Book: My Lady Jane

My Lady Jane 

by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, & Jodi Meadows

Length: 491

Format: Hardback
Price: $10. I went ahead and bought it for my trip and so I can have it in my classroom!

How I heard about it: I saw it on a YAL must-read list.

Basic Premise: After the death of King Henry VIII, whose Euthian ability to change from a human to a lion at will, Euthians all over England are in danger. And when Henry's successor and son begins to die a premature death, he redrafts the line of succession to bypass his sisters and go to his bookish cousin Jane, whose Euthian husband is a prince by day and a horse by night.

My Take: 9.5 out of 10 (scale here)

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book. For at least 8 reasons. 1) I love this period of history. It's full of intrigue, suspense, and scandal. 2) I am reasonably well-read when it comes to historical fiction of this time period, having read The Other Boleyn Girl (twice), The Constant Princess (both by Phillipa Gregory), and a handful of YAL novels about the times and people, as well as viewed many films and documentaries. 3) I LOVE Jane Grey. She is possibly my favorite character in all of this. She's like the Hermione of the 16th century court...no nonsense, her nose always in a book, and a will of iron. 4) It blends history with fantasy. I mean, how cool is it that King Edward VI was actually poisoned and escaped death by transforming into a falcon instead of slowly dying of an incurable affliction? 5) Related, it was a stroke of GENIUS to make the conflict between Mary and Elizabeth about Euthians and Verities (those who believed Euhians were heretics and should be burned at the stake) instead of its original struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism. It was a perfect segue between history and fantasy. 6) Strong woman abound in this book. #girlpower 7) This book is chock full of pop culture references  (i.e. "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries," "I am a Euthian, like my father before me," etc.) So entertaining. And funny. And something my 7th graders would completely miss, which leads me to 8) I CAN HAVE THIS BOOK IN MY CLASSROOM. No swearing and no sex (although Jane's mother does attempt to have "the talk" with her before her wedding night, which she refers to as "the very special hug") and, finally (okay, more than 8) 9) The authors chose to rechristen Guildford as Gifford. GIFFORD. It's truly not often I see my name in print, people. Even if Gifford does go by G because he hates the name.

Great book - my favorite summer read so far!

Day 3: Montreal

Day 1, Day 2

Day 3 began with a sleep in until 830. EIGHT-THIRTY! Whoohoo! We took our time getting ready and ate a delicious French breakfast (Meal #7...free) before our city tour at 10. We started with this lady:

who was our tour guide for the day. She was very interesting and funny and spoke impeccable English. I mean, she used the word "pontificate," which several of us had to discuss the meaning of later. However, my favorite part was how it was 75 and she was sweating. SWEATING. Anyway, she took us just down the street:

This is the Notre Dame Basillica. It was the largest chapel in North America until New York took over in 1829.

All sorts of things are interesting about this room, but the only one I really remember is that Celine Dion got married here. Our tour guide said that somehow she was able to get her husband's 30-year-four-children marriage annulled so she could do it. Meanwhile, our tour guide, a devout, rule-following Catholic, was turned down when she applied. *headscratch*

We ventured all over Oldtown and learned the following things about the area that I found noteworthy:

• Montreal folk consider themselves French. Interesting.
• The city is made up of 3.9 million
• Every school child finishes 6th grade speaking French and English
• The city is an island 33 miles East to West and 11 miles North to South
• It's the 2nd largest French-speaking city in the world (after Paris)
• Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world but only has 36 million people.    

Oh, and the little fences on top of the buildings? For keeping snow and ice from killing people. That's what she said. People die every year from falling snow and ice, as they have 6 months of straight snowfall.

After the tour, the afternoon "was ours" as they said, so we found a quaint little restaurant for lunch. Couldn't pronounce the name, but it was French and delicious.

 This was Meal #8 and the first one we paid for. On the last day. Pretty awesome!

I ordered this delicious sandwich with a poached egg, French potatoes, and salad, and Husband ordered this:

Apparently, French mac-and-cheese is da bomb.

We stopped at a souvenir shop to pick up gifts for the kids and on the way back to the hotel, people were getting married. Awww.

We napped a bit (we were getting up the next morning and catching our limo at 345 AM, after all) and we met in the lobby for appetizers and yet another cocktail hour at 530. Then we walked down to the dock and boarded our dinner cruise.

It was pretty fancy-pants.

