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Our Home Exchange in Barcelona

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I didn’t realise when I started looking for a home exchange in Barcelona that Paris might not be a peak time from people used to a warmer climate – particularly since our main motivation for going to Spain in February was to get away from the grey skies and cold of Paris! Home exchanges can be either simultaneous or non-simultaneous, depending on various factors. Considering the other home exchanges we were planning this year, a non-simultaneous exchange didn’t seem possible. However, I shall take this factor into account in the future.

grey_skies_paris

I received several refusals but Pep, who lives outside Barcelona and has a one-bedroom flat near Sant Pau Hospital and the Sagrada Familia, fortunately agreed to the swap, although he wasn’t sure until the last minute that he would be able to come to Paris and then, it was only for 2 nights as opposed to our 6 nights. Having a second home definitely makes it easier to juggle with dates.

When Pep saw our listing, he immediately said that his flat was “modesto”. It’s true that we usually try to find equivalent accommodation, but the most important thing is that it is comfortable and clean and has an internet connection. That was certainly the case and we felt very welcome. We weren’t intending to do any cooking so not having a dish washer was not a problem, for example. When we stayed with my brother, sister-in-law, 3 kids and my son in a home exchange on the Gold Coast in Australia, it was a necessity!

Back of Sant Pau, well worth a visit
Back of Sant Pau, well worth a visit

When we arrived, Pep was waiting for us with a French-speaking friend in case we had difficulties communicating. But Pep’s French is more than adequate. He told us his favourite places to wander around and where to have pintxos. He also said that the neighbourhood eating places weren’t very interesting although we had a very “local” experience one evening in the bar opposite when we didn’t feel like going into the centre. It’s true that the food wasn’t anything special, but it was certainly authentic and the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. The ambiance more than made up for the quality.

The only drawback was the distance from the centre but, as I mentioned in previous post, Jean Michel worked out the buses and we probably got to see more of the city than we would have otherwise. Since we had 6 nights, it was not really a problem but for a shorter period it would have been less convenient.

key_box

Pep reached our appartment in Paris without mishap and was able to take the key from our code box next to the front door. These boxes are common pratice in Australia, but little known in Europe, although you can buy them in France without difficulty. It’s absolutely impossible to open the box without the code. Even if you managed to pull the box off the wall you still wouldn’t be able to get into the box. We find it’s a perfect solution.

When we were preparing for our holiday, I tweeted about off-the-beaten track places to visit in Barcelona and received an answer from Roser who lives in Barcelona and works for www.intercambiocasas.com, the Spanish version of the www.homeexchange.com website I use, inviting us to meet up for a coffee. I was delighted!

Roser, Jean Michel, Isabel
Roser, Jean Michel, Isabel

The very dynamic Roser came along with her blogger friend Isabel (http://www.diariodeabordoblog.com), about to embark of her first home exchange. We were able to ask all the questions that had been building up about Catalan and Barcelona over the previous few days and since Roser speaks excellent English and French, Jean Michel was able to launch a very interesting discussion about Catalan independence. Roser also has a blog (http://www.sempreviaggiando.com).

Roser and Isabel gave us lots of suggestions for places to eat but we ran out of days before we could use them all! Roser is also very interested in improving the website and service of homeexchange.com so would love to have feedback. In particular, she would like to know what is the most important thing when looking for a home exchange – location, size of the home, nearby attractions, etc.

Gaudi's lamppost in Plaça Reial
Gaudi’s lamppost in Plaça Reial

The day before we left Barcelona, we were sitting outside at a terrace café in Plaça Reial admiring Gaudi’s lampposts when I received a message from Pep who had just got back from Paris, suggesting we have a coffee. We were soon able to exchange our impressions of Barcelona and Paris and talk about what we’d be doing in our respective cities. Pep had enjoyed being right in the centre of Paris even though he found it a little cold!

