Friday, July 13, 2007
As promised, here are the rest of the sketches I did in France. Yes, I know there aren't very many of them, I all ready explained that.
This first one was done in the town of Gigondas in the Cote du Rohn region. I had a little bit of an obsession with the Plane trees.
Next we have a watercolor of the town square in Roussillon.
And finally a sketch of a coffe break in the old town of Nice on top and a schematic of our hotel room on the bottom.
So there you are, I hope you enjoyed them. Feel free to email me with comments or leave a comment using the link below.
Labels: france, provence, riviera, sketches
Saturday, June 30, 2007
I didn't get to do nearly as much sketching as I would have liked to. We were moving so quickly there wasn't much time to slow down and draw. I did manage to do a few, though, of varying quality. Here are the first few. As always, click on the thumb to go to the full size version.
This first one is outside of a bar at Place Pigalle in Paris.
This next one is from Place Jerusalem in Avignon where we stopped to have a
kir.
This next one is also from Avignon. I ran out of the dark blue pencil lead half way through and had to switch to the less pleasing lighter blue.
That's all for now. I'll finish them off next time.
Labels: avignon, france, paris, sketches
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
We got home last night at around 10:30 after spending way to much time on planes and transferring between planes and getting to airports. The cats were very pleased to see us, but were well looked after while we were gone.
I have many thoughts on our trip and of course a couple thousand photos to troll through looking for gold. I'll get started on that right away. I'll post more about our trip (and perhaps a few of the small number of sketches I did) this weekend after I've had a bit of time to decompress and unpack and do all the returning to normal life things that one must do after a long trip.
Including starting the planning for our next trip: Mexico! But that trip is a long way off.
Labels: france, journal_entry, paris, provence
Friday, June 01, 2007
We rolled into Nice at around 4pm today and had a horrendous time trying to return our rental car. The area around the station is under all kinds of construction so we ended up circling three times looking for the return spot, still without success. Finally I hoped out of the car and ran into ask, and let me just say, we never would have found it if I hadn't. it wasn't even vaguely obvious. And as a fitting metaphor to the frustrations we had trying to return the car, a rain storm of monumental proportions rolled into town a half hour behind us. Fortunately we were ensconced in our hotel before the clouds let go, but there was thunder and lightning and all kinds of the drama that we just don't get in Seattle with our rain.
The last couple of days were spent driving around from one picturesque hill town to the next. About half way into the first day we had to retire the phrase "what a view" to to the redundancy laws in France. But good god, What A View! Miles and miles of bright green vineyards and farmland in the valleys between the towns. We hit about a dozen or so towns it seems like, the highlights being Lourmarin, Goult and Roussillon. In fact it was in Roussillon that we saw what is probably my favorite site, the old ochre quarry.
Bright red and orange and yellow cliff faces towering above and a path made of rust red sand. Even the trees had a reddish coating from all the dust stirred up by the visitors. It felt a bit like being on Mars. I think I must have shot a few hundred photos. Gorgeous.
And in a fortuitous bit of luck we've managed to hit 3 fabulous markets days in the last 4 days. The best of them being Vaison La Romaine and Lourmarin.
Anyway, we have four nights and three days in the Riviera before our vacation must come to an end. It sad, vacation is a lifestyle that agrees with me.
Labels: france, journal_entry
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Hello all, sorry we've dropped off the radar but we've been moving around a bit and have been unable to get to an Internet cafe.
We are currently in Vaison-la-Romain and spent the day driving around the indescribably beautiful Cote du Rohn countryside stopping at a number of cute little medieval hill towns, not forgetting of course to do a little wine tasting along the way.
This morning we awoke to the sounds of the weekly market setting up in the square below our window. We bought a picnic lunch to take with us on the drive and ate it in the tiny town of Suzette on the side of a hill overlooking vineyards. The sun was out and shinning but the wind was blowing hard and threatened to carry away our lunch.
In the past week we have visited Avignon, where we stayed for three nights and used as a base to travel. We day tripped out to Pont du Gard, an old roman aqueduct, and Nimes where we rolled into town during the annul bullfight festival (not listed in any guide book, Gretchen). The town was hopping and we had a nice lunch of Paella for Irene and Gardienne de toreau (bull) for me.
