Cathedrals in France

Notre Dame de Paris is the only cathedral in northern France with two symetrical towers.

Everyone knows all about the famous Notre Dame in Paris, complete with hunchback legend, but Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris is only one of several grand cathedrals that were built in northern France between 1100 and 1600 AD. Actually there are four that were built in the same mold, yet each with individual features that make it different from all the others (Paris, Amiens, Rouen, and Strasbourg). During our road trip to Amiens, one of my teammates, Romain Sauvage, decided that I needed to see more then just the hockey rink in Amiens. It was time to be truly amazed but an incredible building so on our way home, we took a little detour.

The Cathedral Notre Dame d'Amiens is the tallest complete cathedral in France and has the greatest interior volume due to height of the nave vaults. It is found in the center of Amiens and literally appears out of nowhere as you walk into a small square, unlike Notre Dame de Paris which is featured prominently in a large square on an island in the middle of the Seine river. Although holy places that should be respected, I cannot help but reflect on the construction of these buildings. The detail is facinating and the vaults are incredible to behold. In the time of modern machines, cranes, and skylifts, it is truly incredible how we do not make anything like these buildings that were made with nothing but mucsle power and creative thinking.

Notre Dame d'Amiens. Notice how one tower is shorter then the other.

Inside Notre Dame d'Amiens

One of the many chapels that ring the outside of the cathedrals. This one is at Notre Dame d'Amiens.

Stonework above the doorway of Notre Dame d'Amiens

It was a real treat to be able to go to the cathedral in Amiens and I have to thank Romain for educating me on a facinating part of his country's history. Now I just need to go back to Rouen and Strasbourg to complete the tour.

Regular Season Game #1

The regular season kicked off for the Asnieres Hockey Club with a home game against Dunkerque. The team was hoping to revenge a couple of one-sided defeats from last year and the boys certainly came ready to play.

In the first period, we came out strong right out the gate and netted a quick goal on a delayed penalty within the first couple of minutes. Mika, one of the Finnish roommates, was the goal scorer as he banged away at the front of the net. Kind of a Ryan Smyth type goal. However Dunkerque were not about to fold up the tent and pack it in quite so easily as they played us hard. Midway through the first, we started to get into penalty trouble, and Dunkerque were able to capitalize on a broken play when they had a 5-on-3 advantage. After the first period, the score was 1-1.

In the second, we continued to take penalties (6 minors in the period) and as a result never could mount much of a sustained attack. When you are using all your energy to keep the puck out of your own net, it's tough to work on getting the puck into the other one. Dunkerque eventually grabbed the lead on the power-play. End of the second, 2-1 for Dunkerque.

We had our chances in the third, including a 5-on-3 powerplay for almost a minute and a half with under 4 minutes left in the game. We even pulled out goalie for part of it to make it a 6-on-3 advantage, but we couldn't buy a goal. In the end Dunkerque scored into the empty net with 1 second left on the game clock. Dicipline for us was again an issue as we 9 more penalty minutes we had to kill in the third.

Just a couple of notes about the game. I wore number 14 as my jersey is not yet ready for me. Mika is #40 for the year, while Andronik wore number 39 while he waits for his permanent jersey to be ready. The boys played hard and there are signs we can be successful in this league, although we will need to be much more diciplined in the future. Anyway, here is the video.

A night out in Paris.

Last night kicked off the start of the regular season for the Asnieres Hockey Club as we hosted the Dunkerque Corsaires. It was a pretty good game although in the end we came up short and lost 3-1 with the final goal being into the empty net. I'll add more about the game in my next post, which will be complete with a highlight video.

This morning however, after taking the opportunity to sleep in, Mindy and I enjoyed a big Canadian style breakfast with eggs, bacon, pancakes, and real Canadian Maple Syrup!!! Yes, you can buy it all at the local grocery supermarket here in Asnieres. Anyway we had our big breakfast and then decided to wander around Paris during the late afternoon and early evening with the intention of grabbing some dinner at one the hundreds of small out of the way restaurants you can find in Paris.

We started off with a strol up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed mingling with the tourists. From there, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower where we once again mingled with the tourists and remarked on how blessed we felt to be able to live in a place like Paris.

We really wern't sure what we wanted to do, or where we might want to have dinner eventually, so we walked along the Seine river past Les Invalides and the Louvre all the way to Pont Neuf. From here we made our way onto to some back streets with little foot traffic in search of a meal without the tourist price.