Now we’re busy organising our next set of home exchanges – one in France in May then a series in Germany, Austria and Hungary for June/July as we’re going to cycle along the Danube. It’s proving a little difficult to find people outside large cities who are interested in coming to Paris, where we can only provide accommodation for two people. So if anyone has a two-person swap in Ulm and Linz, let me know!

One of those nights!

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Relationnel is on call this week. The reason we live in the Palais Royal is not because he’s a wealthy banker or some such thing. About 4,000 people work in the French reserve bank (Banque de France) that occupies the block of buildings across the road from us. Because of the xxx hectares of gold bullion underground, the technical installations such as the heating, air-conditioning, power generators and IT installations, have to be working at all times, so a team of 8 people (4 for heating & air-conditioning, 4 for power) is on roster during weekends and evenings and need to live close by. Relationnel is one of them.

Snow on the balcony balustrade
Snow on the balcony balustrade

So we go to sleep on Monday night around 11 pm, which is early for us, and his beep goes off at 12.09. Fortunately, he is able to deal with the problem remotely from the computer but by the time he comes back to bed, we’re wide awake. We eventually turn off the light.

Some time later, “Are you sleep?” he says, which immediately wakes me up. “Your phone keeps making noises. Can’t you hear it?” I listen for a while and eventually hear a sort of little ding-a-ling. I go and have a look. I make sure my landline is firmly on its base and go back to bed. By then, I can detect a powerful smell of gas. Relationnel goes downstairs to see where it’s coming from (we don’t have a gas connection so it can’t be us) and comes back to tell me he’s opened the window on the landing and that it’s disappearing.

Snow on the cars in our street
Snow on the cars in our street

By then, the entire bedroom is invaded but it’s pointless opening the window because it’s worse outside. I lie there resisting sleep just in case I die from gas poisoning which is something that happens in this country, mainly due to faulty gas installations. Relationnel starts snoring lightly. Then the ding-a-ling starts again.

I dash into my office and frantically dismantle the phone. The ring continues. I go and wrap the phone in the throw-on rug in the living room and close the door. I go back to bed. The ding-a-ling continues. I realise it must be the other landline, the one the firemen at the bank use to ring Relationnel when there’s an emergency. So I can’t do anything about it and I can’t close the door either in case the phone rings.

Snowing on the Palais Royal
Snowing on the Palais Royal (it’s very hard to take a photo of snow falling)

I go back to bed. Fortunately the smell seems to have disappeared (or maybe I’ve got used to it, which is even more worrying). I read my Kindle for a while using the little clip-on light and eventually drift off. I don’t hear Relationnel get up at 6.45 but at 8 am, on the dot, I’m wrenched from sleep by a loud pumping noise in the normally quiet street below. I can’t believe it. Once a year, they deliver heating oil to the bank for three hours and this is the day.

It turns out that the smell came all the way up the Seine from Rouen due to a leak at a chemical plant that makes lubricants and paints and is classified dangerous for the environment. It was mercaptan gas which has an odour of sweat, garlic and rotten eggs and is said to be harmless. I’m glad I’m not in Rouen. We know the plant, actually, from spending several Christmases in the area. We could often smell fumes. The gas was also blown over the Channel to England! It seems that the poor firemen spent all night reassuring frightened Parisians and Brits. None of us died in our sleep however and the mysterious ding-a-ling has stopped.

The stunning cameo on one of my friend's doors
The stunning cameo on one of my friend’s doors

Oh, and I’ve only lost half a kilo this week, due to an excessively rich meal at a French friend’s house, particularly the tiramisu at the end which was so good that I had an unnecessary second helping. Sigh. It’s much easier to control what you eat in a restaurant.

Using an iPhone in Paris- woohoo! – Learning French … an ongoing love affair – Expats Blog Award 2012

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It’s Wednesday again, and I have two blogs by fellow Australians to present and an award to announce. Teena Hughes from A Night in Paris, explains how to use your iPhone in Paris while Jill from Gigi’s French Window, a brand new blog,  shares her love of all things French and gives tips on learning French. I am also delighted to announce that I have been nominated for the 2012 Expats Blog Award by expatblogs.com which is a wonderful way to discover new blogs by expats across the globe.

