Aug 2, 2012 - Nancy ... Cité aux Portes d'Or

Lundi le 30 juillet jour 35 Départ de Strasbourg vers Nancy dans la Champagne-Lorraine. La durée du voyage est de 90 minutes en train régional. L'hôtel est situé près de la gare. Aussitôt les bagages déposés, nous nous dirigeons vers la ville vielle comme disent les Nancéiens. Nous avons modifié notre itinéraire. Nous devions aller vers l’Autriche mais nous avons bifurqué vers la Champagne à la découverte de la ville de Nancy. Alors que nous étions à Colmar, nous avons regardé un reportage à TV 5 sur cette ville, il n’en fallait pas plus...

Jul 26, 2012 - Tournon, Tain l'Hermitage, Viviers

Another hot day! Once again Ivan preferred to explore on his own while I took the boat's guided tour. He explored the little town of Tournon where we were docked. I rode a bus to 3 sights in or near Tain l'Hermitage: 1) a chocolate factory shop that was very generous with its dark chocolate samples. I had a sugar high by 10:00 A.M. 2) a French art gallery Paintings from 1945-1965) in a lovingly restored old 16th century stone home with a tiny courtyard. 3) A winery tour and tasting. None of the 3 dry wines were to my liking but I enjoyed...

Oct 14, 2011 - Not lost in France

11th October One of the major reasons that we decided on the number 5 Euro velo route (although we think the bloke from Reading made it up as we have yet to see a sign) was because it went through Colmar. We last came on an overnight stop to skiing as it was a convenient place just off the motorway. It was just after Christmas and we thought we had arrived at the home town of Hansel and Gretal it was so pretty and we said that we must return, so we have and it is just as quaint as we remembered. Summer is back, at least in the short term so...

Jun 22, 2011 - We made it to Paris!

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, Well, we made it to Paris! Evryone is currently safe in their Hotel Campanile rooms. Many are even headed off to sweet dreamland. :-) Today was a very interesting day. Chris stated that he learned more today than he did all year in history. It is amazing how being able to see it brings it all home. We began by saying goodbye to the host families. They were great! Jessica and Alex cried. Then we headed off to Verdun. Verdun is the sight of the Battle of Verdun from WW1. It lasted over 300 days and cost almost...

Jun 20, 2011 - Hello Part 2 - Nancy

Hello, Part 2 has arrived. Yesterday, visited Nancy. We are currently based in Nancy. After breakfast, we met the rest of the group about 100 yards from the hotel. The first ones we came across were Adam and Joshua. They had rabbit the night before - Joshua liked it, Adam did not. They loved the light show that they saw and enjoyed their host family. Alex and Jessica have decided they will cry when they leave their host in France. Joshua and Christopher are living on top of a school and think that is cool. Chauncey and Dr. Bruce are with a...

Nov 7, 2010 - Metz

We are up on a Sunday morning and decide to pass on a hotel breakfast, instead going into Nancy to scout for a much-needed Laundromat. We find one and then, Linda sees a lovely little patisserie where we enjoy fantastic croissants and coffee before walking, while the washing finishes. We know Nancy’s old city is close by. We come upon a classic car meet in the middle of a park – and there is a traveling circus there as well. We keep walking and Voila, suddenly we come upon the most dazzling square, with ornate buildings, wrought-iron and...

Nov 6, 2010 - Nancy

We plan on visiting three sites today: the Memorial de l’Alsace-Moselle , the Natzwieler-Struthof Concentration Camp, and finally one of the site of the Maginot Line before going to Nancy. The Memorial de l’Alsace-Moselle is staggering. We go the base but as it’s also a museum and we decide not to go in. Instead we move onto where the actual Natzwieler-Struthof Concentration Camp actually is. First is the museum having depictions of every Nazi Concentration and Extermination camp. We unfortunately now know the difference between the two. We...

Apr 15, 2010 - Metz-Lorraine-France

Thursday 15th April 2010 Weather:-Hazy/0vercast-4 to 13 degrees Blois to Metz 507k=4:35h An 8 am departure from our hotel in Blois saw us driving through a light mist with 4 degrees of coolness outside. Today was the longest drive of this trip through Europe and we were not really looking forward to it because part of our drive just by-passes Paris and after our last experience when picking Peter up we knew to expect traffic jams; we were not let down, at least 15k of traffic jam was our pleasure today. Driving through France we find a lot...

Jul 10, 2009 - First Day

Yesterday I arrived in France at 8:35 A.M., which is 1:30 A.M. in the U.S. We took the bus to the train station in Paris to wait for the TGV train. While we were there, I found it was very difficult to find any free water or toilets, and everything was wayyy over-priced, except for the bread. I bought a "demi-baguette" for 0.42 euro cents. It was delicious! Some interesting things I saw were the tame pigeons... Parisians don't wave.. trash on the side of the road.. and two hobos sleeping under a blanket together outside of the train...

Jul 10, 2009 - The Lorraine Valley - Verdun, St. Die

Breakfast was included with our hotel so we headed down stairs for our first restaurant breakfast. Which turned out to be the same breakfast we have been having anyhow (croissants, jam, cereal and yogurt). After breakfast we zipped up the block to the cathedral and walked through a beautiful square. The church was in the midst of being restored. We found out once in the church that it had been heavily bombed and that with age, built in the thirteenth century, was the culprit. Oddly enough the early restoration done in the 30's after the war...

Aug 1, 2008 - France (Camping Les Breuils - Verdun)

It had rained very hard overnight, and the massive thunderstorm that accompanied it had shut down some of the power to the camp. As a result at about 3am this morning we were awoken by the fridge alarm beeping telling us that it was not working. Not sure why (at that stage) we reset it a couple of times to 240 volts, However it still complained, beep – beep – beep and we finally reset it to run off the vehicle battery (12 volt) power with the promise to work it out in the morning then headed back to bed. Rowena quickly got back off to...

Jul 31, 2008 - France (Camping Paris Est – Paris to camping Les Breuils - Verdun)

Thanks to the rowdy group previously mentioned we got very little sleep overnight. The group had headed towards the bar (along with a large number of young people about to start a Contiki Tour) and the party went on for quite a while. I got up in the night when I heard groups walking about the campsite and around the parked rigs. A group sounded as if they were outside and at least one group thought it was funny to bang on caravans/camping cars and run away. There is a complaint due to the management and I deliver it in no uncertain terms...