Category Archives: Eastern Europe

Cycling, Eastern Europe, Paris

Blogger Round-Up: Kaunas Castle in the Baltics – Cycling planning tool for Europe – Paris bucket list

5 Comments

I have three very disparate subjects for this week’s blogger round-up. Andrea from Rearview Mirror takes us to Lithuania, one of the Baltic States, where she visits Kaunas Castle and experiences her first Baltic sunset. Fellow cyclist, Maggie LaCoste from Experience France by Bike, introduces us to a very efficient website called Biroto for planning bike rides in Europe while  Sara from Simply Sara Travel poses the question of our “must-sees” in Paris and comes up with palm trees. Enjoy!

Kaunas Castle and My First Baltic Sunset

by Andrea from Rear View Mirror (formerly Destination Europe), a fellow Australian who, after 6 years of living in France, has given up her Paris apartment to live a nomadic life slowing travelling around Europe, experiencing each destination like a local.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAfter a slow but scenic drive through the flat Polish countryside we slipped through the abandoned border crossing and I was finally in the Baltic States. I’ve always been curious about this part of Europe. With so few travellers making their way this far east, I wanted to see what everyone was missing out on, if anything. While my road trip was officially starting in thegorgeous capital of Estonia, the drive from Warsaw required a quick stopover in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second largest city. Read more

German Website Biroto – A Great Planning Tool for Cycling in Europe

by Maggie LaCoste from Experience France by Bike, an American who loves biking anywhere in Europe, but especially France, which has the perfect combination of safe bike routes, great food, great weather and history.

experience_france_birotoThe last day of craziness is upon me as I get ready to leave for my bicycling trip to Normandy and Brittany.  But before I leave, I wanted to pass along this information about a great bicycle trip planning tool that I discovered recently.  I received a note from Ans Leenders from the Netherlands who was having problems trying to download GPS information for an upcoming trip along the Via Rhona.  For whatever reason, he was having technical difficulty accessing the GPS files from the Via Rhona website.  In the course of trying to find another place to access the GPS data, Ans discovered Biroto and luckily he passed the website on to me.  And I am now passing it on to you! Read more 

Bring out the bucket list

by Sara from Simply Sara Travel, a girl from New Jersey who traded in her bagels for baguettes and moved to Paris. The aim of her blog is to inspire readers to travel, embrace a new culture, and open their minds to new perspectives.

Paris is a very transient city when you live here as an expat.  People constantly come and go, and while it’s a joy to live here and constantly welcome new friends, I’ve also had to become accustomed to saying goodbye.

Square des Anciens Combattants d'IndochineA close friend of mine just left Paris, and while I could write a month’s worth of posts on how much I will miss her, let’s focus on the positive: The bucket list. While “bucket list” means to most people “a list of things to do before you die,” for any American expat in Paris it has a less tragic meaning: “The list of sights to see, food to eat, and cities to visit before returning to the United States.”

That’s right, I love the bucket list. It’s a way to reflect on what places I love in Paris, discover new things or restaurants that have made it onto other’s lists, and if I’m lucky, I get the opportunity to join a friend in checking off items on their own list before they leave. Read more

Eastern Europe, Paris, Restaurants, Sightseeing, Slovakia

Weekly Blogger Round-Up: Secret hot chocolate spots in Paris – The blue church in Bratislava – Good & bad in Istanbul

3 Comments

This week’s Blogger Round-Up starts with a post by Judy MacMahon from My French Life who shares 4 secrets spots for hot chocolate – I shall be the first to try! Next Phoebe from Lou Messugo takes us to visit the Blue Church in Bratislava – I’m so jealous because I didn’t know of its existence when I visited the city last summer. Anda from Travel Notes and Beyond then tells us the good and bad of Istanbul which will stand me in good stead when I go there in September. Enjoy!