Using an iPhone in Paris- woohoo!

by Teena Hughes from A Night in Paris, a Francophile who shares her week-long adventures in Paris in summer, taking readers off the beaten track to meet with locals, laugh & enjoy

A wonderful thought, but if you’re bringing your iPhone on holidays (from outside France, like the Optus network in Australia) you need to be aware of a few things. Here is a small section of the map of Paris showing the City of Paris WIFI hotspots (more info further down the page). Read more.

Learning French … an ongoing love affair

by Jill from Gigi’s French Window, French ponderings from an Australian who must have been French in another life

Where did my love of all things french come from……..? well, learning the french language at High school (many universes ago!) must have had something to do with it..my poor poor teacher..most of the students showed no interest whatsoever in her class..but moi? … well I sat at the very front..’ecoutez..ing and repetez …ing ‘ as I was told..I was sold on it at 13. Read more

Expats Blog Award 2012

Expats Blog, a “home for all expats abroad”, unites expat bloggers with their latest blog posts, blog reviews, expat interviews & contests. Their news team presents daily topical news items from around the globe. Every year, they “trawl the net dishing out awards to the very best expat bloggers” they can find for each country. They have gold, silver, bronze & runner up awards to the top 5 blogs in each country.

This year, Aussie in France has been included in their nominations. One judging criterion will be the reviews left on the listing on the Expats Blog website. It isn’t the only judging method, but it indicates that the blog has loyal readers and shows their feedback.

Some of you have already left your comments (and I am very touched by the lovely things you have said). If you have not already done so and would like to support Aussie in France, just click on the Expats Blog Award logo on the right and scroll down or click on http://www.expatsblog.com/blogs/526/aussie-in-france. Many thanks for your wonderful support.

 

Sorting out the vines – Visiting some of the major champagne houses: Taittinger, Pommery and Moet & Chandon –

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This Wednesday’s blog round-up introduces a new blog from a fellow Australian living in the Loire Valley, Susan, author of Days on the Claise, explaining how to recognise the different grape varieties in the Loire. Thanks to her post, I was able to identify the grapevine at Closerie Falaiseau as gamay. Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris also explores a wine-related topic – a visit to some of the major champagne housse in  Reims – just one of her recent posts on the world’s favourite beverage!

Sorting out the vines

by Days on the Claise, a fellow Australian living in the south of the Loire Valley, writing about restoring an old house and the area and its history

On a recent visit with clients to la Domaine de la Chaise in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher the owner and winemaker Christophe Davault gave us an impromptu primer on how to tell grape varieties apart in the field.
Grape varieties are notoriously difficult to tell apart, but people like Christophe, who have worked with them all their lives, can do so at a glance. He says you need to look at the leaves and the wood. By wood he means the annual growth above the graft. Below the graft is the rootstock and will look much the same for all the varieties. He has planted examples of 5 varieties along a barn wall in his farmyard, and he explained the differences to us as follows: Read more

Visiting some of the major champagne houses: Taittinger, Pommery and Moet & Chandon

by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, an American by birth, Swiss by marriage, resident of Paris with a Navigo Pass for the metro that she feels compelled to use

Just as I was dropping off to sleep last night, Stephane nudged my shoulder and asked if I was planning to write a blog post today. Rather surprised by his question, I mumbled that I was and started to return to that luxurious state when you’re just about to…. “What are you going to write about?” Jolted awake, I collected my thoughts and responded that the post would probably feature the major champagne houses. “Are you going to mention that the Cathedral of Reims is where 33 kings of France were crowned?” was the next question that he fired at me. When I replied that I wasn’t intending to write about it because we hadn’t seen it, Stephane chuckled and said that was the point he wanted to make. Read more

Cameras I Have Known

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Writing last week’s post about my genuine Italian fresco made me nostalgic for Italy. We won’t be going there this year as we often do because we’re going to Australia for 5 weeks in September and have run out of holidays. Such a pity because I love Italy. First, I love the language and get a kick out of trying to speak it even though I can’t really hold a conversation. Second, it’s much warmer than France – particularly this year ! – and third, I love the lifestyle. There’s also the wine and the food and the endless choice of beautiful places to visit …

Hills of Umbria taken from our bedroom one summer  – you can see Relationnel’s foot!