Our exploring paid off as we came accross a small street with six or seven small restaurants serving three course meals from between 11 and 14 euros. We choose the busiest of the bunch and enjoyed a great meal at La Citrouille. We started off the meal with a crepe, I had mussels, mushrooms and cheese in mine, while Mindy had her's without the mussels. This was followed the main course of beef in a red wine sauce for myself and roasted chicken for Mindy. Dessert was pomme tarte for my beautiful wife, while I settled for a creme caramel. Needless to say, it was a great meal with a great atmosphere, with fantastic service. The tap water they served was even served from a bottle!

After dinner we made our way accross Pont Neuf to Eglise Notre Dame de Paris to view her in all her splendor at night. We were not disapointed as the lighting inside is kept to a minimum and the chapels of the saints along the sides are only lit by candle light. It was beautiful to see and the perfect ending to our night out.

I should also add that since we were at Notre Dame, we tried to find the side street from the movie The Devil Wears Prada where Anne Hathaway's charater kisses the guy in Paris, but we couldn't quite locate it. We will return after we check the film.

Mindy on a bridge overlooking the Seine river right next to the Eiffel Tower.

Walking along the Rive Gauche towards Pont Neuf.

Mindy holding our water bottle, the water being straight from the river according the owner who also served us this evening. In her other hand, Mindy has a piece of baguette to cleanse the pallet between courses.

Half of our desserts. I should mention that the French have figured out that meal portions do not need to be supersized. As a result, one can enjoy an appetizer, dinner, and dessert without feeling overstuffed. Something North American resturants should look into.

If you happen to be in the area, this is a great little place to eat, although I'm not sure any of the little restaurants arn't great to eat in Paris as the food here is superb.

Mindy and I on Pont Neuf with Eglise Notre Dame de Paris in the background.

Exhibition Game #5

So even though it is a couple of weeks late, here is the highlight video from our game against Amiens on the 14th of September. We played really well as a team and did a pretty good job of limiting scoring chances for Amiens. The end result was a 3-1 victory for the good guys.

In the video, you will see our first and second goals. The first was a beauty wrist shot by Olivier Ducam (who is now my defense partner). The second was on a delayed penalty where the guys crowded the net and provided a great screen for my point shot to go post-to-post before being knocked into the net by Baptiste. Also included is great shot of me getting my face raked by a high stick. Anyway, enjoy the video!

Houston...we have liftoff!!!

The internet has arrived again in our apartment in Asnieres!!! After three weeks of being away from the freedom of unlimited access to the global network, we have been hooked up once again. As an added bonus, we have also received another 200 channels on our TV and now get a select few english channels as well!!! Remember CNN International Stevey!!!

Anyway, now that the internet is back up and running, I need to start posting some updates, including a few new videos. Look for a bunch of updates in the days to come!

Start of the season

The Asnieres Hockey Club wrapped up its exhibition season this past weekend and we posted a respectable 3-4 record. We are currently preparing for the start of the regular season which we kick-off against Dunkerque this Saturday at home.

Aside from the start of the season, this week also marked the beginning of the work schedule for both Mindy and myself as we started teaching this week for ICB Europe in Paris. For those of you who didn't know, we are both teaching english part-time to fill the hours and expand the travel budget for the coming season.

It has been an interesting first week as Mindy is already hard at work doing a 20 intensive course with a student from Chanel (yes, the couture clothing company). Needless to say, Mindy is enjoying the subject matter immensely. I make my debut at Chanel tomorrow where I am running two workshops on Greetings in English and Written Grammar.

Anyway, we are really enjoying the work so far and are happy to be able to earn a couple extra euros as well. Again, just a reminder that the internet is still down at the apartment and I have a bunch of posting I need to catch up including a couple of videos so stay tuned.

Chow for now!

Just a quick update

So the internet still is not working in the apartment. Aparently it should be back up and running some time this week so I can get back to regular posting. I have a ton of pictures and a couple of videos just waiting to make their internet debut.

In other news, Mindy, Princess of Canada, arrived in France and was greeted by an admiring crowd of...her husband. We made it back to the apartment where her royalness has been sleeping away the days while she adjusts to the jetlag. Just kidding, we have actually been quite busy getting lots of stuff done.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Lucky Number 13

Starting on defense for the Asnieres Castors, number 13, David St. Cyr!!! And the crowd goes wild!!!

Okay, so maybe only Mindy might be going wild, but I thought I would let the readers know about a few new tidbits of information. Still no internet at home, so this will be brief.

I choose number 13 because it was my brother's favorite number for the second part of hockey career and I think he still uses it today if he gets the chance. Anyway, we both love hockey and I wanted to honor his part in my journey to get where I am in my hockey career. And for the Leafs fans out there, in no way did I even consider that it was Mats Sundin's number. If I had thought that I would have gone with 11 for Daniel Alfredson.

