Well, it's been a while since I've seen my parents, normally I would be catching up for dinner with them every Sunday, but with them heading overseas late July, I haven't seen them in some time. It just so happens that they have been travelling through Europe, so why not catch up while I'm here right.
I caught the train through to Lyon, a 2 hour ride where I would disembark and then make my way to another train to Beaune, which ended up being delayed by 15 minutes, waiting for the train I got talking to a guy from Germany, he was doing a massive bike ride across Switzerland, Italy and France, through the Netherlands... He had everything attached to his bike, which was pretty impressive to see, his tent, gas cooker, sleeping bag, spare clothes and 3-4 bottles of fluids. Impressive setup that's for sure.
Arriving in Beaune, I strolled down to Basilique Notre-Dame, which was about 1km away from the Train Station, it also happened to be only about 500 meters from where my parents and their friends Mike and Gill were staying. I sat outside for a little bit as a woman walking past spotted my Tarawera Shirt, she said, do you live in Rotorua (it had Rotorua District Lakes written on the sleeve), No, Christchurch I replied... turns out they were both from Rotorua, my god I keep bumping into Kiwi's everywhere I go, we had a quick chat before they went on their way and I made my way inside the Basilique. The Basilique Notre-Dame was built between the 12th and 13th centuries with Stain glass windows dating from the 13th century to the 19th.
From there I found some shade, as the temperature being 32 degrees with the sun beaming down on me was not something I was enjoying... Had a drink in the shaded area and waited until my parents and their friends were due to arrive. I did t have to wait long, withing a few minutes I received a text saying 500 meters away, I was 240 meters away, but knew they would still beat me there, as I walked down I spotted them driving past in their new Black car, pretty flash looking. I continued to walk down and spotted Mike and Gill by the door, shortly followed by Mum and Dad. We did our hellos and got inside out of the heat and finally was able to remove my two packs, my gosh they are heavy to carry around for long periods of time.
We sat around and chatted for a little bit before we decided to head down to the Supermarket. After arriving I was so excited to see real meat, more just the fact that we were going to be able to cook something, a small pleasure that I hadn't realised I was missing. Back home if I feel like having a steak or Chicken, I just get one, here... Not so much as I don't have the cooking facilities, plus finding chicken here seems a little hard to come by.
We arrived back at the house, had some drinks and nibbles, before my first home cooked meal since leaving New Zealand, it's funny the small things you miss while travelling.