Sites, cities, and more to explore when in Europe
I originally published this post in 2022 based on our pre-COVID visit to what I think are the 3 best Paris flea markets for antiquing. I promised to update the information and photos below from our recent 2023 vacation. After visiting all three flea markets, I’m happy to say that these are still tops in […]
The 3 best flea markets for antiquing in Paris-2023 update Read More »
The Costco France food court has a few menu items that we don’t have in the US. We just returned from France in June 2023, after spending almost three months vacationing there. Our typical routine at home is a weekly shopping trip to Costco. Of course sometimes, Danny makes more than one trip a week.
Costco France food court and the special menu options Read More »
This post is the update to our original post Car Rental vs Lease Part 1. Part 1 outlined how the Car-2-Europe short-term lease program saved us $1,000-$1,600 off the cost of a 45-day car rental to drive around Europe. Part 2 shares our Car-2-Europe experience with Auto Europe and the results of the process involved
Welcome to chapter 16 of our travel adventures— A Summer in France: Paris, Week 4. This is the final post in our Summer in France series. We are flying home tomorrow. Air Balloon Flight Since we arrived in Paris, I’ve been trying to take Danny aboard the Balloon de Paris. It’s the world’s largest balloon,
A Summer in France: Paris, Week 4–Our First Bucket List Read More »
Thanks for coming back to read our travel adventures— A Summer in France: Paris, Week 3. We kicked off the weekend going to flea markets. I’ve posted before about my 3 best flea markets for antiquing in Paris. So I wanted to visit post-Covid to see if they’ve changed. Marché aux puces de la Porte
A Summer in France: Paris, Week 3–Our First Bucket List Read More »
Thanks for joining us again for chapter 14 of A Summer in France: Paris, Week 2. This is part two of our month in Paris, the final leg of our journey. This week is another busy week of fun with Tom & Cary in town. We’ve created a routine enjoying the sites all day and
A Summer in France: Paris, Week 2—Our First Bucket List Read More »
Thanks for joining us again for chapter 13 of A Summer in France: Paris, Week 1. This is part one of our month in Paris, the final leg of our journey. The weekend before we arrived in Paris, we spent with our friends Valerie, Laurent and Maxine again. I hadn’t realized how tired we were
A Summer in France: Paris, Week 1—Our First Bucket List Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Provence Villages—Our First Bucket list Continues Read More »
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
A Summer in France: L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue — Our First Bucket List Continues Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Montpellier—Our First Bucket List Continues Read More »
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
A Summer In France: Les Grands Buffets — A Spectacular Feast Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Barcelona – Our First Bucket List Continues Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Andorra – Our First Bucket List Continues Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Albi – Our First Bucket List Continues Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Our First Bucket List Continues (Toulouse) Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Our First Bucket List Continues (Vineyards) Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Our First Bucket List Continues (Bordeaux) Read More »
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
A Summer in France: Our First Bucket List Continues (Poitiers) Read More »
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
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
More Funny Travel Mishaps and Mistakes: Rental Car Wrecks Read More »
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
Funny Travel Mishaps and Mistakes, Flashback 20 Years to 2002 Read More »
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
Top 10 secrets for Paris flea market shopping and safety Read More »
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
Car Rental vs Lease for vacation in France. How to find the cheapest price (Part 1) Read More »
