France Travel Blogs

'April in Paris'.... Not only is that a lovely jazz song, it also is the perfect title for the little getaway I undertook with my dear friend Eelco. Paris is a beautiful city year round, but especially nice in Spring. Easter weekend we decided it was time to roam the streets of Paris once again. Pe…

                                      Named for its place of production in the Auvergne region of central France,Bleu d'Auvergne Aoc is a soft,uncooked,unpressed,soft,unpasteurised cow's milk cheese with …

Every time I leave for my travels, there's this comforting routine. I work until about 8pm the two days before I leave, my desk at work is suddenly covered in subway maps and travel guides, I discover new clothes and accessories buried in my closet. "Preparing" for this trip has been somewhat uniqu…

It is one of the 11 areas of the city of Nantes, located between two parts of the river Loire. I have only seen it at night, when the Buren rings all along the quai are turned on and the night gives a new life to the "hangar à bananes" (shed of bananas), rehabilitated as restaurant, pubs, bars and…

Today is my last day in Paris and as planned I'm visiting the Louvre.  It's a HUGE museum so I decided to start early.   I've passed by it the week before so I've pretty much already admired the pyramid and the Jardin des Tuileries.  I have a strategy.  First, I de-stressed…

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera and its motto is: "Life is a festival".  The city is famous for the annual Cannes Film Festival and also for the luxury shops, fancy restaurants, high life society, expensive dressed people...    Even the ladies …

It's rainy.Our last day at France. We don't know where we can go. At least we want to visit some sightseeing places. We take subway and went to Arc de Triomphe in the morning. I wanted to walk a little even if it's rainy...wanted to see and feel like atmosphere of Paris.We take off the subway at t…

These are photo's of the second home of friends of us in a hamlet near Periers where we always stay when we're going to Normandy on vacation. Periers is a small village which lies in the department Manche. Manche is a French department in Normandy named after La Manche ("the s…

Every cloud has a silver lining and our cloud happened to be filled with an all you can eat, complimentary breakfast.  I needed something to raise my spirits since I was deprived of my usual cup of tea the previous afternoon. One of the best people watching locations, aside from an airport, i…

On my return to Tours, dinner was in the Old town (Vieux Tours) - dinner was mashed potatoes with heavenly cumin-capsicum sauce followed by a nice dessert and a walk around town. I was hoping I could get some book shopping in but all stores close by 7pm so I couldn't make it in time. But after dinn…

Nothing interesting happened today prior to my leaving. I was still really sick, but I promised myself that I would bring home some stuff from the patisserie to give to my family. I had gifts for all of them, but what's better than a pain-au-chocolat or a tarte fraise straight from Paris? Really. C…

I arrived almost at midnight, and while walking down the streets trying to find my hostel, the fireworks started ......... mmmm Okay 2009 has arrived! hahaha.... I kept walking and travesties were saying Happy New Year to me from their windows hahaha.... ppl were screaming on the streets, everybody…

Saint-Sulpice is a famous Parisian church on the east side of the Place Saint-Sulpice, in the Luxembourg Quarter of the VIe arrondissement. At 113 meters long, 58 meters in width and 34 meters tall, it is only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and thus the second largest church in Paris. It is d…

My first bird's eye view of Nice from the plane's window has left me quite impressed of how large this resort is. Of course, its not a resort, as a later found out, but a fully fledged city with half a million inhabitants and then the tourists... lots of those as well. My reason for visi…

i decided for the holidays to spend a day in a city called metz in france, just outside the border of germany, belgium and luxembourg and close to the city of trier in germany.  many friends asked me why go there? why not just go to paris because its france? i thought of that, firstly i dont h…