Category: Places

Biking in Amboise or It Was the Best of Sons, It Was the Worst of Sons

11/23/2018

A friend had told me how she enjoyed hiking and biking in Amboise, a little town in the Loire valley, so Kid 3 and I decided to go. I booked the hotel my friend recommended and bought train tickets for the next day. End of travel planning.

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Paris Cemeteries: Not Just for Dead People

8/3/2018

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Now that warm weather is here in Paris, it’s time to get out and enjoy the sunshine!

We all know that Paris’ parks are lovely, but they can get a bit crowded during the summer months. To find a quieter place, with shady paths, greenery, and even a bit of art and history, try visiting a Paris cemetery.

Squeamish? These cemeteries are spacious and welcoming, with nary a skeleton in sight.

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Montpellier Photography Exhibit: Views of the Ghettos and Images of a Dictator

7/22/2018

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Montpellier’s Pavillon Populaire, located in the city’s Jardin du Champs de Mars, is currently hosting a two-part photography exhibit which deals with the use of photography as propaganda. It is a moving exhibit, and sheds light on some of key elements incorporated by the Nazis.

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Solo Trip to Edinburgh: Learning to Relax

7/9/2018

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I’ve been thinking about relaxing lately. I’m no good at it. On vacation, I like to get up earlier than my family and drink coffee and march around town. I go in churches and bookstores and museums and cemeteries and drink more coffee and eat breakfast. I rack up tens of thousands of steps on my pedometer and buy books and little souvenirs for my kids, all before noon. By then, the family is usually up, so I drag them out of the hotel and show them all the things I’ve learned so far that day. We go out to lunch and dinner and see movies and shop. It’s great, but a loved one recently pointed out to me that I never relax on vacation, and relaxing on vacation is a thing people do. Why? I said. There’s so much to DO.

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If You’re Going to Greece, Go to Crete

6/8/2018

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Crete is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to during my travels. The people are nice, the climate is sunny, the food is delicious, and there’s lots to see and do. Let’s get started.

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Three Days in Athens (or Four)

5/14/2018

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I love Greece. The food is delicious, the people are nice, there’s enough written and spoken English that you can get around, and it’s generally a relaxed and sunny place.

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Corfu: Sadder but Wiser

4/30/2018

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You’ve seen The Music Man, right? Remember when Buddy Hackett tried to get Robert Preston to date the Sunday school teacher? Robert Preston says no, thanks, because he doesn’t want a blushing breathless baby doll, he wants a more adult romance. That’s Corfu--sadder but wiser.

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Greece is Like Aunt Zelda

4/22/2018

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You know that aunt, the one who didn’t quite conform to the family ideals? When all her siblings went to college, got jobs, got married, and had kids, she traveled and worked vague jobs in the service industry or took photos for a magazine or taught ESL and had boyfriends named Pascal and Xenos. She went skiing in Chile. She could hold her liquor and eat anything and sleep on the fold-out couch without complaining. Sometimes she borrowed money from your parents, and they always gave it to her in an effort to help her “get her life together.” Let’s call her Zelda.

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Date Night Just Got Better

4/17/2018

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Sinfonietta Paris is a Paris chamber music organization that sponsors a series called Music by the Glass. It features intimate concerts in lovely concert halls and private homes throughout the city. The concerts last about one hour so you won’t be overwhelmed, and after the concert there are wine and snacks, included in the ticket price. You can meet the performers and mingle with the audience.

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Nice Will Get A Second Chance

3/15/2018

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Because Paris gave us three solid months of gray skies with alternating rain and snow, we headed south during Kid 3’s winter break. The South of France is warm and sunny, as everybody knows. When I booked the train tickets, weather reports said Nice would be about ten degrees celsius warmer than Paris, so that seemed like a reasonable place to go in February. We had also considered Rome, but decided to stay closer to home for this short trip.

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