I have also been named as an assitant captain for the team this year, an honour that I was not really expecting and hope to live up to expectations. As I have said before, we have a solid group of players and I know we can be successful this year. Our captain, Sly, is another defenseman in the Jason Smith mold, gritty and tough, but the undisputed leader of the club. I think it should be a great season for the team's leadership.

Anyway, hopefully this internet situation can be resolved quickly so I can stqrting posting real stuff again.

Game vs. Cergy

So the exhibition game agaist Cergy tonight has been cancelled as Cergy sustained some injuries during the past week and want to rest their players before the D1 league starts next week. So our next game will be on Sunday against Amiens, another D1 team followed by another exhibition game next Tuesday at Veriy (check spelling) also of D1 caliber. I think our coach would like maybe one or two more exhibition games before the season starts after that to ensure we are at our best when the games start to count.

For the rest of this week, the team is taking today off to rest before we start practicing again tommorow.

Catastrophe!!!

The title is one of our coach's favorite words I think for when things go wrong. And this weekend was a tough one for the Asnieres hockey club. We lost both games by scores of 4-0 against La Roche before getting pummeled by Cholet 9-2. The only word I can use at this point is "Catastrophe".

Added to this, our internet at the house is still down, so I'm writing this entry from an Internet cafe. So no pictures today. I've decided until our internet is back up and working, I'll be posting only little notes like this to update the readership, and save all of the good stuff to be put on the blog once I have a connextion I don't have to pay for.

Back to this weekend. We struggled. What can I say. But like the glass half-full type pf person I am, there were some positives that the team can take from this weekend. We know there are some really good teams in the league, and if we want to be successful, we will learn from the mistakes we made. We know that we need to be more disciplined - myself included. Anyway, lots of little lessons to be learned.

I should note that even though the scores don't reflect it, the pieces are in place for this team to be very good. Now we just need to all be puzzle masters and figure out how to put the pieces together. The good is tat we don't have time to wallow in the losses as we play Cergy in a rematch from last Tuesday tomorrow night in their barn.

Okay, enough of my ramblings for now. Look for better things once the internet connextion is restored.

Internet Down!!!!

So we had a little power outage in the Frat House yesterday and once fixed discovered that our internet did not come back on. So no postings until Monday when it is supposed to be fixed. We are going out on a road trip this weekend anyway to Cholet and La Roche for a couple of exhibition games so I'm not sure that I would have been posting much anyway.

Later everyone.

Exhibition Game #2

Time for the home opener of the exhibition season. On Tuesday, we welcomed the Cergy Jokers to town in the first of a home and home series with the team from the French D1 league. We came out of the gates flying and had a pretty good first period with only a few breakdowns and went into the intermission with the score tied 1-1. In the second period however we couldn't stay our of the penalty box amd gave Cergy all kinds of chance to take control of the game. Finally, the coach had seen enough and called a timeout to give us all a verbal tongue lashing about dicipline. We settled down and managed to finish the second tied at two goals a piece.

Going out for the third period, we knew that the game was within reach and after the loss on Saturday, we really wanted a win, especially on home ice. Now its Cergy's turn to spend some time in the penalty box and we capitalized on the power-play. Just like that it's 3-2 for the good guys and we started rolling from there. We notched two more goals to put it out of reach and cruised to our first win of the season.

I had a pretty good game as Mikka and I played much better together with fewer mistakes between us. I had a great 5 on 3 penalty kill (where they pulled their goalie to make it 6 on 3) in the first period. I also threw some pretty good hits, although I did take one penalty, but I made sure the other guy went too, so no harm. I had one assist in the game on the winning goal when we were on the power-play and was on for one or two other goals. The only one I had scored against me was killing another 5 on 3. I should also note that Andronik (our Quebec sniper) completed the natural hat trick (I think).

Anyway, here is a video of some highlights from the first couple of games. The Frat House girlfriends were shooting some video of their guys during the first two games and I borrowed some of it to make this, so alot of shots include Mikka and Tommi. I apologize, but at least I have something to work with. I also had to include some stills from the game against Cergy just to make it a little longer. I'm wearing #13 in the first game and #31 in the second. Ohh, and watched for the huge hit I throw in the third or fourth clip in the top right hand corner of the screen. Enjoy!

A new test video

So in anticipation of getting my ace camera assistant over here in Paris, and filming some game footage to go on the blog, I decided that I needed to make a little test video while learning how to use Windows Movie Maker. Of course, the subject is my beautiful wife Mindy.

I apologize in advance for the footage, it's all I had.