Another day we drove to Arles and spent the day, and yesterday we visited the abandoned medieval town of Les Beaux, and the not so abandoned town named after my cat, St. Remy.
Well, that about catches you up. Tomorrow we head for Roussillon and the Luberon hill towns made famous (at least in the states) by Peter Mayle in his books about Provence.
Labels: france, journal_entry
Thursday, May 24, 2007
We just got back from Versailles where we spent most of the day touring the grounds and getting burnt to a crisp. Really need to find some sunscreen before we hit the South. Right now we are doing laundry and later tonight we have tentative plans to meet up with Marion for a drink.
These French key boards are very difficult to get used to.
Tomorrow morning we head for provence. Sad to leave Paris, excited to see what's next.
Labels: france, journal_entry
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Ken says:
We are five days into our trip and have been running around like mad people. We've done the Louvre, the Arc, the d'Orsay, Ste-Chapelle, and beaucoup walking around. Beacoup!
Last night we were meant to catch up with France at the Arc, but she never turned up. So we popped in here (Cyber Cube) to see if she left us an email, which she did. Hopefully we'll meet up with her tonight.
A week in Paris seems like a long time, but it's still not nearly long enough. I feel like we'll still miss half the things on the list. We'll just have to come back.
Irene says:
Paris lives up to its reputation and more so. My impression is it's endless. After my office job, my feet will soon be going on strike, so perhaps it's just as well that we are headed for the quieter South of France in just a few days - Friday morning. In the meanwhile, I'm absorbing this amazing city at the rate I best can. As for hoping to see it all. C'est impossible, alas.
Best thoughts and wishes.
Irene and Ken
Labels: france, journal_entry
Saturday, May 19, 2007
I type this from France's computer (our friend France, of course, not the country, it would be absurd if there was only one computer for all of France). We landed yesterday at 9:40 am and hopefully got all the problems were going to have on this trip on the first morning. But that's another story.
This is just a short note to let everyone know that we got here safely and met up with France this morning. And everything (after that first troublesome half day) has gone swimmingly.
Labels: france, journal_entry, paris
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
We leave for France tomorrow and I'm a bit antsy. I've been planning for this trip for so long that I'm ready for it to just get started.
Last night I had a little anxiety dream about the trip (the only bit I've felt so far). In the dream it was our first day in Paris and we'd been going around having a great time when, around 4pm, I suddenly realized we were meant to meet the apartment guy at noon, and now where were we going to sleep. I immediately hopped on the metro to set off for the apartment only to realize I didn't know where I was going. So I began digging around in my bag for my metro map. The first one I pulled out was for the NY subway, and the second for something else entirely. It dawned on me that I had brought no map at all and now I was really screwed.
And then I woke up and realized how ridiculous the dream was. We would have noticed that we were still schlepping around or backpacks and I would never have not packed a map. I'm very well prepared for this trip and expect it all to go very smoothly.
I'll keep you updated, though, if it should not.
Labels: france, journal_entry
Friday, May 11, 2007
One week from now we will be having diner in Paris. That is all.
Labels: food, france, journal_entry, paris
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Four weeks from now we will be on our way to France.
And we are ready. Plans are all made, hotels are all booked, the car is rented and the train tickets are bought.
That is all.
Labels: france, travel planning
Friday, March 16, 2007
In two weeks we are headed to San Francisco where we will spend 10 fairly low key days and we are both
very ready for a vacation because we haven't had any extended time off since September.
Planing for San Francisco has been pretty minimal as it's an entirely different sort of journey than the one we'll be taking in May. This trip is all about visiting friends and family, relaxing and probably an excursion to Napa and Sonoma with a possible overnight stay in Calistoga. But really there isn't much required in the way of pre-trip planning apart from the rental car and a few emails and phone calls to people to let them know we're coming. And since I've put Irene in charge of finding us a place to stay in the wine country, my work is done.
Which is good, because most of my attention has been focused on France. And now with two months until we leave, the planning is winding down as the itinerary is fixed, the apartment in Paris and the car for Provence have both been rented, and hotels have been booked for Avignon and Vaison-la-Romaine. It remains only to book hotels for Nice and the Luberon (and I'm in the process of doing that) and to contact the apartment people and arrange the details of our arrival.
