Olympic Fun

The main purpose of our trip to Canada was to go to the Olympics. It seems like forever ago that we decided with our friends the Schultzs and Jupps that we would make an Olympic trip. In fact, we bid on event tickets before I was even pregnant! As our departure date approached, we became increasingly nervous about making such a long trip with a four month old, but we knew we couldn’t pass on the chance to attend the Olympics in our home country. Thankfully, we carried through with our plans because we had a fantastic time! I had been away from Canada for 1&1/2 years, and there was no better way to celebrate being back than with thousands of Canadians, proudly wearing red and white and waving our flag.

Our first two days in Vancouver were sunny and very warm. We took advantage of the warm weather, and toured beautiful Deep Cove (the community where we stayed) and took in the Olympic sights in downtown Vancouver. Those days we were awake at 3:30 AM, entertaining a four month old that thought it was time to get up, but that gave us a bit of an advantage when it came to seeing the sights. We arrived at the Olympic Cauldron while most people were still in bed, ensuring we got a great picture of it. And just as the streets of Vancouver were filling up mid-afternoon, we were ready to return to our house for a relaxing evening.

Gilles, Xavier and I attended two events, both of which produced a medal for Canada. We saw the ladies’ team win Silver in short-track speed skating, and the men’s team win Gold in long-track speed skating. We were especially lucky with the Gold medal event because they presented the medals after the race, meaning we got to see the Canadian flag being raised and hear the anthem played.

Gilles also attended two hockey games, including Canada vs Germany, and one snowboard event. Unfortunately, it poured at Cypress the day of the snowboard event, and he returned to the house dripping wet.

One afternoon, we were treated to lunch and a sail around the Vancouver harbour aboard our friend Dave’s parents’ boat. It was Xavier and the Jupp’s son Eric’s first sail…quite the experience considering we sailed right past the floating Olympic rings, the cauldron, and the media centre. We’ll be sure to tell them all about it when they are older!

Now that we are back in France, we are missing the Olympics, as I am sure many Canadians are. It was such a great experience that we joked with our friends that we should make plans to go to Sochi in 2014. And who knows…maybe we will!