Blogs from France, Europe - page 1479

Geverny - Paris (Train) 29 July No one in Paris speaks English. In an effort to navigate your way through the city you mumble a poor attempt at speaking some simple French from your frantic decoding of the pronunciation hints in your travel phrase book (which will in fact sound nothing like any word of French ever spoken). You will then find that Parisians can suddenly recall enough (clear and perfectly formed - although ‘eavily accented) English to berate you for how poorly you spoke. And - you are probably personally responsible for the demise of French as the international language of diplomacy. Finally, we got our metro ticket and headed toward our accommodation. Montmartre did look much nicer in the film ‘Amelie’. They certainly did not shoot any scenes on the street onto which we ... read more

Well, I just got Aaron's photos from our trip...David and I are in them a little more... Now it is Hot and Humid in London and I wish we were nearer the sea, but then again we are going to Barcelona in 3 weeks, so we'll get to the beach again soon...... read more

On Tuesday the 25th, we headed for Blois, south of Paris, in the middle of France... and into the heatwave. It was a fairly pleasant drive, and we passed through lots of charming little villages on the way. What was impressive besides the landscape, was the incredibly straight roads that went on forever, into the horizon. Blois is a beautiful town, in the Loire castle district, and the city was spectacular to look at from the distance -- a castle on a hill. We headed for the camping grounds a few km outside the city, and Marion (yep it was her fault chose a beautiful romantic spot away from the crowd, by the river, with no bushes or shelter... The next day was so incredibly hot we couldn't bring ourselves to do anything, but laze around ... read more

Geo: 43.7325, 7.41891Off to Monaco today! Grabbed the receipt from the machine at the train station thinking it was the ticket. Some guy chased me down with the ticket, luckily. Sat next to a lady from Boston on a Euro cruise. Monaco is hot, but breezier than Nice. Cathedral - had a temporary exhibit of photos of people smiling (from all over the world). Jardin St. Martin - beautiful, cool, breezy, shady. Had a picnic at Place St. Devote. For all you Formula 1 fans, it´s the St. Devote corner. Camembert, salami, baguette. Possibly the best baguette I´ve ever had ... loved it so much I proposed to it. Perhaps it was heat-induced dementia, but I swear it giggled and replied "I will have to ask my boyfriend first." (in a Spanish accent, no less!)Weather became ... read more

Crossing the Pyrenees proved dramatic. The van coped well with the upward climb out of Spain. We stopped at the top to take in the breathtaking views. There was even a shepherd with a huge flock of sheep on a high peak. On the way down however I overused the brakes on the steep twisting turns and there was suddenly the horrible smell of overheating brakes. We stopped for twenty minutes but they overheated again within two kilometres. We made a painful slow decent at last reaching the valley. Panic over we continued serenely on our way. The route was marked by many farms selling the local cheese. We ended up in Laruns in the valley of d'Ossau which is surrounded by tall mountains. The town was setting up for the eveing market, however a torrential ... read more