One thing that pleases me about this trip is that even though we will be packing a lot in, we won't be switching hotel as often as we might. We will have a minimum of two nights at two hotels and three and four nights at the others. This allows us to feel like we have a little bit of a base from which to explore the area. The logistics were tricky at first, but I feel like of got everything pretty solidly nailed down.
I really do enjoy the whole planning process and lately I've been listening to the
A Year In Europe podcast and dreaming about what it would be like to drop out of life for a year and spend it traveling. And although it doesn't seem feasible right now, some day I would love to do it. Although I think I would probably broaden the scope a bit and make it more of a round the world trip.
For now though, I'll just have to settle for the two or three weeks at a time we can manage.
Labels: california, france, paris, provence, san_francisco, travel planning
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
There comes a time when you find yourself at the whims of the strange and convoluted rules of the travel industry, in which logic not only doesn't apply, but has in fact been taken round the back and beaten into the shape of white is black, up is down and frogs are allergic to the color green. And so the round shape of your trip must conform to fit the star shaped hole provided.
Our original itinerary had us renting a car for four days, but as it turns out, it's the same price, or cheaper, to rent a car for a week. And so things are set in motion, plans are altered and new schemes are worked out to accommodate this new information.
On the whole, this isn't entirely a bad thing. Now instead of spending two nights in Avignon and one night in Arles, I think we will be either spending all three nights in Avignon (because there is a definite advantage to camping out in one place and day tripping from there) or one night in Avignon and two nights in Arles (because I've read that Arles is more friendly for cars). Right now I'm leaning towards staying put in one place. But that could change.
The other change will be driving from the Luberon to Nice instead of taking a train, which will allow us to stop along the way if we desire and frees up all kinds of time schedule wise.
Labels: france, provence, travel planning
Monday, February 05, 2007
Twice a year Rick Steve's hosts travel festivals at his headquarters (located a convenient 30 minutes away from us in Edmonds, WA). Now mostly these are put together to help sell his tours, but one can glean a lot of useful information and ideas even if one as no intention of taking a tour.
This was our third or fourth time going to the festival, and was by far the most helpful. We attended two classes, one on France presented by Steve Smith, the coauthor of the Rick Steves' France books, and one was an intro to french for travelers.
While I didn't really learn anything in either class, the France class was nice because I got to see pictures of most of the places I've been reading about. I think Irene probably got more out of them than me because she's a bit behind on the reading and this class helped motivate her to start reading the books.
After the class though, thanks to our friend G, who is an editor at Rick Steves, I was able to talk to Smith himself and run my itinerary by him to see what he thought. I was a little worried that I was trying to cram too much in and that my expectations were a bit unrealistic, but he reassured me that my plan was indeed doable. He also offered a few suggestions for me to mull over. I don't know that I'll change anything because I'm pretty confident in my planning, though, and the reasons for scheduling things they way I did.
In other news, I booked our tickets for our flight from Nice back to Paris on
EasyJet. It was a little more expensive than I was expecting, but still only cost $80, which, considering the time it's saving us, is a bargain.
Labels: france, guide_books, provence, travel planning
Thursday, January 11, 2007
I'm very excited to see that
Soundwalk has some new Paris walking tours.
Five of them,
to be exact. I am a big fan of both this concept in general and this company in particular (as you can see from my
review of two of the New York tours).
I all ready plan on getting at least two of them (the Marais and the St Germain tours), and may break down and get them all. I know we won't have time to do all of them, but they will be fun to listen to anyway.
Labels: audio_tour, france, iPod, paris
Friday, January 05, 2007
I feel I should post an update on how the planning is going, so here it is.
Remember last time when I said I thought I had the itinerary pretty well fixed? Well I've changed it. After much deliberation, juggling, rearranging and other machinations, I have decided that there is nothing for it but to drop Lyon from the trip. This made me a little sad, but things just fit more easily with it gone, so it went. Also, I have dropped the amount of time we are spending in the Riviera to three days instead of five and added the extra time to Provence.
I have updated the itinerary to the right to reflect these changes.
