Tag Archive for 'sign-language'

Episode 5

Published on December 3, 2003 0 Comments Tags: , , , , . Post made from or about Montpellier .

Bonjour from Montpellier!

Yep, I’ve left Paris, and have now met up with Paul again in Montpellier. It’s a beautiful little town in the South of France. And yes, the trip on the TGV was exciting (thanks for asking).

After my last email, I finally made it to Cafe Signes (remember, the Cafe run by deaf people?) It was really interesting. The first thing I realised is that their sign for “Deaf” is our sign for “hearing”… confusing, huh? Also… their sign for “eggs” is WAAAY too similar to ours for “S-E-X”!! (don’t wanna get those two mixed up). Anyway, I had a nice chat with a few of the people there - it was interesting trying to find a way of communicating. I think it was much easier finding a common language between LSF (Langue de Signes Francais) and Auslan (Australian Sign Language), than attempting to communicate with French people with myvery broken French (I like it better when they speak English - funny that).

I then left the Cafe, satisfied that I’d finally visited, and went back to the Eiffel Tower, to take some more photos. It was dark, but this time, so the Eiffel Tower was all lit up, as were the bridges and boats, and everything else around it! It was soooo beautiful. I ended up spending a couple of hours there taking photos (I know, because they havethese flashing lights on the tower that they light up every hour, and I saw it twice!), before I went back to the Arc de Triumphe to take some night photos there.

Hmmm… I keep thinking of things that I need to tell you all about, but I keep forgetting what they are! I might have to make notes as I go, so I remember to write it all when I manage to get to a computer.

Plans from here? Well, tomorrow Paul and I leave for Nice, and we stay one night there. Then Paul and I split up again - he’s going to Vienna (for a Capoeira workshop), and I’m heading off to Venice!

I’m not sure if it’s going to happen or not, but I might be able to meet up with my cousin, Lydia in Italy - as she’s going to be there over the next week or so. If I can, that will be awesome, but if not - oh well, might have to wait until we’re both back in Australia!

Well, that’s all from me at the moment. Hope all is well with everone back home!

:)

Update: Photos from paris


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Episode 4

Published on December 2, 2003 0 Comments Tags: , , . Post made from or about Paris .

I’ve been having some problems with the portable hard drive I bought to store all my photos on, so I’m currently sitting in an internet cafe trying to fix it, so I can upload some photos for you all to see.

Anyway, not much has happened since last night, but today I’ve got a few things planned. As soon as I’m finished here, I plan to FINALLY visit Cafe Signes (I’ve been haning out since Saturday), and then if I have time I’m going to make a little trip up to Sacre Coeur. After that I want to go back and see the the Eiffel Tower at night - I’ve seen the top of it when they light it up at night, but I have yet to see the whole thing. I also want to try and get some photos of it!

Tomorrow I head off to Mont Pellier to meet Paul. We’ll probably end up spending a couple of days there, before we move off again. I think if I stayed much longer in Paris, my neck wouldn’t handle it (it’s hard not to stare up at all the beautiful bulidings everywhere).

Au revoir for now,

Richard.

Episode 3

Published on December 1, 2003 0 Comments Tags: , , , , . Post made from or about Paris .

Hello again,

Well, things didn’t QUITE go as planned yesterday. Paul wanted to visit a Capoeira (a martial art/dance) shop, and I wanted to go to “Cafe Signes” - they were both closed! So, we spent the day walking around Paris and seeing lots of beautiful buildings - The University of Paris, The Pantheon, Notre Dame, and other various churches. Needless to say, I took LOTS of photos (but I still haven’t found a place to upload them so you can all see them yet - but I’ll get to that later).

Last night, Paul and I met up with 2 of his pen pals that he’s been writing to for 15 years! They were really nice people, and they took us out to a cafe near Notre Dame.

Paul has now left me (temporarily) to go sort out his credit card (which he canceled when he thought it had been stolen) in Strasbourg. He’s also planning on catching up with a few people while he’s up there, before he jumps on a Train early Tuesday morning (he’s catching a 6:30ish train) to meet me in Mont Pellier. I, on the other hand, get to sleep in and catch a very reasonable 10:30 train. Why is this, you might ask (if you know your French geography - and that Strasbourg->Mt Pellier is further than Paris -> Mt Pellier)? It’s because I get to catch the TGV - the ultra-fast train that runs on certain routes in France. In case you can’t tell, I’m quite excited about that!

So, sans Paul - I spent the day walking around Paris. I started by seeing Paul off at the station, then I walked half way across the city to the Louvre (the largest museum in the world). Sure, I could have caught the Metro, but where’s the fun in that?

When I first found the Louvre, I was speechless. It was originally a palace, and most of the museum displays are in the palace. There’s also an awesome underground section (which all links up), which has these huge glass pyramids above it. I only spent a couple of hours looking at the exhibits, cause I still had lots of other things I wanted to do, but I managed to see the “Venus de Milo”, and one of the most famous paintings ever - Leonardo’s famous portrait (who’s name has just slipped out of my head, for some reason - hmm… I think I need sleep).

Anyway, about the photos. I heard about an Internet cafe that should let me connect my Camera so I can upload all the photos I’ve been taking, and I tried to visit it tonight (reading on the flyer I got from the tourist beauru that it was open until 9:45 on Sundays), but they decided to change their opening hours, and close ALL day Sunday. So, that was another wasted trip, but I plan to visit again tomorrow, and start putting some photos up on this web site for you all to look at.

Anyway, my time is nearly up, so I must depart.

I hope everyone is well, and enjoying “Dick’s Adventures”!

Au Revour