Back in another life, I went to Rome and Sardinia and spent a couple of weeks with friends in Umbria when the kids were little. The places I visited are a bit of a blur. It was before the days of digital cameras and before we started our travel diary. My printed photos haven’t been sorted for so  long now that I have to rifle through endless packets to find some dimly remembered scene! It’s wonderful now to be able to match the date on a photo on my computer with  a diary entry. I’m a little disappointed at the quality of my early photos though.

 

Taken from the edge of the same property, but with my finger on the left!

I’m not one of those people who knows all about settings and photographic techniques. I like to be able to whip out the camera immediately and catch what I see. So the important thing is to have a good camera! And one that’s not too fragile either. My first digital camera, a gift from my children on a big birthday in 2003, gave up the ghost  when a screw came loose from being jogged about in my bike bag and sand got in. Just when I’d got out of the habit of putting my finger over the lens when taking photos too …

The same photo without the finger after using Photoshop

Relationnel then bought himself a very good camera that I use all the time. It’s small and compact and has an excellent Leica lens. However, I’ve broken the spring on the zoom because if I put it back in the case each time I finish using it, it takes too long to get it out when I need it. So most of the time, it lives in my hand bag or the pocket of my jacket or coat. It seems the lens is scratched too …

I’ve also been using an iPhone 3G which does well when there’s plenty of light but isn’t so great the rest of the time. It has the great advantage however of being quick and discreet to use and hard to damage! And now I’ve swapped to a 4S iPhone which has a much better camera. Black Cat showed me what she can do with hers and I was very impressed.

From the rooftops of Paris taken with Leica lens

 

Another great advantage of digital photos of course is that you can use software to improve them. A few years ago, I learnt to use Photoshop which produces wonderful results even if you only know the basics as I do. You can get a Photoshop phone app as well. I love Instagram too. It’s a phone app that enables you to cut and play around with your photos a bit then post them on twitter and facebook at the same time. You can also use it to send them by email.

Waiting for the fireworks on Bastille Day taken with my iPhone 4S

The latest addition to my electronic imaging equipment is an iPad which I won, would you believe! As an encouragement to purchase their PDF Converter software, which I consider is the best on the market, Nuance ran a competition with iPads as prizes. Fortunately, one of the winners didn’t claim theirs and I was the runner-up. How’s that for luck? I’ve compared the rooftop photos taken with the iPhone 4S and the iPad and they seem very similar. The big advantage of the iPad is that you have a better idea of the final result, but it’s not very portable!

So tell me what sort of camera you like to use and share your tips and apps

At Your Age and In Love

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It’s an excruciatingly hot day in the Loire Valley and we’ve waited until quite late to go bike riding. After cycling about 15 K from Cour Cheverny, we’ve had our picnic dinner by a little lake in Bracieux and I want to find a place to have coffee. Relationnel doesn’t hold out much hope – it’s Thursday evening and Bracieux is a village with about 1300 inhabitants.

We ride into the centre and immediately come across a bar with a terrace jutting out into the street. We lean our bikes against the railing and Relationnel goes off to order. I think I hear someone say “Oh, they’re so cute!”. I look around but can’t see anyone that could possibly be described as cute.  I stand back a bit to take a photo of the café. Relationnel turns at the door to ask me what I want.