Now, a lot of this schedule is dependent on the renting of a car for four days, which is dependent on finding a good deal on an automatic (I can't drive manuel and Irene has expressed a reluctance to drive). And even so, it is an extremely packed schedule (which is a bit of a speciality with me), but should be doable.
The Riviera section is still a bit nebulous, as I am just now reading that section of the
book. It should be firmed up fairly soon though.
Labels: france, paris, provence, travel planning
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
I feel like at this point I've got the basic skeleton o f the trip locked down apart from one point. I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to include Lyon in the trip or if that time could be better spent in Provence or the Riviera.
Right now I'm leaning toward yes, it should be included, even if it is a brief stop (which it most likely will be). Originally I planned on us spending two nights in Lyon, but now I'm thinking one night will have to be enough. We can take the morning train from Paris spend the rest of the day and the night, and the take an afternoon train out the next day to Avignon.
This plan is still slightly in flux but here's how I've got it breaking down so far:
7 days in Paris, 1 day in Lyon, 5 days in Provence, and 5 days in the Riviera.
And
EasyJet offers very inexpensive flights from Nice to Paris, which means we don't have to waist precious vacation time circling back to Paris at the end of the trip.
The itinerary has been updated.
P.S. I should make it clear that my hesitation in stopping in Lyon is not because I don't think it will be a worthwhile stop, because I'm sure it will be, but because our time is limited and we would be going directly from big city (Paris) to big city (Lyon). If anybody has an opinion on this they'd like to share please feel free to leave a comment or email me directly.
Labels: france, paris, provence, riviera, travel planning
Thursday, December 07, 2006
So last night I received not one, not two, but three, three new books on France. One,
Let's Go France 2007, from the fine folks at
Amazon and two from my connection at
Rick Steves. Those would be the
Paris 2007 and the
Provence 2007.
Now I can dive into the meat of the planning process, which I have actually all ready started.
For instance I discovered that we can fly from Nice to Paris for around $23 on
EasyJet. Which means no long train trip eating up most of a day towards the end of our trip. We can actually fly to de Gaulle the morning of our return and make it there in plenty of time to catch our outbound flight.
This will make planning a bit easier as we no longer have to worry about making our route more circular.
Très Bien!
Labels: france, transportation, travel planning
Monday, November 27, 2006
Last night I spent about an hour and half on the phone with
Alaska Airlines booking tickets for our trip to France next year. And although the customer service woman was very friendly and helpful, it was still far more complicated than I was expecting. Eventually, plans had to change in order for us to get tickets at all.
Originally I wanted us to fly in to Amsterdam and then out of Nice. Not possible. And so after going through every possible iteration of date change and arrival/departure city change we finally settled on flying into and out of Paris (not ideal, but we'll live with it), pushing departure back a week and taking on an additional day at the end.
The net result of all the changes is that we have decided to skip Amsterdam this time and concentrate exclusively on France. This is not entirely a bad thing, I think. After our last hectic trip (to five countries in 18 days) it will be nice to take things at a (slightly) more relaxed pace. Well, at least as relaxed as any vacation I'm planning can be.
I will update the rest of the site to reflect these changes in our plans. Now that we have our departure firmly settled, I'm really looking forward to diving in to the meat of the planning, including booking an apartment for our week in Paris.
Labels: france, journal_entry, paris, travel planning
Thursday, November 09, 2006
National Geographic Traveler offers a number of interesting podcasts,
one of which is a series of walking tours narrated by Rudy Maxa of PBS' Smart Travels.
Destinations covered include a wide range of cities including
Paris,
Amsterdam,
New York,
Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
I haven't listened to them yet, but I'll check out one soon and write a little review.
To subscribe to this podcast in iTunes click
here.
Labels: amsterdam, audio_tour, california, dc, europe, france, iPod, new_york, paris, san_francisco, united_states
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Ooo, I very much want to go
here when we're in Paris. Looks like my kind of store. All sort of art supplies and pens and such. And big, too, apparently.
A map can be found
hereLabels: art_supplies, europe, france, paris, shopping
Friday, June 30, 2006
Here are some great tips for travelers visiting Paris. As well as some restaurant suggestions.
