Greetings from the coastal city of Le Havre. We arrived here a couple of days ago from Amsterdam...I must admit we were happy to leave the cold rainy weather and come into hot sunny weather...We met our new hosts Abi and Alex. They are our age and they are both social workers. Both of them have been wonderful hosts. They took us to Etretat a little seaside town with a killer view off white cliffs lookin down at rock formations to the endless blue sea below. Then we found a nearly desserted rock beach to get some sun. The rock beach [View Full Entry]

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Finally we have an opportunity to sit down for a few moments to let everyone know how our trip is going...things have been a bit crazy because we have only been staying in each new location for 2 or 3 days and therefore we spend most of our time siteseeing rather than sitting in a cafe. However, we just arrived in Amsterdam yesterday and already you can smell the weed all around town...we haven't been to the red light district yet here but we did see the red light district in Brussels while we were in Belgium. Belgium was really beautiful [View Full Entry]

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So, we have been city hopping. After we left Barcelona, our host fell through for Marseille, so we decided instead to try a city we had heard of from uncle Tim, Toulouse. We arrived in the evening, in a light drizzle to cool air and pink streets. After the thick heat of Barclona, we welcomed the coolness. Our little budget hotel pulled out of a guidebook, turned out to be lovely. up a twisty spiral staircase to the second floor was a little foyer decorated with antiques and antiquarian art. The tall french windows of our room, opened into a tiny [View Full Entry]

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Wow, Barcelona was so wonderful. Truth be told we haven't had any time to write because we've been having too much fun. To start we decided to nix Costa Brava because everyone told us that Lloret del Mar was a big sleazy resort town that was overcrowded and dirty, the second reason being that there was no easy way to get there that didn't involve changing transportation at least once. Once we got to Barcelona and checked into our hostel we really wanted to stay. The hostel was very cute; bright colors clean and comfortable; and the staff was very friendly. [View Full Entry]

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Sorry that we have not posted in a few days...the truth is we have been having too much fun!!!! However, it was not so much fun trying to get here...we had quite the adventure. Last Saturday morning we sadly checked out of our bed and breakfast and began our three and a half hour drive to Narbonne, France so we could catch a train to Barcelona. Well we did a great job of following the directions and navigating the french auto route (highway) but the drive took almost an hour longer than the directions stated....ahhh.....unfortunately we missed our train. Now normally [View Full Entry]

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This is really a Fairytale land of knights and castles. The scenery is dramatic. The Dordogne River cuts the valley into a deep chasm with the cliffs rising steeply on either side, dotted with Medieval Castle Keeps on their promontories and troglodyte cave dwellings along the rock faces. We hiked up the side of a cliff to go into one of these dwellings. It was fascinating. We visited a Medieval castle that our area is named for, Castelnaud-La-Chapelle, a key player in the hundred years war. The castle had winding stone staircases and teetering tower walls. it is complete with 3 [View Full Entry]

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So ours first experience of Bordeaux was not so nice. We arrived Sunday night and it was misserably hot on the train and schlepping with our packs, to get to our tiny little room on the third floor wth no airconditioning. no kidding the hotel is done in a cheesy nautical theme like the loveboat or something. It looks like a cabin on a boat; two twin beds sqished together with about 10 inches around the bed to walk, a little counter along the far wall, and the bathroom looks like it is stright out of an submarine. Thats what we [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour from Bordeaux!!!!!....Yesterday, Alliey and I journeyed from Tours to Bordeaux!!! We were able to find our hotel alright because it is near the station but it is not in the nicest of areas. Our hotel has an ocean theme and the bathroom in our room has a door like a submarine and has funny decor like an anchor rope hanging on the wall. In the evening we took the tram into the centre ville which is were all the interesting things are...Wow the city is almost completely covered in limestone (which according to the tourist office was cleaned by the [View Full Entry]

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The "Valley of the Kings" has certainly earned its title over the past 500 years!! Last Thursday, Alliey and I had planned to spend the whole day visiting various castles and the medieval village of Saumur. However, as fate would have it we would not only see some amazing sites but we would make a new friend. While we were at breakfast a girl came sat down at our table. Once she realized that we spoke English we began to introduce ourselves and discuss our plans for the day. Her name was Sophia and she was a French teacher in Chicago. [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour from Tours, So much to write, Tonight Tours is holding its Fete du la musique, with all different bands and music being played in different parts of the city. All the bars and restaurants open to the street and everyone wanders from one to the other to hear the different music. It should be fun, its already going strong as I write this in the late afternoon. We have been chateaux hopping in the last few days. It is soooo nice to have the car and the GPS, it really is fun to just get in the little Renault and [View Full Entry]

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