Welcome to chapter 12–A Summer in France: Provence Villages. In my last post, we stayed in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue to use as a base to explore several towns and villages in Provence. If you’re not familiar with the Provence-Alpes-Côté-d’Azur area of southern France, here’s a map to highlight where it is. We were able to visit several […]
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A Summer in France: L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue is chapter 11 of our trip. This small town is famous for its many antique shops and hosts antique markets on Sundays which takes over the entire town center. If you’ve parked inside the old center, there’s no getting in or out that day. This is probably the largest antiques area in
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This is chapter 10 of Summer in France: Montpellier. We arrived from Barcelona a couple of days ago, but our first stop was Les Grands Buffets that I recently posted about. So, we’ve now had some time to recover and can resume our sightseeing. Montpellier is the seventh largest city in France with a city
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Welcome to chapter 9, Summer In France: Les Grands Buffets. This is a special post about our experience at an all-you-can-eat gourmet buffet in Narbonne, France called Les Grands Buffets. We enjoy most buffet restaurants back home, but they are very rare in France. Even more rare is one that advertises as gourmet, upscale, elegant
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Welcome to chapter 8 – A Summer in France: Barcelona. We’ve arrived in Spain for a few days after leaving Andorra. Neither of us have ever been to Barcelona, so we’re looking forward to our stay. Barcelona has a city population of 1.6 million people, while the metropolitan area has 4.8 million. It is Europe’s
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Ok, I’ll admit the title Summer in France: Andorra is a little misleading. Andorra is not in France. Landlocked between France and Spain, Andorra is a small country, a principality, outside of the European Union. Many people have never even heard of it, including Danny. So naturally it’s on my list to visit. Andorra is
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Welcome to chapter six, Summer in France: Albi. Albi is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and is less than an hour from Toulouse. First settled during the Bronze Age (3000-600 BC), the crusades (1209-1229) virtually destroyed this city. Here’s a short video clip I took while standing on the bridge overlooking the city. Note the bridge with pink
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Welcome to chapter five of our trip Summer in France: Toulouse. Toulouse is the fourth largest city in France with a population of approximately one million people. It’s located in the south of France about 75 miles from Spain. Like our stay in Poitiers, this is our first time to visit this city. The Romans
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Welcome to part four of a Summer in France (Vineyards). This is a shorter post to share with you a couple of quick day trips out in the countryside in the wine regions of Blaye, Pauillac & Saint-Émilion. Blaye The wine from this region is “Blaye – Cotes de Bordeaux”. The small city of Blaye
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The third installment of a Summer in France (Bordeaux) begins as we leave Poitiers to visit the small village of Chauvigny. We visited on Good Friday, so many of the shops and restaurants were closed for the Easter holiday. We headed straight up to the medieval city and there were only a handful of people
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In my first post of A Summer in France, I mentioned that we arrived in Paris early to spend a few days relaxing before we picked up our lease car. It was a lot cheaper for us to lease a car, rather than rent for our trip. See this post for details about this special
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Our first exciting retirement adventure begins with a Summer in France, our first bucket list trip. We’ve been planning a lifetime for the moment we were both retired and it’s finally here. There’s been lots of turmoil, demonstrations and national strikes in France in the past several weeks. President Macron ordered an increase in the
We drove to Louisiana this past weekend to meet with family and attend the Youngsville 2023 Mardi Gras parade. New Orleans is historically synonymous with Mardi Gras, but there are times when you want to celebrate the carnival season with much smaller crowds in a more family friendly environment, rather than in the rowdy craziness
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This is our visit to historic Stowe, Vermont and discovering its quaint covered bridges. The beautiful landscape captivated us as we explored this rural area of New England. Gov. Wentworth of New Hampshire granted a charter to establish Stowe in 1763. The “ski capital of the East” is how Stowe is known today. It is
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In an earlier post, Funny Travel Mishaps and Mistakes, Flashback 20 Years, I mentioned that one of our mishaps on that trip was when Danny wrecked our rental car. Today, the more I think about our rental car wrecks, I realize that I might have uncovered a trend. So, it’s probably time for me to
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We experienced a series of funny travel mishaps and mistakes as we traveled through Europe 20 years ago in 2002. I’ve mentioned elsewhere on our website that I’m brand new to blogging. But, that might not quite be true. Recently, I discovered an old document that included detailed notes I had written when we returned
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I retired today. I’m sitting in my office on my final day of work writing this message. I’m surprised about my feelings and mixed emotions. I’d like to put my feelings into words, but can’t find those “words of wisdom” that sum up everything. I am very excited to begin the new journey ahead and
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The theme for Moody Gardens Ice Land 2022 is Caribbean Christmas. Haven’t ever been to Galveston, Texas to see this exhibit before? Evidently, it’s time for you to visit. What is Ice Land at Moody Gardens? An award-winning team of master ice carvers from Harbin, China flies into Houston each September to create the beautiful
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We both love shopping at Costco, especially when traveling. Recently we stopped at the Costco food court in Montreal, Canada while on vacation. While planning our trips both in the US and in other countries, we always include stops at Costco to search for local product options not available in Texas. You just never know
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Over the years, I’ve been to hundreds of flea markets, antique shops, and antique fairs in many countries. Since we travel to France most frequently, I’ve learned most of my tips from my Paris flea market shopping. Of course, these top 10 tips are just as applicable throughout Europe, or at home in the USA
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Which is more budget friendly–car rental vs lease for longer travel plans? I decided to find out for myself about a car rental vs lease for my vacation in France. So, I planned the itinerary for our three-month vacation and determined we’d need a car for six weeks. Since the pandemic, renting a car has
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My travel memory began with a craving for ice cream… I recently had a craving for ice cream which prompted a memory of Paulette’s K-pie in Memphis. An amazing dessert that Danny and I shared on my birthday vacation last September. While researching things to do and places to eat during our trip in Memphis,
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The Lake Peigneur salt mine catastrophe is an event you may never have heard of if you’re not from south Louisiana. Today is the 42nd anniversary of the drilling accident that occurred on Nov 20, 1980. It forever changed this area, the lake, and its ecosystem. Originally, this lake was a shallow freshwater lake about
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The Astros won the World Series and the excitement in Houston was incredible. Then began immediate plans for the Houston Astros 2022 World Series Victory Parade in downtown. Our Own Astros Victory Parade Plans Danny didn’t attend the last victory parade when the Astros won the 2017 World Series, he wasn’t going to miss this
