Blogs from Piedmont, Italy, Europe

Well, we woke up to a beautiful morning here in Chamonix. Our plans this morning were to have breakfast, check in with the para gliding school, and for Sandy to do laundry. So, after a wonderful breakfast, we took off to find the laundromat. The first one we found only allowed you to drop off your clothes and come back later in the day, as they would do the laundry. Took off from there, and finally found another one. Although most of the machines were broken, Sandy managed to find one that worked and got started while I took off to call the school.. Hooray, they advised that the flight was on,and I left for the gondola to meet my pilot. The lines to get on the gondola were incredibly long, but we managed to sneak ... read more

Sorry its been a couple of weeks since we posted, but it has been a combination of a lot of activity and then we burnt out and got colds, so recovery. Now the process of catching up while still having more travels. This blog will be covering two days, the first was us looking at a few local activities in the Ardeche and then the second day, traveling to Piedmont in Italy. For our last day in France, we started the day in a local town across the region boarder to Drome near where we were staying to visit a family run chocolate factory. They were surprised to have visitors as they are not in the town and do not get regular visitors, even though they were well setup to receive them. The Morin factory is ... read more

Considering we were in these parts, we thought we’d make the effort to see what all the fuss about Porto was for. So, amidst howls of protest, we packed up early and headed to the airport to leave the car, in a tactic designed to minimise stress and parking angst. Unfortunately the architects of the Porto Airport parking areas had different ideas and we enjoyed several scenic excursions around the airport. Finally having managed to leave the car, we grabbed a taxi into the city. The next 20 minutes were a blur for me as I frantically tried to contain the mad canine escapee from the other side of the world. When I emerged from that stress, I miraculously found I’d been steered towards a tart shop. What a great way to see out our time ... read more

... nous avons fait de la route pour arriver à Baveno, toujours en Italie. Nous étions passé ici pour une nuit à l'aller, un camping bruyant par la quantité de petits enfants pleurant dans tous les coins... Nous étions mieux situés cette fois et avons pu mieux dormir... Une belle promenade aussi dans la ville de Baveno, pas bien grande et étonnante car à part un marchand de glaces et deux ou trois restaurants, pas une seule boutique... Baveno est un lieu que tous les amoureux de la beauté ne pourront oublier, et le guide du Lac Majeur écrit par Nino Bazzetta De Vemenia en 1931 le soulignait déjà à l'époque, comme en témoignent ces paroles :“Si Stresa est le paradis vert de l'amour, Baveno est l'oasis enchantée et silencieuse de la nostalgie“. Cette petite ville ... read more

Nous continuons notre descente vers le Sud.... Après Cannobio, heureux d'avoir revu Angela, nous nous arrêterons à une coopérative qu'elle nous conseillera. Quelle merveille... on y trouve tout ce qu'on ne trouve pas chez nous... (normal, nous ne sommes pas italiens mais bien luxembourgeois pour le shopping alimentaire...) ! Je peux vous dire que j'ai fait le plein de petits pots de ceci... de câpres frais mis sous vide... d'un gorgonzola dont je me régale chaque jour depuis, d'un thé au chocolat et à l'orange... etc... ... et j'en passe... J'ai bien conservé le ticket de caisse car au retour je ne pourrais faire autrement que m'y arrêter à nouveau... Le camping tout à côté et que nous avions choisi n'a rien d'extraordinaire... une vrai colonie de petits bouts... Assez bruyant donc... Même la nuit, on ... read more