An example:
Talking vs. Shouting
Americans talk LOUDLY. (As do people in several other countries). If you don't believe it, watch cable television "news" for a few minutes! It's gotten so that restaurant reviews in the United States now include 'sound' ratings to denote the volume in restaurants. Many of us are used to speaking loudly, especially when we get into groups. If you've ever tried to have a peaceful dinner next to a table celebrating their annual office party, you know what I'm talking about. In Paris, people will modulate their voices so as not to disturb other diners.
Labels: europe, france, paris
Thursday, May 25, 2006
There's a character in
Under The Roofs Of Paris
who bears a remarkable resemblance to
John Cleese, I have no point in bringing this up other than I found it amusing.
This charming little movie from the 1930's is one of the early "talkies" and it's interesting to see how it still retains much of the conventions of silent film, whilst seeming to be a little uncertain what to do with this new fangled sound thing. Consequently music is featured prominently. Not a musical, per se, but many of the scenes focus around groups of people singing a song as this must have seemed like the most obvious thing to do with the new technology.
The story revolves around a song selling Frenchman and his pursuit of a beautiful young woman who is being pursued by the evil John Cleese look alike. Complications ensue. It's most worth watching for the glimpses of Parisian life and cityscapes from the early part of the 20th century. Fun movie.
Labels: europe, france, movies, paris
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
I had no idea there was a
wine museum in Paris, but I probably should have assumed...
Labels: europe, france, museum, paris, wine
Friday, May 05, 2006
There's a scene in
Blue where
Juliette Binoche is sitting on her own in a café, she orders a coffee and when it arrives she picks up a sugar cube and dips the corner of it into the cup. The camera holds on the cube as it slowly absorbs the coffee and turns brown. It's little moments like these that make this film such a pleasure.
Binoche plays Julie Vignon, the wife of France's most celebrated composer. The movie opens with a car accident that claims the life of her husband and child and leaves Vignon in the hospital. When she recovers she decides to start her life over, selling her house and all her possessions and moving into a small Paris apartment.
The plot revolves around her attempts to get her life together and various outsiders attempts to her husbands final composition which was almost complete at the time of his death. By the end of the movie we're not entirely sure that it wasn't in fact Vignon herself who was responsible for her husbands music.
It's a beautiful film, and I highly recommend it. It is the first in the
Three Colors Trilogy by
Krzysztof Kieslowski. They are all well worth seeing, but Blue is the only one set primarily in Paris.
Labels: europe, france, movies, paris
Friday, April 21, 2006
A rental site called
Paris Attitude, found via the
Paris Voice Magazine web site.
This one looks like it has some good inexpensive rental units. And lots of them.
Added to the sidebar.
Labels: accomodations, europe, france, paris
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Cinèma Trail is a new website produced by
PDIF.com, the official tourist website for Paris, to coincide with their new promotion campaign "Paris au Cinèma". Here is an
article from the
New York Time about it.
I must say I love the idea behind the promotion, but the web site is a bit flawed in the execution. For instance there is a section called
Wanders and Walks. Now a title like that would lead one to believe that is contained walking tours of locations used in various films, but not really. It instead offers general descriptions of films shot at in a particular location without providing details.
I was hoping for something more along the lines of the
Rick Steves walking tours. In particular, a map with spots marked off and a short description of what was shot there and when.
I think this is still a good idea, and perhaps someone will come up with something along these lines sometime.
Labels: europe, france, movies, paris
Friday, March 31, 2006
We'll Always Have Paris by John Baxter
I just finished reading this book yesterday and really enjoyed it. It covers the sexual underside of Parisian history through out the last 100 years, but hangs it on the framework of the author's first year in Paris and the impending birth of his first child. They are strange bed fellows to be sure and while both strands of the book work independently, they don't really work together. But that's ok, because as I said they are both interesting and entertaining in and of themselves.
I got a number of good movie recommendations from the book, and immediately added them to my
Netflix queue.
Labels: books, europe, france, paris
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Virginie Ledoyen stars in
A Single GirlI'll warn you right up front that this movie is not for everyone. There's not much plot and nothing major really happens, it is rather, what French films do so well and American films don't, a slice of life drama.
