Hey there everyone,

Some of you haven't heard from me much, even though it doesn't seem like I wrote that long ago, but apparently it was in late August. I've moved around a bit since then.

During the month of September, I was mostly working at my job in Florence, making piddly amounts of cash due to the very few tours that I was actually doing. It also didn't help that after I went on the longest bike ride of my life, my immune system was depleted so I caught bronchitis (A great ride through the Tuscan Hills though...beautiful but very hilly, where I learned the new rule that what goes down must come up...I met a few cool people too: the guy who was working at the Dievole vineyard store who gave me a free glass of really good wine to go with my panino...he was a snowboarder who wanted to go to Canada and helped me practice my Italian; I also met a few French/French- Canadian cyclists going along the same road as I was...they were too slow so I only stayed with them for a few minutes). I took antibiotics for the bronchitis, but unfortunately they gave me a terrible stomach flew after a few days (I lost 2 kg in 2 days!). It made the grape-picking festival at my landlord's farm less fun than it should have been too. That ended soon enough though, and my friend Will (from Aero) arrived in Florence, one of the stops on his 5 month tour of Europe. It was pretty awesome to hang out with someone that I knew for a week. I went to a bunch of museums I probably wouldn't have done if he hadn't shown up.

While Will was in Florence we started going to a little bouldering (a form of rock climbing) room, where we met a bunch of really cool Americans. I chatted and bouldered with them a few times, and then asked if I could go outdoors with them the next time they went. They took me along, and we climbed on some pretty neat quarries/cliffs. It was great to get back to some real climbing! Who would have thought that the coolest group of people I met would be the rock climbers? Too bad I only went to the bouldering room in the last 2 weeks or so :-(

And so, my Florentine life came to an end. I decided it wasn't worth coming back in the second half of October to work some more since probably there would be no tourists. I came back to Paris for my cousin's wedding (on the train back I chatted and had a glass of wine with a couple of Americans that had taken my bike tour and were also going to Paris). The wedding itself was pretty nice (not sure about the choir though...especially with guys like me singing in it!!), and the reception afterwards was great...so much yummy food.

After a few days of recovery, my sister and I eventually decided to go to Lyon to visit my cousin who works there. We met a bunch of his friends, and went to a nice little park with an artificial lake the next day for a picnic, a bit outside of town. Lyon itself is a nice city, much more relaxed than Paris. Everyone seems to stroll rather than rush wherever they're going. There is an Old Lyon that is very pretty, and the Basilica and Roman Ruins on a nearby hilltop are very impressive. The food was great too. Tripe never tasted so good!!

After a few days in Lyon, I proceeded to the Alps (where I had an interview for my winter job) while my sister came back to Paris and then Canada. I stayed in my Uncle's apartment in the city near the ski resort (it's empty during the winter). The interview went fine (even though the employer was 45 minutes late), and she gave me a job starting December 3rd until some time in April. I left the same day for Paris, unfortunately forgetting an open can of lentils and sausages on the counter of the apartment...peeuw.

After my little trip I got back to Paris and decided that while I was here I might as well visit the sites...I mean, there ARE a couple interesting things to see in this city! So I started...and quickly realized that I needed someone to visit all this stuff with or else I'd be bored. One day while walking around near the Jardin du Luxembourg, I randomly bumped into Karen! We went for lunch, and while we were eating, Will and another Aero friend Jason Seagram called my up on my cell phone! So in one day I went from visiting things by myself to having a surplus of people to call up! Who could ask for better luck? (My sister says I have horseshoes up my butt.) That very night Will, Jason and I went to the Canadian bar called The Moose... it's complete with hockey sticks and jerseys, hockey on TV (live games starting at 1 AM...GO LEAFS GO), birch logs, Poutine, canadian beers, and canadian bartenders (some anyway). A great place, we've been back several times!! We also brought with us a Californian named Hans that we met in the hotel they were staying in. Hans is staying in Paris for a year, so we will probably hang out and go barhopping together...it's more fun with two than by yourself!

Since then, I've been visiting the city as well as the museums. The Louvre needs a few more days to visit, and the Musée d'Orsay as well. Versailles is pretty impressive, and I really like the gardens. We saw Foucault's Pendulum (which proved that the Earth is turning) and the burial site of many great French people at the Pantheon . The churches here are pretty amazing too, with many different styles to choose from; Sacré Coeur (where the view of the city is amazing), and Notre Dame, to name just two. One of the nicest things that we saw while walking home from the Eiffel tower late at night was the moon, huge and red rising in the distance behind the Sacré Coeur...i took a picture, but most likely it will be blurred. Much of my time has been spent in the Latin Quarter, visiting various bars, coffee shops, and just wandering around there. Meeting people at bars and then getting invited to their parties/outings is also rather fun. There are always tons of people and things to see and take pictures of. (By the end of my trip I will have a nice lengthy slide show, with stories.)

I guess that's it for now...I hope you survived. I will try to send updates more frequently but I make no promises. My life is extremely busy, waking up at noon and having so many interesting sporting events to watch on TV (they show Sumo wrestling here, and many other bizarre sports), as well as great bars to visit at night.

To all those studying for midterms and tests, all I can say is....MUAHAHAHA!! hehe, sorry, just kidding. Good luck!

If you happened to want to phone me or send some real mail, for now until December I can be reached at: Tel: 06.76.59.92.67 (when you add the French extension take off the inital 0) Addy: Jean-Marc Robin c/o Mme. Robin 3 Rue Redon 75017 Paris, France Ciao for now, Marc