We spent our last week before getting into our new home with dear friends in Toulon. This was familiar grounds with amazing hospitality and served us well in being able to take a breather from all the moving around in the previous weeks. It was sort of a mini vacation from our vacation. We didn’t move around too much except for popping into nearby Bandol one day (for lunch), and visiting Toulon’s Centre Ville on another occasion. The rest of our time was spent relaxing by the pool, going to the beach and getting organized for the girls’ school opening the following week.
Continue reading “Catching up with Old Friends in Toulon”Keeping up with the Romans: Exploring Provence
With two weeks into our journey, we finally made it to Provence, the region we’ll call home for the upcoming year. Still a week+ before gaining access to our house, we took this time to explore a few of Provence’s top attractions led by charming villages, ancient Roman sites, and bucolic landscapes. Some were familiar to us from previous visits while others expanded our coverage of the area. Our B&B for this leg of the trip was located just where the Rhône River splits Beaucaire and Tarascon, two facing towns whose castles define their presence along the Rhône — a great setting with easy access to numerous points of interest.
Continue reading “Keeping up with the Romans: Exploring Provence”The Unexpected Detour: When Travel Plans Get Upended
Search engine search engine of the digital world, what’s the best travel booking site of them all? Hmm.. we tapped booking.com for a handful of stays along our French adventure which progressed smoothly. However when news arrived (with less than 24 hour notice), that booking.com double booked our B&B in Bordeaux and cancelled our stay, this set off an unpleasant scramble (needless to say their claim to have found a similar stay for us at the Holiday Inn in Bordeaux city, proved their customer service people either never traveled or had severely bad timing with humor).
Continue reading “The Unexpected Detour: When Travel Plans Get Upended”A Birthday in Bordeaux: Turning 45 at the 45th Parallel
I always dreamed of celebrating a birthday in Bordeaux wine country, pairing the beauty of the vineyards with medieval towns and delicious wines. For years leading up to turning 40, I thought that would be the one.
Continue reading “A Birthday in Bordeaux: Turning 45 at the 45th Parallel”Our First Few Days in France
The start of our year in France landed us in Paris on Aug 5. Access to our new home would not be until end of the month, giving us a 3-week window to explore the country. After grabbing our car rental from Paris’ CDG airport we started making our way towards the Loire valley, splitting our first few days between the towns of Orléans and Saumur.
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Our Provençal Year 