Paris off the beaten path: 4 secret spots for hot chocolate

by Judy McMahon from MyFrenchLife, a global community of French and francophiles connecting like-minded people in English & French

hot-chocolateThe French know their chocolat chaud like no one else: it’s how they begin their day! After all, there’s nothing quite like a proper French hot chocolate – except perhaps drinking said French hot chocolate in Paris…

There are the classic, well-known spots to sip a hot chocolate in Paris. And then there are those little cafés that the Parisians would love to keep for themselves; but secrets have a way of getting out. Read more

The Blue Church, Bratislava

by Phoebe from Lou Messugo, a traveller, francophile, expat, mum and foodie now living in Roquefort les Pins where she runs a gîte after many years of travelling and living in Asia, Eastern Europe and Australia

Blue_Church_Bratislava_2After two years of writing exclusively about France, mostly about the area where I live and French culture, I’m diverging into wider pastures, so this, my friends, is my first offering not about France. I’ve been itching to write about other places I’ve been and having just returned from a trip to Vienna, Budapest and Bratislava I’ve decided it’s now or never!

Bratislava, the tiny capital of Slovakia, is only an hour’s drive from Vienna, making it perfect for a day trip.  I had done a little research about the place and knew that I wanted to see the Blue Church, no matter what. And in this case the “no matter what” was a big black cloud and rumbles of thunder coming from the general direction of the church.  Read more

The Good and The Bad of Istanbul

by Anda from Travel Notes & Beyond, the Opinionated Travelogue of a Photo Maniac, is a Romanian-born citizen of Southern California who has never missed the opportunity to travel

istanbul_andaIt is difficult to judge a city of the size of Istanbul after a 5 day trip, but if I were to describe the little that I saw of it in just a few words, I would say: huge, crowded, majestic and unique. Huge, because the city boundaries cover almost 2,000 square kilometers, while the metropolitan region, or the Province of Istanbul, covers 6,220 square kilometers. Crowded, because everywhere you go in Istanbul you walk almost shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other people. Read more

 

Architecture, Art, Eastern Europe, Food, Paris, Uncategorized, Weekly Blogger Round-Up

Weekly Blogger Round-Up: Origin of the croissant – Road Trip to Romania – Le Petit Palais

2 Comments

This week’s Blogger Round-Up is all Australian. French Moments shares the story of the croissant with us which is more Turkish orAustrian than French while Andrea from Rear View Mirror takes us on the ultimate road trip to Romania, a country that is definitely on my wish list. Gemma King from Les Musées de Paris, a newcomer on these pages, takes us through Le Petit Palais, one of my favourite museums in Paris. Enjoy! 

The Formidable Story behind the French croissant

by French Moments, a Sydney-based organisation with an international focus which promotes the French language and culture to English-speakers worldwide. Their French team is all about the language, culture and experience

Croissant-2-copyright-French-Moments1France is known for its “croissants”. It is up there with the Eiffel Tower and beret as a French icon. Here in Sydney, most people know that the croissant is a true French delicacy and it is loved in all its forms: plain croissant, chocolate croissant (“pain au chocolat” in France), almond croissant, ham and cheese croissant and more…

The idea of researching the croissant came to me in June 2011 when one of our French students asked me the meaning of the French verb “croître” (to grow). While explaining this word in French, I wrote on the board another word using the same root: “la croissance”. Immediately, the man pointed out: “then it’s like ‘croissant’!”. Read more

The Ultimate Romanian Road Trip

by Andrea from Rear View Mirror (formerly Destination Europe), a fellow Australian who, after 6 years of living in France, has given up her Paris apartment to live a nomadic life slowing travelling around Europe, experiencing each destination like a local.

sighisoara-2-300x200I don’t know why I had such a poor opinion of Romania before visiting. I was expecting it be more like the Balkans and less like Eastern Europe. I was thinking it would be more than a little rough around the edges but in actual fact the cities are much like elsewhere in Europe with their beautiful historic centres, delicious traditional and modern cuisine plus some very cool castles. Read more

Le Petit Palais

By Gemma King, from Les Musées de Paris, self-proclaimed muséophile, and an Australian PhD student working between Melbourne and Paris. She writes on movies for work and goes to museums for fun.

lesmuseesdeparis-petit-palais-1Many Paris museums work because they adopt a single point of interest and run with it. Le Musée du parfum features nothing but perfume, but it investigates the topic like nowhere else. The good people of Le Musée Clémenceau seem to think nobody on earth has ever mattered as much as Président Georges, but by the end of your visit, you’ll probably agree. Paris museums go to all manner of extremes, favouring the most precise of objects (ahem, Museum of Eyeglasses) and exploring that object, its history and its specificities, with incredible dedication. These extremes of passion are often what make Paris museums so special. Read more