On and Off the Map

We left our apartment on the Right Bank and moved to a hotel on the Left Bank, the Hotel Parc Saint-Severin with a spacious room and balcony overlooking the Eglise (Church) Saint-Severin and Paris rooftops, plus, the top of Notre Dame. We stayed in this hotel some years ago and really liked it. It is…

With Steve wanting to ”take the day off,” I continued with exploring. I had noted the Sainte Chapelle de Vincennes in the pretty King Louis XVI Square nearby and decided to visit. It is known as the Expiatory Chapel and dedicated to the memory of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI and built on the…

Wanting to spend more time in Paris, we decided we would rent an apartment for the first half of our stay and then stay in a hotel the second half and compare the two stays. We rented an apartment through Airbnb, and, being fairly familiar with Paris, we selected a good location. The apartment is…

We left Quimper and were on our way to Roscoff with a stop in Brest for lunch. Originally I had planned to stay in Brest, but, the more I read, the more convinced I became that Brest was not the place to stay. Not that Brest is not an interesting and important city as it…

We left Geneva via a TGV (“train a grande vitesse”), translated to a very fast train. Only in this case, it was not all that fast. The original schedule we booked was changed and added a half hour to the train ride, which, of course shortened our connecting time a half hour. That in turn,…

Days with Friends – It is always a special event when one gets to enjoy visiting another country with friends who truly know the area. And, so we are lucky to be able to spend a few days with Ulla and Gerry in the eastern part of France. We are staying in the Domaine de…

A few farewell photos of Malta. . . And so our time in Malta ended Monday morning with a flight at 6:25 a.m. (taxi at 4:10 a.m.!) back to Paris where we retrieved our luggage and then checked it in on an Air France flight to Marseille at 12:35 p.m. to arrive at 2:00 p.m….

There is so much to write about that it is hard to know where to begin. Our first night in Malta we had dinner at a small restaurant just down the street from the hotel, simply named the U Street Bistro. The next day I toured Valletta with a friend from Washington, DC, days who…

To St. Louis to Louisville, KY, to Nashville, TN, to Thomasville, Ga & Home Leaving Omaha it was a long day’s drive to St. Louis, Missouri, where we spent the night at the Hyatt Regency by the St. Louis Arch. St. Louis is relevant to us as we spent a few days of our honeymoon…

To Salt Lake City, UT, to Denver, CO, area to Omaha, NE From Jackson it was a fairly long day’s drive to Salt Lake City (“SLC”), where we were staying at Tom’s home, Steve’s very long time friend’s home along with another of their friends, Jerry. And, although the drive was long, it was a…

To Ketchum/Sun Valley, ID, to Yellowstone National Park through Grand Teton National Park to Jackson, WY Leaving Butte, Montana, our next destination was Ketchum, Idaho. A good part of our drive offered the following view: Fortunately, we had some interesting diversions, like the Craters of the Moon Lava Field. The field spreads across 618 square…

Tacoma, WA, to Kalispell, MT, to Missoula to Butte, MT Leaving Tacoma with our Puget Sound view and condo finally furnished was a bit bittersweet with my sister Patty feeling the same way. However, fall was approaching, so, it was time to start the return trip to Naples. Our first stop was Kalispell, Montana, which…

Leaving California it was on to Bend, Oregon. Northwest Magazine has always had great writeups about Bend, so, it seemed time to check it out as it was on the way to Tacoma (well sort of on the way). It was originally a logging town but is now identified as a getaway for many outdoor…