Geo: 46.2276, 2.21375Set out from Cadillac about 9am heading to St-Emilion. We have always enjoyed the wines of this area so decided we had to visit as we were so close. Drove through beautiful countryside, enjoying the vine covered slopes and the early morning sunshine.At St-Emilion we found a park and walked up through the town. Stopped at a wine store which was offering tasting and spoke English, "with a French accent". The young man there was very hospitable and offered us a couple of very nice reds to taste. We had a great discussion about wine with him. Eventually bought a couple of reds to enjoy along the way. We then walked up through the centre of the town which was old and very attractive. After about 45 minutes wandering we returned to the car ... read more

Geo: 45.6934, -0.324972On Thursday we checked out of our hotel at about 9am and drove towards Tours. We had skirted this major town yesterday so today drove along the north bank of the Loire and made a stop in the city. Had a quick look at the old town which had some great Tudor style buildings and visited the Cathedral of St Gatien. This is an impressive Gothic structure with some magnificent stained glass windows and high vaulted ceilings.From Tours we drove to Angouleme. I have been wanting to visit this city for 22 years as Melissa had been a student there in 1986 and both Fletcher and Lucy had visited since then. We arrived in mid afternoon after a forgettable lunch stop at a roadside café and parked near the city centre. We walked to ... read more

Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097Last night Fletcher and I had our own La Chaines dinner. We went to a great restaurant, Bofinger, close by our hotel at La Place de Bastille. This was first class, with great service and comfortable ambience. We had a three course meal with wine at less than half the cost we would have paid for the official dinner. An enjoyable evening!!This morning we took the Metro to the Musee Marmottan-Monet.We arrived too early so went for a walk in the Bois de Bolougne. we saw the lake and many people jogging and enjoying the outdoors. We then returned to the museum This has the largest collection of Monet paintings in the world, thanks to the donation of Monet's son, Michel. It is also an interesting building in itself. We went into the building ... read more

Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097This morning we were in the Swiss alps. Tonight we go to sleep in Paris. This morning we walked to one of the most amazing sights I have seen. 45 minutes walk from our hotel in Lauterbrunnen is the Trummelbach Falls. We were told that these were the biggest tourist attraction in the area. Having visited Niagara and Plivitce on this trip we went not expecting much. However, these are the only falls that are INSIDE a mountain!! We were taken up inside the mountain by a funicular, then we walked up to see the top 5 falls. These are inside the rock and we climbed through caves watching the surging water cascading down through the rocks, falling a long way down. We decided to walk back down looking at the 5 lower falls. ... read more

Geo: 45.4345, 12.3384On Sunday 14th, we said goodbye finally at breakfast to our fellow travelers and went for a walk along the Bosphorous. We stopped for coffee at the water's edge and it was very pleasant sitting there for a short time. After an hour or so we returned to the hotel and then were taken to the airport where we flew to Venice via Budapest on Malev airlines. We arrived about 7pm and were able to take a bus from the airport for only 3 Euros each to Piazza de Roma from where we walked to our hotel, albeit we had to drag our suitcases up and down steps in the dark. Fortunately it wasn't far!!Fletcher was keen to see St Mark's Square so we set out along the main pedestrian path from the railway ... read more