Blogs from France, Europe - page 1557

After being in England for a couple of months we decided to take advantage of the cheap travel deals and booked our first mini break. We left Waterloo on the Eurostar at 7 am on Saturday morning and found ourselves in the centre of Paris only 3 hours later. Magnifique! Heres our take on the major sights in Paris: Arc de Triumphe - the crazy roundabout where the land of insurance companies is left behind for 'French combat driving'. Sure theres a big statue in the middle, but standing watching the cars hoping for a bingle is the real draw card. You have to go to the Louvre, and for good reason - it blows your mind. Enough said. We attempted to see the Notre Dame cathedral, but it requires hours of lining up so we ... read more

4/11/05 - Mulhouse, not far from Colmar, is the home of the Musée National de Automobile. It includes exhibits of about 400 vehicles and the world’s largest collection of Bugatti cars, including the amazing Bugatti Royale. Some other features of this museum include …. A Peugeot 205 which you can sit in and experience how it feels to roll a car, multiple times, at high speed (not something I want to repeat in real life thanks). A German car called a “Trabant” which is made of “Duroplast”. Sounds a bit like Elastoplast bandages and it is; the body of the car is made from cotton, sandwiched between two layers of resin. There is a classic quote from the Citroen 2CV handbook “A car which can carry two farmers in clogs, 50kgs of potatoes, or a barrel, ... read more

This is an awesome old town with a huge castle!! I was totally blown away by the size of it! We wandered around and ate and shopped some. Lots of midievel sp? stuff. Found a print that I loved and also a statue. People live inside the castle walls. Lots of artist communities here. Mark, I kept saying that I wish you were here. I want to bring you someday. Mrs. Herring will love this also.... read more

On the top of Ivo and Marleen's mountain there is a group of old granges. We go up there in the mornings and can see Foix (10 miles away) There is a couple who live there and picked us some tomatoes and lavender. She was so sweet. Gave me a ton of her flower seeds. She was born in that house and stayed during the Nazi occupation. We hear stories of the war all the time. This is the lovliest spot I've ever seen.... read more

3/11/05 - The Vosges mountain range which runs through Alsace is truly amazing. You can easily explore many interesting places in the Vosges via the Route des Crêtes (Route of crests). I took the trip to the peak of the Grand Ballon (1423m) and then onward to Le Hohneck (1362m). Sure, judge on height above sea level both do not come anything close to Mount Blanc. But, on a clear day you can see Mount Blanc way off in the distance form both these peaks. I stopped on the way through Guebwiller to grab some sandwiches and a drink for lunch. Then I took the drive ever upward, on the winding mountain road to the Grand Ballon. The outside temperature gauge on the dash board of the car started out at 14 degrees on the floor ... read more