Speed Skate World- By Peter Doucet- Online Since 1999

Chiens Chauds: The differences in language between the ‘France French’ and my ‘Quebecois-Ontario French’ are really coming out. For example, I call hot dogs ‘Chiens Chauds’, which is a literal translation of the words ‘hot’ and ‘dog’. The French however call hot dogs ‘hot dog’, pronounced ‘hothe- daiwg’.

Speed Skate World’s Peter Doucet with a warm French baguette- photo taken at 4pm- notice the sleepy eyes?

Les Pigeons: The apartment in which I am staying features a pair of pigeons who have constructed a nest. There are no eggs in the nest. The pigeons make their way to the nest at the open bedroom window 6 feet from my head at about 6am. This happens to be the time that I can actually begin falling asleep.

I Was Wrong About Jet Lag: I though I would have no troubles adapting to the time change. I was wrong. I fell asleep at 6am last night/ this morning. That’s about midnight in Mississauga time. I suspect that falling into the France/ European schedule will be more difficult that I originally thought.

Morgane and I rode our bikes through Paris last night. Paris is a great city to explore by bike. We rode to la Tour Eifel and les Champs Elises. Riding around the ‘Arc de Triomphe’ was a lot of fun and quite chaotic (and scary) with cars dodging left and right and all over.

Morgane and I in front of the Eifel Tower

We’re going to skate the Pari Roller- a Friday night skate through Paris that involves 15 thousand skaters!! Yes, that’s right, 15000 people skating through the streets of Paris. I’ll bring my camera and see what cool videos and pictures I can snap.

We’re off to Nantes tomorrow at noon. I hope that we’ll be adapted to the time change soon. I’m looking forward to getting into ‘training mode’.

Morgane keeping close watch over the tiny bit of luggage that we brought…