Sometimes a trip can be the culmination of a life-long dream, or the realization of an important goal. Maybe you win a vacation on the Price is Right. Or, maybe…
All Aboard!: Orient Express, Day 5 & 6, (part C)
There we are, all dressed up and ready to enjoy a meal created by Michelin-star chef, Jean Imbert. Imbert is new to Belmond, having joined them at the start of…
All Aboard! Orient Express, Day 5, part b
Imagine for a moment that you are stepping off a bus into an ordinary car park. Then, as you walk between a couple of delivery vans you see it: the…
All Aboard!: Orient Express, Day 5, part a
The original subtitle for this series was “Trip Of a Lifetime” ( or “TOAL”) and, just to cut to the chase, that is an exact description of the journey from…
Interstitial: Packing for 18 Days
While our Southern France posts were going live, someone asked me how we managed to go for such a long trip with only a suitcase and backpack. With the caveat…
Jules Verne Died For This: Southern France, Day 17-18
And so it all comes down to this. More than two weeks of beaches and sun, of castles and gardens and even a splash of Leonardo da Vinci, and now…
There Are Gardens…: Southern France, Day 16
To paraphrase Vesper Lynd, “there are Gardens and there are Gardens; this is the latter.” We packed up from Les Sources and made our way west, bound for Nantes which…
A Down Day, and a Look at Les Sources: Southern France, Day 15
Let’s just get one thing out of the way right now: nobody’s payin’ us nothin’ for nothin’. (Ok, that should have scared off the English majors, let’s the rest of…
There Was A House in Old Orleans: Southern France, Day 14
This trip to France has been the opposite of our most recent jaunt to Ireland. The pace has been what may best be described as “elegiac”. Breakfast whenever we’re ready…
Chamwow? More Like Chambord: Southern France, Day 13
We begin our day at our new hotel with breakfast. No crap, really? But this is actually reporting because the breakfast was pretty good. Yes, that’s a low bar, but…
