If you are planning a trip to London, Paris, Giverny, Mont St. Michel, Loire Valley, taking the Eurostar through the Chunnel, renting a car in Paris… or simply enjoy reading about and seeing images, please enjoy these articles and feel free to share.

London In Summation – OK, so our London adventure was not seamless. One could say it was disastrous, but I would not. Humor forbids it. But the trip did improve in every respect, and that’s what I remembered after it was over, when I began this blog sequence.  read more…

The Chunnel: No Claustrophobia Here! If you have never ridden the EuroStar train between London’s Waterloo Station and Paris’ Gare d’ Nord, you may, like many people, imagine it to be 2-3/4 hours in an ominously dark tunnel far beneath the cold rough seas of the English Channel; “claustrophobic” and downright unnerving. But you’d be wrong.  read more…

Our Paris Apartment: Sleeping With The Eiffel Tower – Behind the massive royal-blue doors of #23 Rue de Seine, on the Left Bank, half a block from the Quai where the Pont des Art intersects the Louvre, hides a courtyard with an art restoration shop. Within this courtyard is a locked double-door into a 6-story building of apartments. Marie Noel (Merry Christmas) meets us with the ever-lilting two-tone doorbell-like intonation: ”Bon jour!”  read more…

The French Rental Car From Paris – In the pinky-blue sunrise of a crisp Santa Fe winter morning, I think back on five days in Paris and three days’ driving adventure around the west of France, soaking in images of rolling countryside, stopping in Giverny, Rouen, Honfleur, Mont Saint-Michel, Vouvry, Amboisie and returning to the insane traffic and confusion of navigating to Charles De Gaulle Airport, and how describing each rich and tasty encounter, each “aha” and delight, each ”ya gotta laugh” moment is like trying to stuff a king-sized down comforter into a quart-size bag; it’s impossible but you compress a corner and keep pushing.  read more…