France

There is a particular French way of resigned sighing when a situation is terrible and awful and there’s nothing to be done about it. You pucker slightly, fill your cheeks with air and quickly “poof” out the air between the center of your lips, even better if you can widen your eyes and rock back a bit…

Rob and I spent our last day in Paris outside the city, exploring the Palace of Versailles. He rode his bike and I took the C train out (Rob beat me by about 20 minutes). The town is quite lovely with lots of tall trees, it’s a posh suburb of Paris today. Even with pre-purchased…

We stayed a bit closer to home for Thursday’s picnic, walking up to the Luxembourg Gardens from our apartment in the 14th arrondissement. Rob and I picked a trio of metal garden chairs in the shade and set up a spread of paprika goat cheese, figs, tomato, mache lettuce with tzatziki, fresh rustic baguette, white wine and…

Another random spin of the map and another day of picnicking in the parks of Paris. Rob rode his bike and I took the train over to meet at La Muette station in the very posh 16th arrondissement. We walked over through the fancy neighborhoods and through to Bois de Boulogne, a big green space twice the…

This was my favorite picnic day of our trip! Rob and I picked a park by random on the map: Parc Saint-Cloud looked like it would nice enough. Rob biked over and I took the train. We walked across the Seine and through a small suburban village and found a beautiful lawn with statues and fountains.…

Rob and I headed north for our second day in Paris. After a lazy Sunday morning, we packed up a picnic in Rob’s backpack and headed down the narrow, very French stairs of our 100-year old apartment building. It was market day on our neighborhood’s main street, Rue Daguerre. A lot of beautiful produce and…

Rob and I landed in Paris late Friday night from Tangiers. It was getting dark, but we could still see those perfect fluffy French clouds rolling overhead. Lots of transport to arrive finally in the 14th arrondissement. Our Airbnb host had stocked wine, a massive platter of fresh fruit, two kinds of cheese, prosciutto and…

I thought it would be helpful to wrap-up our reports from the South of France with details on where we stayed and a summary for future reference. Rob and I planned this 15 day trip for the start of November in just a few days – a bit chaotic! We found a decently priced British…

Our last day in France. Very bittersweet! Rob and I woke up early with plans for a three hour hike in the hills outside of Vence, but pouring rain had us reconsider. Despite the stormy weather, the village did seem to be bustling. So we bundled up and headed out. Garden roses, eggs, leeks, honey…

We woke up this morning to a rainy day in Vence. Not like Sunday’s romantic drizzle, this was real winter rain. A good day to relax and explore the little town. After breakfast, Rob and I walked around the city ramparts. This is the old city wash-house, built in 1811 for scrubbing clothes. Apparently, there…