid confusion I think I should make something clear: there are two Camilles this time (unlike in Troyes). One is Camille P, a girl, the one who invited us to her place. The other is Camille D, a guy, who, uh...didn't invite us to his place? lol Anyway, you get it, he's the other one. So, depending on the context, I won't always write their initials...like when I expect my readers to be smart enough to figure it out :P

Camille and Alexis (her boyfriend) came to the train station to meet us. It was a ten-minute walk to her house, so we went there before coming out again to meet the boys' train. But their train was delayed in Paris and they ended up arriving one hour and 15 minutes later... (they were supposed to arrive at 9:55pm)

So that was it for Friday night. Camille's mother and brother weren't in when we arrived, and were leaving at 4am Saturday morning, so we only saw both of them for a while that night, after we came back from fetching the boys.

On Saturday morning Matthieu arrived from Clermont-Ferrand to spend the day with us...he joined us for breakfast. After breakfast we went out to buy bread for the day...we walked through a park to get to the bread shop, stopping at a pavilion where there was a water source: Source des Célestins. Vichy is famous for its water sources that have curing capabilities (is that how we say it?)...tourists come to, well, get themselves cured. (sounds funny...lol)

Anyway, this source is the only one in Vichy that is bottled to be sold.

the entrance to the pavilion (the name's on top)

about the source

drinking the miracle water
from left: me, Julien, Marion, Matthieu, Camille, Alexis
photographer: the other Camille

the others and the source (I was lazy to ask them to pose, since they were also lazy to pose...unlike some other people I've been on vacation with :P )

Really, these people don't like posing. Marion doesn't even like taking the same picture twice (which happened a few times since each time we took a group photo, I wanted to take one with Camille D in it, and he wanted to take one with me in it...) It is so unlike some people who, at the slightest hint of someone taking photos, would turn around and make a pose... (*wink* *wink* Alex, Hsin Shen,...)

Okay, enough digressing. We walked away from the pavilion in a different direction from where we arrived...

another view

After buying the bread, we went home (well, Camille's home at any rate) by another route instead of going back through the park, making a kind of circuit. (we did that both days) Yi was arriving at 1pm++ (can't remember the exact time, though I kinda think it was 1:25pm), so we sat in the living room for a bit.

around the table, drinking iced water (poor Camille had to make a whole lot of ice cubes that weekend...it was so hot)

the other people who couldn't fit into the first photo

After fetching Yi from the train station (she was supposed to come with us from Lyon the previous night, but she had to meet some Chinese officials who came to INSA on Friday night), we had a barbecue.

chipolatas on the grill

everyone standing in the shade...or what little of it that's left (the shade was larger earlier where Julien and Yi are standing...I was there until I went to get my camera)

I was taking the photo from the steps leading out of the kitchen, in case you're wondering. (which is why I'm towering over everyone all of a sudden. lol)

Camille in charge of the grill

We had a dish of ratatouille (a French vegetable dish, but a different kind, not the classic one) and some taboulé (couscous salad) to go with the sausages. After lunch we went out again, in search of more cures :P

This building housed the original thermal baths. But not any more...
(you can only see the people by zooming in, I forgot to take a photo already zoomed in)

Camille D took this photo...by the way, I believe he took it before I exchanged places with him and took mine. You might notice how when Camille's in the photo, everyone tried to push him out...into the ground :P

walking away from the original thermal baths (by the way, it isn't written anywhere what they were!)

Then we went to where you can find all the cures of Vichy (okay, I'm not sure about the "all", but it sure seems to be so) There's a turnstile where you pay (I think you insert coins) to get in. You can see the names of the different sources on the blue plaques (I didn't take photos of all of them).




We tried several of them...some by leaning in across the barriers (Camille brought a glass along with her to fill the water in), and some by asking the people who were inside... (Camille did that for us...as host, she had to show us what Vichy was about... :P )

the Grande Grille source
The name comes from when they put a grill to prevent animals coming to drink it (info courtesy of the blue plaques :P )

we hung around this source while Camille went around getting the different cures for us

By the way, all the sources tasted a bit weird (apart from the Célestins). There was one (the last one we tried) that was the worst, according to the others...but I found it just the same...

towards pedestrian streets
We didn't go in that direction, but we did go there (at the end of these streets) the next day

the opera (though if you look, you will see "casino" written on it instead...)

the front view

Camille trying to stop me from taking a photo of the building, so I took a photo of him instead. Bad boy!

the others posing in front of the opera

this time I thought of taking a zoom

the photo Camille took (actually I think he took it before I took mine...which was why they had to change poses between the two, to have different photos)

a close-up of the "casino"

and here you can see that it's an opera (the banner)

After that we sat down for a drink.

nearby tables...see who's their sponsor? Support local products! lol

a church
Some of the others were saying that it was ugly. I kinda liked it...and what's more, it's a change from all the same old churches.

I've always liked optical illusions on walls ^_^
The others didn't even see a reason to stop walking...there they are, walking beside the building.

this is what it is (hehe, you can even see a bit of my reflection)

Then we went to the train station to send off Matthieu. We were there a bit early, so we decided to wait outside.

We headed that way...

...from here.

I just found this building kinda nice

a fountain!

And what do you get, when you have a hot day, a fountain, and 3 little boys? guys who are not exactly what you would call serious?

You get guys playing in the fountain.

This is where the fountain went down (totally stopped) and Matthieu walked through it. Just as he was nearing the other end, the fountain started again, making him step back quickly...

And this is harder to see, because I didn't get an early enough warning. They were going to dash through the fountain, and I already had my camera ready, but they suddenly dashed through without letting me know :s Well, you can see them behind the fountain if you know they're there...

The guys checking out how wet they'd got after going through the fountain.

Then we went back into the train station. While waiting we commented on how it was a "particularity" that the train was on time...especially after the lateness of the boys' train the previous day. And I should mention that another guy, Antoine was supposed to come to Vichy as well, but his train was canceled, and for our visit to Troyes, another guy couldn't make it because his train was late and he would have missed his connecting train. So...we weren't exactly happy with the SNCF at the moment.

à l'heure = on time

Anyway, I put that on Facebook...and Catherine posted another photo for me:

this was in Lyon...I'm not sure when she took it, must be during one of the strikes
retard = lateness/delay

So that was our Saturday in Vichy...that night we played UNO after dinner, before going to bed. As for Sunday, that'll be another post...

(Thanks to Camille D for some of the photos, there'll be a few of his in the next post as well. We were the only two who were taking photos...)