Our coffee comes and we drink it. I sneak a look at the other people on the terrace. They all look like regulars with a couple under their belt. A young woman and two men between 30 and 40 at one table and two men in the early thirties at the table closest to us. Relationnel goes off to pay. “Excusez-moi”, says one of the young men, “I just have to tell you how cute you both are.” Relationnel comes back at this point and hears the end of the conversation, “Like that”, continues the young man, “out for an evening ride, at your age, and in love”.

Relationnel (whence his name!) replies, “Yes, the most important part is being in love.” The young man isn’t quite sure what he means. “Finding the right person is the hard bit,” says Relationnel, “Bikes are easy to get.”

We ride off to visit the 17th century market place and as soon as they are out of site, we go into hysterics. “At our age”. Oh dear!

 

Another Great Place to Dine in Blois

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Up until now, most of the time spent in Blois at our beautiful Renaissance home, Closerie Falaiseau, has been devoted to getting the ground floor ready for holiday rental. Now that we have our first guests, we decided it was time for a bit of a holiday. We arrived quite late in Blois, having spent the day driving around Paris and over-estimating the time needed to do various errands such as stocking up on bread-making flour and buying another expresso machine.

We debated where we would go for dinner on a Saturday night without a reservation at nearly 9.30 and thought we might try Vinomania since Femme Francophile and I had enjoyed our wine-tasting there so much. And we were not disappointed!

We chose the Vino Prestige menu, which is a platter for two including foie gras, various cold cuts, cod and salmon tartare, pâté and cheese. We had an excellent entre-deux-mers to go with it. A strange name for a wine (between two seas) particularly when you consider that it comes from the Bordeaux region, but the explanation is simple: it’s grown in the area in between two rivers, the Garonne and Dordogne.

Three grape varieties are blended – semillon, sauvignon and muscadelle. It’s a light wine, to be drunk young, and has a citrus fruit and pineapple nose. It goes well with oysters, fish, crustaceans and foie gras so was the perfect choice! We had an interesting chat with the owner who is just celebrating the first anniversary of Vinomania which is gradually gaining a regular clientele, not always easy in a small town.

I love its bright colours, comfortable armchairs and spacious tables. The service is cheerful and attentive and it’s excellent value for money. Our Vino Prestige platter was 19.50 and our bill, which included two glasses of wine each and an excellent café gourmand, came to about 40 euro. We’ll definitely be going back!

Vinomania Blois, 12 rue du poids du Roi, 41000 Blois. 02 54 90 17 66 http://www.vinomania-restaurant-blois.fr/ 

Wine Tasting in the Loire Valley Part 2

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I just sat down to write up my impressions of our recent wine tasting with Femme Francophile at Vinomania in Blois but, surprise, surprise, I’ve left my notepad at Closerie Falaiseau, and I don’t know how much I can rely on my memory to relate the details of a 3-hour session! But I’ll try anyway and then write another post when I get my notepad back.

Virginie, the sommelier, has various wine tasting themes to offer, but I chose one that links the history of the Loire Valley with the local wine production. Now, wine from the Loire Valley is not held in much esteem in France. Most people favour bordeaux and burgundies for red and Alsatian wines (particularly rieslings) and chardonnay for white, although sancerre does have a small following. There is actually an historical reason for this, but that’s one of the things I can’t remember!

The Loire vineyard is 1013 kilometres long and covers 70,000 hectares. That’s about 170,000 acres. And they produce every type of wine: white (52%), red (25%), rosé (16%) and natural sparkling (6%). The grape varieties (or cépages as they’re called in French) are numerous but the names are often different from those used in other parts of France.

Melon de Bourgogne (brought over from Burgundy by monks in the 17th century), chenin (also called pineau de la Loire), sauvignon (which sancerre is made of), chardonnay (also called auvergnat), pinot gris (alias malvaise), chasselas and romorantin are the main whites – already quite a large collection. The reds are cabernet franc (known as bréton because it originally came from Nantes), gamay, pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, grolleau (sometimes grollot), pinot d’aunis and cot (alias malbec). You may recognise cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon from Bordeaux among those (the other variety down that way is merlot) and pinot noir and chardonnay from Burgundy. But that’s where any ressemblance stops.

