Blogs from Île-de-France, France, Europe - page 7

Finishing packing in Paris. Getting ready to take the Eurostar, the bullet train, to London. ... read more

Perhaps I fooled you? You may think I am talking about the Grand Slam of Golf or a Bridge tournament. Yes, I have been to several U.S. Opens, as well as the Masters. But I have not been to the British Open (though I played at Carnoustie just a week after van de Velde imploded) and have played many courses used by the PGA tournament (Kohler, Pinehurst, Harding). I am referring to tennis this time. I have attended Wimbledon (7 days of tennis), and the U.S. Open at Flushing. I am heading out to Stade Roland Garros in Paris for my third leg of the Slam. And you know that Paris is one of my least favorite places in the world. Yet, I trudge onward and upward. The French Open began in 1891 and was originally ... read more

First of all, let me apologize for the delay in my blogs. Between the intial rush, and trying to do everything we wanted to in Paris, then the train trip to Saint Jean Pied de Port, and the fact that our first night on the Camino was at Refuge Orisson which does not have WiFi.... Since I'd fallen asleep so early, at 2am I couldn't keep my eyes closed I got up and went downstairs to the patio to work on the blog and photos for a while. After about an hour, I was bored, so I returned to bed thinking just to lay there, but I fell back to sleep. At around 6:30, Manoli got up, so so did I. We took showers, changed clothes, transferred the stuff from the suitcases into the two cardboard ... read more

Second email I wrote to my family while vacationing solo in Paris back in Spring 2018. ----- Bonjour again! Je suis très désolée for not writing yesterday, but I was absolutely pooped. Started the day (since I skipped the morning snoozin' til 10AM - oops!) having a pique-nique dejeuner on the Esplanade des Invalides. Bought a French Vogue magazine, which came with a free lipstick(!), and ate a lil baguette sammich. Speaking of sammich, I've only seen a few performers on the Metro, but the one I saw Friday morning was out of control. I saw him from a distance in his bedazzled tankini and Britney Spears-era headset mic, practicing his moves in the reflection of the Jourdain Metro station snack machine. Luckily he got on my train, but performed behind where I was sitting. I ... read more

According to the World Tourist Organization (UNWTO), international tourist arrivals fell by 72 percent between Jan. and Oct. of 2020, but things are slowly but surely picking back up to where it was before the pandemic. As people begin to feel more comfortable with flying and exploring once again, eager travelers are starting to flock to all the top travel destinations across the world. But which countries are the most popular to visit? Here is what Travelicious says. Number 5: Italy Start with the number five spot in Europe: They've got pizza, they've got gelato, they've got a whole lot of visitors. Italy's international tourist numbers reached almost 64.5 million people just in 2019. Aside from the food, Italy has amazing things to do including but not limited to visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa, ta ... read more