Current features, travel adventures, and whatever interesting stuff I find on the net or in life.
We spent a long weekend in Lille, and to no one’s surprise, it wasn’t enough time to really get to know this vibrant city. But we did walk a lot, visit the basilica, and take the city bus tour, which was quite good. We also visited the marché populaire and sat at a café drinking [...]
Heading north from champagne country, we visited the tiny town of Parfondeval. It’s officially a Most Beautiful Village, but it’s very tiny and there’s no welcome center with tourist info, so we were somewhat underwhelmed. We drove a bit further into the countryside and bought some apple juice and cider before moving on. In Fourmies, [...]
Upon leaving Metz, we decided that, instead of going southwest toward our next stop, we would go north, and even back east a bit, to visit the recently restored Château de Malbrouck. I particularly enjoyed the workshops and explanations of how the restoration was done, and as an added bonus, throughout the château and grounds [...]
The weather was pretty lousy during our last few days in Niederbronn, which was just as well as we needed to pack and clean the apartment before heading out. Our next destination was the region of Lorraine, which has two important cities: Nancy, which we’d never visited before, and Metz, which we had. We spent [...]
On Tuesday, 20 July, we visited the first corner of the Hexagon. We first drove to the lovely town of Wissembourg. The church has a beautiful though unfinished cloister, and just in front is a lovely, flowery park. We continued on to Cleebourg, where we bought a bottle of crémant with which to toast our [...]
While in Strasbourg for Bastille Day, we also visited the terrific Mus̩e alsacien and had dinner at our favorite restaurant in Strasbourg: Po̻les de Carottes. One of the employees (owners?) can be a little grouchy, but the food is terrific. On the 15th we headed south from Strasbourg to retrieve the wallet in Annecy Р[...]
While planning our trip, we’d decided to celebrate Bastille Day in Strasbourg, and as luck would have it the town of Niederbronn held their fête on the 13th, so we were able to attend two completely different celebrations. The fireworks were terrific in both, but Niederbronn’s were preceded by a rousing speech and a short [...]
Back on the road after two days in Colmar, we visited a few more villages on our way north to Niederbronn-les-Bains, in Bas-Rhin, where we would stay for the next two weeks. The timing couldn’t have been better: while the preceding week and a half of traveling had been a lot of fun, we were [...]
Following a sunrise walk in Amphion-les-Bains’s beautiful Parc des Cèdres, we drove west and did a quick tour of Évian-les-Bains, before continuing along Lac Léman into Switzerland and on around the far side of the lake, then headed back west to Vevey for a paddleboat ride and picnic. After crossing back into France, we visited [...]
Driving north from Hyères, our first stop was the Plus Beau Village of Tourtour. Nicknamed le village dans le ciel de Provence (the village in Provence’s sky), Tourtour has wonderful views over the valleys and a cute, café-lined main street that reminded me of Mougins. Next we headed to Seyne to spend the night chez [...]