The main production areas are Nantes, Anjou-Saumur, Touraine and the Centre. The most well-known appellations (that’s how they categorise wine in France) are probably chinon, bourgueil, saint nicolas de bourgueil, saumur and saumur-champigny for reds, sancerre, as I mentioned, for whites, and vouvray, which is  a sparkling wine. If you don’t live in France, you’ve probably never heard of most of them. So with all those different grapes (which can be blended of course!), how do you find your way around?

Each grape variety has a range of “noses” to choose from. For whites (and these are probably the easiest to detect), the main ones are “white blossoms” such as hawthorn and apple blossoms, briar roses and roses, citrus fruits, grilled almonds and hazelnuts, pears, pineapple, lychees, apricots, toast, honey and butter. Sounds like breakfast, doesn’t it? But fresh butter is the very distinctive smell of a French chardonnay from Burgundy. The list isn’t really that long and with a bit of training, you can learn to detect most of those, particularly if you practise with those little phials I told you about in a previous post. Our perception of smell is very personal so, as Virginie insisted, there’s no “right” or “wrong”.

The reds offer a lot more variety as far as “noses” go, but on the whole, you can look for berries such as red and black currants, blackberries and raspberries and dark stone fruit such as prunes and cherries. Some of the stronger reds might conjure up mushrooms, cedar, pepper, leather and musk. A smell of vanilla is a typical sign of oak. In the Loire in particular, green capsicum (bell pepper) is a sure  indication of cabernet franc or cabernet sauvignon, particularly when they’re young.

So knowing what to expect can be very helpful when you first begin wine tasting. Next time, we’ll get down to the nitty gritty!

My Croatian Itinerary – Part 6: Porec and Pula in Istria

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The previous leg of our Croatian itinerary (Part 5) ended at Plitvice lakes which were truly the highlight of our trip. The next stage of our journey took us to Porec in the very Italian peninsula of Istria. We arrived at Hotel Filipini, 7 or 8 K from Porec, around 3.30 pm. First problem – they didn’t have our reservation, despite the fact that it had been confirmed. They also only spoke Croatian and Italian! They eventually found us a room downstairs on the other side of the kitchen that turned out to be opposite a room full of noisy children. The bed was awful and I was bitten by mosquitoes.

We had hoped to cycle from the hotel to Porec but it was very hot and the cycle path proved to be of no interest whatsoever so we ended up driving there. We found free parking not far from the centre, just next to the post office and went off to visit the Euphrasian Episcopal Complex, a world heritage site and the town’s most important attraction. In addition to the architectural interest of the mainly Byzantine basilica, baptistry, palace and chapel, there is a 16th century bell-tower that affords a panoramic view of the old town. We strolled through the streets which, despite the tourists, seemed very typical with several well-preserved mediaeval houses of obviously Venetian influence.

We decided to go to the little village of Novrigrad for dinner. There was some sort of festivity going on which seemed to include food, drink and handicrafts but we had no idea what it really involved. We later saw they were selling mussels and other seafood that you ate standing up. In the meantime, we found a restaurant by the seafront appropriately called “Café del Mar” and had an enjoyable meal watching the sun set over the little harbour. Lots of shops were open so we purchased swimming shoes for next day because we had already seen that there is no sand on the beaches, just sharp rocks.

Despite the excellent breakfast, we left the hotel next day because of the bed, noise and mosquitoes. Their Visa card machine was “broken” so we had to drive into Porec to get cash. We then left for Pula. After a half an hour, I realised the hotel hadn’t returned our IDs, so back we went! We arrived in Fanzana at about 11.30 and immediately found a hotel more to our liking, the Villa Letan, in Peroj. It was a bit more expensive, but had a good bed, a balcony with a great view and air conditioning. I was even able to have my clothes ironed at a very reasonable price!