This is the harbor/port/bay/whatever the correct term is where we docked.

Dinner was delicious, and of course free (Meal #9), including an open bar (see me with my Shirley Temple?). Husband snapped this picture when I wasn't paying attention and we both thought it was funny.

We passed under a cool bridge with an amusement park in the background:

And we enjoyed the crazy-good finger picking of this French guitarist, who played Clapton, Journey, Tom Petty - basically all of Husband's jam, including "Dust in the Wind" (at which point we called him over to tell him we were from Kansas, which he dug.) Husband slipped him a $20 afterward, which I felt was more than reasonable, especially considering the fact that we paid exactly $0 for this whole event.

Somehow I didn't take pictures of the hors 'devours (salmon and bruschetta) or the salad (arugula and some other green I didn't recognize) or the main course (filet mignon), but I did manage dessert:

Not sure what this is exactly, but it was yummy and the blueberries were somehow stuffed with chocolate.

The pièce de résistance was the fireworks show. Apparently in Montreal, every Wednesday and Saturday they have a fireworks show over the river and different countries compete. This was Spain's show, and it was better than any 4th of July show I have ever seen.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel, where we were in bed by midnight, which hardly helped since we were up three hours later, but it was a small price to pay for being back home by 10 AM.

What a wonderful trip! Husband and I both agree we need to go back and take the kids when they are older...although Husband was quick to remind me that we have been living the high life on the company's dime and next time it would be on our own. I suggested he just keep up the good work and maybe we can make this trip an annual thing ;)

Day 2: Montreal

For Day 1, click here

I'm After sleeping until 730 (that's right...730!), we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel (Meal #3...free) and Husband got on a bus and headed for his training at the lighting center. I went back upstairs, took a leisurely shower and read my book:

At 11, I headed down to the lobby where I was to meet my party of spouses and we were to walk to the spa. Some of the sights on the way:

And here's the spa. On a boat.

Can you see that boat? Here's a closer look:

It's a BOAT.

Yep.

We checked in and they gave us our robes and towels and sent us down to the changing rooms with a key fab bracelet:

We put everything in our locker, put on our swim suits and robes, and headed to the upper deck. We parted ways since we were all doing different things at different times.

It's important for me to note two things at this point: 1) I have never been to a true spa, and I have certainly never experienced a spa day, and 2) this was FREE. The company paid for all, including lunch. 

Yep.

First up was a manicure. This was my view:

And my beautician was Melanie. She was super cool and we found we had a love of yoga in common, although I haven't practiced in months and she is near the completion of her yoga instructor training. So at that point I just listened to her talk. She spoke flawless English despite being educated in French. I asked her how she was so good. Her reply? Fresh Prince.

Fair enough.

And next was the pedicure.

Here I had a short lunch break (40 minutes), but we'd eaten such a huge breakfast I found I wasn't particularly hungry so I found a cozy little spot on one of the outer decks to read:

And I ordered a drink. Everything was in French so I don't know what it was, but it was yummy!

The weather was perfect, and this was truly probably my favorite part of the whole experience!

After my break I met Melanie again and this time I got a 60 minute facial. It was SPECTACULAR!

Afterwards I had lunch in the cafe:

(Meal #4...free) and read until 4, when I went below to shower, change, and settle up. The lighting company footed the bill for almost $250 worth of services, and that was just on me! Nevermind the other five spouses! Holy moly.

I walked back to the hotel and met Husband, who had finished up training early. We lounged around until cocktail hour at 5:30 (also free) and then headed out to our "mixology" event.

I had no idea what this was, but as it turns out, you go and a chef teaches you to cook:

And the bar tender shows you how to mix cocktails (no pics here, but as you can see from the wall, the French are serious when it comes to drinks):

Now, I would have been perfectly ready to go home after we did about an hour of the whole eat-drink-and-be-merry thing (Meal #5 - free). But the next stop was a restaurant for more hors 'devours. Second dinner seemed a little excessive to me, but, as we were prone to say throughout this trip, "when in France." We ordered Poutine, a famous Canadian dish with French fries, gravy, cheese curds, and pulled pork.

The picture is dark, but it was amazing. DIVINE, in fact, and this is coming from a girl who doesn't like gravy. C'est magnifique. Meal #6...free.

And I REALLY would have been okay going home after that (for now it is 1030 and two hours past my bedtime), but we had a private room and bar booked at a club just down the corner.

