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.

After 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.

The 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.

A 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