After lunch at a very friendly portside restaurant in Fanzana called the Batana and some well-deserved R&R at the hotel, we went swimming in the Adriatic for the first time. Thanks to our swimming shoes, we finally managed to get out far enough to enjoy ourselves before staggering back over the rocks.

We arrived in Pula at about 8 pm and were delighted to find the famous amphitheatre still open. It was wonderful to visit in the setting sun with hardly a soul in sight. I’m told it is packed during the daytime. They were preparing for some sort of show and it was easy to imagine the Romans occupying the 23,000 seats and milling in and out of the stores and shops beneath its 72 arches.  The old town was very animated and after strolling past the Temple of Augustus, the Town Hall built in 1296 and various gothic and renaissance buildings, we found a very friendly outdoor restaurant called Angulus on Hermana Dalmatina.

Breakfast next morning was nothing special but at least we’d had a good night’s sleep.  We had initially planned to visit some of the nearby islands, but they are very protected and you can’t take your own bikes so we decided to work out our own cycling itinerary around the tip of the peninsula west of Pula. It proved to be an excellent choice that I have already described in a previous post. Next day, we headed for Slovenia.

Travel Tip for Biking in France – My New Paris Baby – The Marais Poitevin

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Interesting posts from other Anglophone Bloggers on France this week include a travel tip for biking in France from Experience France by Bike, but it’s not restricted to cycling -getting a chip credit card can make life a lot easier! Next Petite Paris introduces her “new baby” – a B&B in Paris that I’d just love to try if I didn’t already live in the City of Light. Then Abby from Paris Weekender takes us to the Marais Poitevin which has been on my list of places to go for some time. I’ll let you discover it for yourself!

Travel Tip for Biking in France – Get a Chip Credit Card

by Experience France by Bike

If you are planning a bicycling trip to France or anywhere in Europe this summer, simplify your travel by getting a credit card with a chip.  Often referred to as smart cards, this type of credit card has been in widespread use in Europe for several years.  Unknowing Americans often miss trains, are unable to pay for gas at the pump, and cannot rent bikes at public kiosks all because the machines do not accept credit cards without a chip.  Sometimes the problem causes an inconvenience, sometimes it can result in a major disruption to a trip.  Missing a train because you cannot retrieve or purchase a ticket can really be a problem. Read more

My New Paris Baby

by Petite Paris, an Australian-based service for Australian travellers and fellow francophiles

Coucou friends!!

I feel like im constantly announcing new B&B! Oui, but I am! We have landed another 4 in the last 2 weeks alone 🙂 Its so exciting and I really do feel as though each one is my new special little one! hehe

This latest addition to the ‘Petite’ family is so incredible. The ‘like’ ratings are going through the facebook roof! 😀 Its a complete package… in a nutshell:  You have your own private entry into your 2 bedroom apartment, ensuite bathroom, free wifi, delicious breakfasts served in the FABULOUS salon with sunny 30m balcony around the entire apartment! Foral and green and happy!

Martine your sweet hostess lives next door and offers guided tours of her secret spots in the neighbourhood and around Paris, as well as French lessons! (additional hrly cost). Read more

The Marais Poitevin and Angles sur l’Anglin

by Abby from Paris Weekender, with her collection of ideas for Paris weekends: staying put and getting out of town

The Marais Poitevin, aptly nicknamed la Venise Verte or Green Venice, is a magical place, a large network of intertwining canals. Marais, like the neighborhood in Paris, actually means “swamp” and the Marais Poitevin is indeed a swamp. Yet miraculously, there are no mosquitos! When I first heard this, I knew I was going to love this place

The architecture of the towns around the Marais Poitevin (Coulon and La Garette, for example) looked surprisingly Provençal to me. Perhaps the bright sun and warm weather helped that impression. And we had never seen so many roses in bloom! Read more

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