March 30, 2008 - Toulouse, France

Hey!

   I am now in Toulouse, France still in the south of France!  We arrived Thursday afternoon to very rainy and cold weather again!! I thought the south of France was going to be hot and sunny!!  Anyway’s, we arrived to our apartments and put our luggage in our rooms then made our way to the city center to do some sightseeing and errands. 

  Toulouse has a lot of great shopping plus very cute streets to walk around.  They have a lot of great boutiques plus some very nice lounges.  This city is mainly made up of students so there is a lot to do.  They have a very large river that runs through the city plus many parks and squares to walk through.  I did a lot of walking in this city!

  We opened the show Friday night to a packed house!  The show went very well and we have a very nice backstage this week! We had a large common area in the middle of all our dressing rooms with huge oversized couches that we all could relax on in between working. We definitely needed the relaxing after these past weeks!

  The shows have been going great since we got here.  We had a photo shoot yesterday with our tour bus company (which is one of our sponsors) and some of the cast of “Spirit”.  I will post a few photos from the shoot that a friend of mine took.  I have one more show this afternoon and then I am packing to go to Grenoble, France tomorrow. 

  We have a few much needed days off next week!  I can’t wait!   We have been working very hard and traveling ssoo much that it will be nice to finally catch up on sleep and let our bodies rest.  Well I hope everyone is doing good and I will write again next week!  Take care!!

-Michael

March 27, 2008 - Pau, France

 Hey Everyone!

   I am just about to be leaving Pau this morning!  This was a very short visit to this small town in the south of France.  We arrived on Monday afternoon to very rainy weather!  Everything in the town was closed because it was the day after Easter Sunday.  I walked around this small town with friends and saw some amazing views.  We found a nice indian restaraunt to eat at on Monday night so that made up for the town being closed.

  Our hotel we were staying at was very unique in the way that all the rooms in the hotel had sort of a theme and were decorated from different decades.  There was the modern hotel room, the retro hotel room (which I had), a victorian hotel room and a mediaval circular hotel room.  The rooms were beautiful, very large and in the center of the city which even made it better! 

  I was back at work on Tuesday afternoon for the opening of the show in Pau.  The arena we played was very modern but the ice was very small.  We only had 2 days of shows, so it went by very quickly!  It was raining the entire visit so it was good we were in the arena for most of our time in Pau.  The audiences in Pau liked the show a lot!  They were very loud with their clapping and we got many standing oviations! 

  I am now off to Toulouse which is very close to Barcelona, Spain.  We open the show there Friday night and I can’t wait to see this city!  I have heard so much about this next city from a friend that I am very excited to see what it has to offer.   Talk to you all later this week!!

 -Michael

March 23, 2008 - Bordeaux, France

Hi Everyone!  Happy Easter Sunday!  We just finished our last show here in Bordeaux this afternoon and they all went great! Bordeaux is probably one of my favorite cities that we have visited this tour!  The city is quite large and it is beautiful.  There is a very peaceful river that runs through the city and many amazing places to walk through.

 We arrived early Thursday afternoon and I had to get right into the city as soon as I arrived.  I spent the whole day walking around the city with friends.  We went down the main shopping street and I found some awesome stores including a boutique called Mexicana.  The Mexicana boutique carried independent designers as well as some major runway designers.  I am hoping to open my own boutique this summer so I love checking out indie boutiques when I travel.

  We had lunch outside at a nice sushi restaraunt in one of the main squares in the city center.  The sushi was great and I loved being able to watch the locals  in their daily routine while I ate in the beautiful sunshine!  The weather has been very cold and rainy here in France so it was a treat to be able to dine al fresco!  After we finished lunch, we kept walking around to see what else we could find since we didn’t bother getting a map.

 We were able to find a very cool coffee shop where I got a toffee coffee which was ssoo good!  After a quick stop at the coffee shop, we stumbled onto another part of the city which included a carnival, a couple fountains, some very pretty gardens with gorgeous flowers and some interesting sculptures.  This city has a lot of character which I think makes a city unique and not blend in to the rest of the cities in France.

We opened the show Friday night after a full day of rehearsal which included getting the new cast members into their numbers in the show.  We also had some rehearsal for the flying number in the show since in this city we were flying higher then normal.  I think this city was the highest we have ever flown in the show!  I was told we were flying at over 8 meters above the ice which is around 27 feet! 

The shows went by very fast and I can’t believe we are already going to be leaving tomorrow to our next city which is Pau, France.  I haven’t heard much about the next tour stop but we are only in town for a few days again so I hope I will be able to see some of the city.  I have included some photos from this tour stop to this journal entry!  ENJOY and I will write again in Pau!  :-) 

 -Michael

March 20, 2008 - Angouleme, France

Hi!

   I just spent the past three days in Angouleme, France.  It was a very quick visit and tour stop.  We arrived Monday afternoon to the hotel and it was a pretty quick journey from Limoges to Angouleme.  Our tour bus driver got a little lost in the city when we first arrived but eventually got us safely to our hotel. 

 Once I arrived, I put my luggage in my room and immediately went into the city.  With having split cities on tour and having the travel day to the next city as my only day off, I wanted to make the most of it.  Three friends from the show and myself explored the small French city for the day.  We did a little shopping, had coffee at this very modern lounge that was decorated entirely in pink, did a little sightseeing as well and finished the day off with a fun but relaxing dinner. 

   The next morning I was back on the tour bus and off to the arena for the show on Tuesday night.  The arena that we played was very nice and the ice was normal size.  We only had 4 shows in Angouleme so it went very quickly!  All the shows went well and we had two new skaters join the cast this city! 

   After we closed the show Wednesday night, I went back to the hotel and packed very quickly because one of the skaters on the show had their birthday party that night!  The party was in a lounge that looked sort of like a modern cave!  It was very unique!  Almost all the skaters joined came to celebrate but we had to get up early the next morning to travel to Bordeaux so it was a quick celebration! 

  I have posted a few pictures from Angouleme below so you can see some of the views of this small French city!  I hope everyone is doing good and I will write again this week from Bordeaux! 

-Michael

March 16, 2008 - Limoges, France

Hey Everyone!

  I am now in Limoges, France and we only had 3 days of shows.  We arrived here on Wednesday afternoon and I was able to walk around the city for most of the day.  This city is known for their porcelain products such as boxes, plates and vases.  I bought my grandmother a couple porcelain boxes that she collects so I will be able to give it to her when I return home in a few months.  The city is pretty small but has a few museums and other nice parks to walk through.

  On Thursday I went with some of the cast to this tree climbing park where you go through different obstacle courses that go from tree to tree.  You wear safety harnesses and you have to use all your muscles to get through these vigorous courses.  My favorite part of the course was when you got to go on the zip lines.  There were a few long zip lines that went from tree to tree.  I am not a fan of heights so it was a great challenge for me to get through the different courses.  I took some pictures that I will post with this journal entry.

 We opened the show Friday night and the show went very well!  We have had standing ovations every show!!  The audiences have been great this entire weekend and they were very loud!  The ice was very small this weekend so it was a little bit of a challenge to cut the show down to fit the ice. We had 5 shows this weekend so we have been working pretty hard.  The weather has not been so great so it was good that we were inside the arena most of the weekend. 

 Tomorrow we are off to our next city in France!  I will write again once I am there and let you know how it goes!

-Michael