It was drizzling as Pat and I stepped off the train at the Saint-Émilion station, so we pulled up our hoods and covered our backpacks before charting the path on my cell phone. We turned away from the ancient wine town… Read More ›
Exploring France
Day trips, weekends, hikes (mainly to wine).
By Train, Bus, and Foot: Sénanque Abbey
For years, I’d admired photographs of the purple lavender fields in front of the stark-grey Notre-Dame de Sénanque, a Cistercian abbey in Provence. With our time in Paris dwindling, and with the lavender season a brief mid-summer event, if I… Read More ›
Dinan, France
Ever since I read All the Light We Can Not See, I’ve wanted to visit Saint Malo. As it turns out, so does everyone. And for that reason, I elected to make our base the less touristy Dinan. In four… Read More ›
Lost in Brittany, France
It didn’t make sense; Dinan was not listed as a stop on the 5:30 train from Rennes to Saint Malo. Yet our ticket was for 5:30, and this was the only train leaving the station at that time. Pat and… Read More ›
A Day in Giverny and Vernon, France
From the Saint Lazare train station, I caught the 7:18 to Vernon. My destination was Claude Monet’s home in Giverny. I planned this trip the night before, a solo adventure on the last day before a heat wave descended on… Read More ›
The World In Between 