Musee de Cambrai

We have been trying to take advantage of Rusty's free time by exploring our little city. There is so much to do here, it's great! Thirty historical monuments, 3 massive cathedrals, a river walk (along the canal), gardens, forests, a museum...the list goes on. Have I convinced anyone to come visit? ;)

We recently spent a rainy Friday night at the Musee de Cambrai. The museum was much bigger than expected. We perused the four levels up until closing time. We had only come in about an hour and a half before it closed, so we asked if we could come back in the morning and to my surprise (I always brace myself for the "It's not possible" response that is said way too often out here), they said yes! There were no signs in English, so they gave us a book to borrow. We spent so much time flipping through the hundred pages to find whatever we were looking at, that our visit took longer than expected. We went back the next morning, got our book again, and set out to read all we could- things definitely aren't as interesting when you have no idea where they are from.

WWI Cambrai Memorial

Cambrai is just bursting with history. One of the battles of WWI was fought right here- on the streets we walk on every day. After regularly passing by an old, cobblestone tower, I finally decided to read the sign on it- turns out it's a tower archers used as a lookout. So crazy! Northern France and Southern Belgium are chock full of WWI sites, perfect for day trips, which are perfect for us since Russ doesn’t get much time off. We decided to go visit a nearby site- the Cambrai Monument, in a tiny village- Louverval, France.  There was a memorial for soldiers from the UK and South Africa who were never found; engraved in the marble walls of the monument are over 7,000 names.  We followed stairs down to a small, peaceful cemetery with a pretty backdrop of rolling green fields. It’s hard to even fathom the destruction that came from WWI. I am, well what’s the opposite of a history buff?...anyways, I don’t know much about history, but living in Cambrai is good motivation to learn more.

The little village we were in was so quiet, the only noise came from the traffic passing through it. On our drive home, I saw a house engulfed in bright red leaves and immediately made Rusty pull over. I had never seen a house this covered in leafy ivory and I am so glad I got to witness it in the Fall! 

Rusty's teammate was nice enough to let us borrow his car, love this Twingo!

Apple Picking

I'm anxious for Fall to get here, and it just isn’t coming. Apparently Cambrai is a late bloomer- the trees haven’t even started changing colors, people in Utah have been posting pics of colorful backdrops for weeks. I grew up going to Apple Hill every Fall...apple orchards galore, vendors selling homemade goods, you can go fishing, pumpkin picking, eat their warm apple fritters and carmellows (a huge marshmallow covered in homemade caramel- although it’s more like eating caramel with a marshmallow in it, there is soo much caramel). My mouth is watering just thinking about it. It’s a place where all your Fall dreams come true. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but ever since I left California, I've missed it. So when my friend and I planned a trip to a nearby apple orchard, Verger D'Epinoy, I was super excited.  I figured- if Fall won't come to me, I'll go to it (aka the apple orchard). 

There were so many different types of apples. I didn’t even know that many types existed. I actually heard a commercial on Spotify just the other day, that said there are over 2,700 types of apples! We waited for Rusty and my friend's husband to get done with training and then we squeezed in the trip before they had training again that night. We ate a couple apples right off the tree and even found pumpkins to carve! 

Team BBQ

Tonight we had a team “BBQ”, which ended up being a fancy dinner. Apparently their definition of BBQ is a little different than ours. All week people from the volleyball organization kept asking if we would be at the BBQ, so I assumed they were excited to show us Americans that they were having an authentic American BBQ, but nope haha.

I am still getting use to the whole courses thing for dinners. They start with drinks, wait a while...bring a first set of appetizers, wait a while...bring a second set of appetizers, wait a while...and then hours later, do the main meal. So before the next dinner party, I will eat a snack and practice my French :)

Rusty's coach's baby...of course I asked to hold her- look at those cheeks!