The action centers around a young woman who just found out she is pregnant, is starting a new job, and is breaking up with her boyfriend all on the same day. A lot of the film takes place in real time as she goes about her new job as a room service waitress at a posh hotel, and chronicles her interactions with her coworkers and the hotel guests, most of whom are insane.
If you like quite and thoughtful films, this is a good one with good performances all around. If, however you are just looking for mindless action, look elsewhere.
Virginie Ledoyen also starred in another fun French film that I would recommend called
8 WomenLabels: europe, france, movies, paris
Monday, March 27, 2006
I'm going to add a new category to the left sidebar for movies about Paris.
The first one I'm going to recommend is
Amélie which I'm sure you've probably all ready seen, or at least heard about. This movie is really a love letter to Paris, granted it's a prettified, fanciful version the real thing but still...
It's a charming heart-warming movie you can't help but enjoy. As a reviewer for
The Stranger noted: You don't have to be an asshole to not like this film, but it helps (or something like that, I'm quoting from memory).
Update: These have been moved onto the country/city resource pages.
Labels: europe, france, movies, paris
Sunday, March 26, 2006
According to a post at
this site 2004's winner can be found at La fournée d'Augustine, 96 rue Raymond Losserand, 14th arrondissement.
MapThe 2005 winner, Eric Sana, 3 rue du retrait, 20th arrondissement.
MapAnd the 2006 winner, Jean-Pierre Cohier, can be found
here.
MapLabels: europe, food, france, paris
Friday, March 24, 2006
I have another book to recommend,
Carnet De Voyage by Craig Thompson.
Now this one is sort of cheating as most of it takes place in Morocco, but some of it is set in Paris. This book is not so much a story as a beautifully illustrated travel journal. The pictures are mostly done in brush pen with no preliminary drawing, which irritates me to no end. This is the way I wish I could draw. Sigh.
Any way, pick it up, you won't be sorry.
Labels: books, europe, france, paris
Thursday, March 23, 2006
This site looks like it has some decent deals.
No internet in the apartments though. It would be ideal to find a place that had a computer and internet. Some of the places through
Kudeta seem to have for a little extra cash.
Labels: accomodations, europe, france, paris
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
This looks like a pretty good resource for cheap hotels in Europe.
I know there are tones of these sites around, but most seem to be light on information and heavy on promotion.
This one looks like it's got a lot of information and opinions and not just about hotels. They've got some nice
city guides as well.
I'll add it to the resource sidebar.
Hotels for Amsterdam that look good:
Hotel AbbaHotel BemaHotel de la HayeHotel de LanterneHotel de WestertorenHotel GroenendaelHotel La BohèmeLabels: accomodations, amsterdam, europe, france, paris
Monday, March 20, 2006
Located at
51 rue de Bercy The
Cinèmathéque Française is housed in the former home of the American Center. A building designed by
Frank Gehry.
Here is a page with a little information about it.
When we were in
Prague last year, I very much wanted to go see the Gehry building known as
Fred and Ginger but completely spaced it until near the end of the last day of our visit, by which time it was too late. I hope I will not make the same mistake this time.
Labels: architecture, europe, france, movies, paris
Friday, March 17, 2006
Rick Steves' is finally producing Audio versions of the walking tours in his books. And lucky us, he's starting with Paris!
The first two up are audio guides for the Louvre and d'Orsay museums along with maps.
They can be downloaded from his site
here or you can
subscribe to the podcast through
iTunes.
Next up is are tours of Versailles and an historic Paris walk.
This is great. I love to do the walking tours in his books when traveling, and it will be so much nicer not to have to carry around the books and stop to read every few minutes. This way is much more inconspicuous.
Labels: audio_tour, europe, france, iPod, paris
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Restaurants to check out:
Chez Marianne2 Rue des Hospitalieres-St-Gervais
M: St. Paul — Le Marais
Map —
ReviewLe Cafe de la Place23 Rue d'Odessa
M: Edgard-Quinet
MapLabels: europe, france, paris, restaurants
Sunday, March 12, 2006
A link to the New York Times travel section on
ParisI will add it to the sidebar soon.
Labels: europe, france, paris
