Well, I thought we couldn't top anything we had seen or done so far on this holiday, but I was wrong. We arrived at 'Clos St Golven, Taupont' and immediately I knew that, if ever there was a 'Karen house', this was it! Michèle and Eric, the owners, both came out to meet us and … Continue reading Heaven is in Brittany…

C'est vrai (it's true), but more of that later.... The trip from Honfleur (Normandy) to Amboise (Loire Valley) took about 4 hours, however, with beautiful Normandy countryside all the way, it was no hardship at all! It's easy to see why fantastic cheeses, camembert in particular, are what Normandy is renowned for, since the cows … Continue reading Headline: Karen nearly killed by a flying baguette!

Today we drove to Bayeux, a beautiful city approximately 2 hours from Honfleur. The main purpose for visiting here was to see the Bayeux tapestry, which is housed in the Musée de la Tapisserie and is a cloth nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres (20 in) tall. It depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest … Continue reading What’s on in Honfleur? # 2

Our drive from Amiens was a great surprise. The Normandy countryside is just glorious and, since we were driving on the highways, unexpected. We wouldn't normally anticipate seeing the best view from a high speed, six laned motorway. We arrived in Honfleur in good time and met Brigitte, the owner of 'Rocheline', our home away … Continue reading What’s on in Honfleur??

Our train trip from Bruges to Amiens went smoothly and we loved having the opportunity to see the gorgeous country side slide by. There were many fields in of bright yellow, (canola?) which looked beautiful, as were the tiny villages we passed through. We arrived mid afternoon, settled into our hotel and, as is our … Continue reading Amiens…and my baptism of fire!

Yes, that's right, I've become fluent in Flemish since arriving here in Bruges. Didn't take me long at all (!!). Unfortunately for me, French is not widely spoken at all here, although much of the signage for restaurants and cafes etc, does have a french version.  Jeff and I learned 'Goededag = good day,  Dank … Continue reading Goededag van Brugge….

I really didn't anticipate posting anything for a another few days, but I've been up since 4am with eyes wide open and ready for our 9am train journey to Bruges since 5am, so I've got plenty of time on my hands.... Ridiculous, I know. It's that nasty little demon 'jet lag' causing the problem. It … Continue reading Jet lag, be gone….

Up early this morning to make sure we had time to walk to the designated meeting place at Saint Germain de Près for our gourmet walking tour, with ViaTour. We could very easily have taken the metro, but it was a gorgeous morning again and so we set off for the 30 min walk under sunny … Continue reading Paris in Springtime – part 2

11hrs after departing from Seoul, we arrived at CDG airport. The flight, while thankfully uneventful, was long and predictably boring, even with the usual movie marathon, so we were very happy to finally step onto french soil and breathe in some fresh air. Victor, our driver, was waiting for us and, with a running commentary … Continue reading Paris in Springtime (Paris au printemps)

After a 9.5hr flight from Brisbane, we arrived at Incheon airport, Seoul and were soon transferred to our transit accommodation, the Orakai Songdo Park hotel, which was excellent. It was only built in 2013 and was extremely comfortable which, for someone who gets very limited  sleep on a long haul flight, was a godsend.  We … Continue reading A quick side trip to Seoul….