Let me preface by saying two things: 1) I am not a particularly social creature after 8 PM, and 2) I didn't do the go out and party thing when I was 19 and unmarried. I'm certainly not going to do it now that I'm 32 and a mom. But this was Husband's trip and these were his work people and he wanted to go. So I shut my mouth and soldiered on. 

The club was oh-so-loud (did I mention I'm 32?) and packed with people. They hearded us through to the back and up the stairs where we had a private balcony and bar. And then a miracle happened.

The balcony had a low ceiling. Husband is 6'6".

And that is how the clouds parted and angels sang and we came to be staying for a quick drink and leaving early. And by early, I mean 1130, back to the hotel and in bed by midnight.

What. A. Day!

Day 1: Montreal

Husband is apparently very good at his job. So good, in fact, that one of the companies he bids for offered him a business (aka party) trip to Montreal in July. When he told me about it in March, my first response (was not to be proud and happy for him but) was to ask whether there was room for me on this trip. The convo went something like this:

Me: Are spouses invited?

Him: I'm not sure.

Me: How can you find out?

Him: (shrug) I don't know...this is my first one of these and I don't want to look ungrateful-

Me: I totally understand. I have no problem handling this myself. Who do I call?

Him: (hand up, with a grimace) I'll take care of it.

A week later he was booking flights. And, other than my plane ticket, all expenses were covered. 

SWEET.

Day 1 started with a 6 AM international flight (which translates into VERY early wake up call) to O'Hare in Chicago, a 34-minute layover at O'Hare, and a 2-hour flight to Montreal.

Having taken several international flights, I was sort of dreading the day. I have some airport-security anxiety (I know I'm not a terrorist but I can't squelch the fear of bring mistaken for one) and going through customs can be a long and arduous process. As it turned out, it was the best international travel experience of EVER! 

We got on the plane, we rode smoothly on the plane, we departed the plane, we walked straight on to the next plane (3rd row, in fact!), we rode smoothly again in the plane, we departed the plane, we breezed through customs (no line!), our bags were already on the carousel when we arrived at baggage claim, and then we boarded THIS!

It's a limo. A LIMO. 

Definitely weren't expecting that. And as we rolled on through the heart of Montreal (which is a beautiful city, BTW), people kept squinting and staring, trying to see what famous high-rollers were riding in such style. HA!

We stopped here:

And if I swing the camera to the right, 

That is the view down the street. Down the street.

We checked into our hotel suite (yup...suite...bedroom, bathroom, sitting room complete with a fireplace, and a kitchenette...whaaaaaat?) and went to have lunch at a French bistro down the street. (The concierge called ahead for us...I think he was worried about the pale Kansans who kept raving about the beautiful weather...it was 78 and they were experiencing a heat wave.) 

We were seated next to a wide open window where we experienced this:

And this:

A duck-meat salad (my dish...the duck tasted like ham)

And

A lamb burger (Husband's dish. We were also encouraged to try the soup du hour which was leek and apple soup and divine. Oh...and this meal (Meal #1) was free.

We returned to the hotel where we napped and had "cocktail hour" in the lounge at 5. At 730, we left for the restaurant. I'm not gonna lie...this felt a bit long. I knew two people outside my husband before this trip, so there was a lot of small-talk. (Thankfully, I come from a long line of professional small-talkers. And it got easier the more people drank. Again, for free.) We finally departed on foot (good thing because several were already in no shape to drive) around 730. The weather was perfect (the guy from Seattle was sweating) and the city was just crazy beautiful. Cobblestone streets, stone high-rises everywhere you looked - amazing.

As we took our seats at the quaint Italian  restaurant, the gal coordinating the whole event came over and said, "Let me explain something to you about Montreal." (She's from Chicaaaaago so she said "Montreaaaal.") "Did you know it's an island? So everything is on island time. Do you know what I mean? We are good Midwesterners used to a schedule. They don't really do that here. So, buckle up...we will be here awhile. I've got appetizers on the way and you can eat and drink all you want - I've got the tab. Enjoy!"

Aaaaaaaand that's the story of how I came to eat bruschetta, oysters, octopus, delicious risotto corn balls, and authentic Italian meatballs all before dinner.

C'est la vie. Meal #2.

On the way home, we walked by the basillica that shares a wall with our hotel. 

A lovely end to a wonderful "travel day," as everyone kept calling it. Best travel day ever!