Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Operation France Dix Sept”
CHAPTER 21 The grand culmination to our six week circumnavigation of France was necessarily the Happiest Place in Europe: Euro Disney. We had been talking it up to the boys for some time, but not having subjected their impressionable minds to that many Disney shows, they were somewhat ambivalent to the spectacle that was about to unfold. Walking through the …
CHAPTER 20 Our Irish exit from Annecy left us with a small gap in our itinerary back to Paris. A quick look through the guide book, backed-up with some good reviews on some choice websites left us pointing our bow towards Strasbourg. An historic town on the Republic side of the French-German border, its changed hands a few times over …
CHAPTER 19 Descending from the lofty heights of the Pennine Alps, we cut west through Switzerland following the Rhone River, up and around Lake Geneva, and hooked left back across the border for a visit to Annecy, a lake side village known as the Venice of France, that dates to the time of the Romans and is nothing but charm. …
CHAPTER 18 We spent the rest of our time in Zermatt wandering the crooked streets of the alpine village admiring the iconic chalets and the historic timber frame houses. We were amused by a bunch of cannabis growing in someone’s yard right on a main thoroughfare, a comically sized police golf cart rushing, at least in our minds, to nab …
CHAPTER 17 Southern France had been good to us, but after four weeks of soaking up the Riviera sun we were ready for a change of scenery. By this point, our plan to circumnavigate France was getting a little hazy, or in other words, we hadn’t actually made a plan. We had only pre-booked accommodations for the trip up until …
CHAPTER 16 After Monaco, our second big day trip from Menton was a drive to Nice, which I will confirm, is very nice. Our route there hugged the coast, passing through one bustling beachside village after the next, punctuated by jaw dropping vistas from cliffs that plunge into the sea. The Riviera in all its glory. We actually passed through …
CHAPTER 15 We are not French, but after ten days of calling Menton home, I think we could be. Our apartment was afforded with a tiny balcony overlooking the beachside promenade. The sidewalk restaurant across the street was busy from brunch till well after we went to bed. Our view looked east, and the moon was spectacularly full and present …
CHAPTER 14 With ten days to call Menton home, we had plenty of time to do a few day trips, the first of which was a train ride to the glimmering city-state of Monaco. After a slightly confused exit from the labyrinthine underground Monte Carlo rail station, we found ourselves walking the streets of the recently run Grand Prix. Bleachers …
CHAPTER 13 Leaving the Popes in our rearview mirror, we kept on our eastward trajectory towards the Italian border. We pulled off the highway at Menton, literally the last exit before the carabinieri border guard. I had been to Menton before, nearly 15 years prior to the day. Back then I was a wide-eyed, European neophyte, questionably dressed and keeping …
CHAPTER 12 Leaving Collioure, we headed East to Provence- an area known for its lavender fields, roman ruins, and surprisingly to us, as we are not Catholic, a town that was the seat of the Papacy for almost a century during the 1300’s. I had no idea that there had been a second Vatican City, as it were. I love …
CHAPTER 11 All good things come to an end, as they say, and our time in Collioure was one of them. We spent Jossie’s last day with us getting enjoyably lost in the streets of Toulouse, a town we could definitely spend more time exploring. She flew back to Berlin to continue her adventures in international schooling, and we headed …
CHAPTER 10 Though we would never get tired of exploring Coulliour’s winding alleys or lounging on the peaceful beaches, one sunny morning we thought we would change it up a bit and go on a little international-adventure. Our plan was to drive the quick two hours south across the border and see the sites of Barcelona. In particular, I was …
CHAPTER 9 There is nothing better than meeting up with an old friend in a new place. Luck would have it that Kacey’s lifelong friend Jossie happened to be, and still is, living in Germany as part of a teaching program- and she made plans to come visit us in Collioure. I guess it wasn’t actually luck that made our …
CHAPTER 8 On the hill south of Collioure, about halfway down the slope from Fort Saint Elme, sits a spinning windmill- once not much more than the remains of a stone shell- but recently restored, using traditional materials and methods, to a fully functioning, olive oil (among other things), producing marvel. For the oil, they use olives harvested from the …
CHAPTER 7 Being a strategic port for centuries, Collioure has been protected by the ubiquitously visible Fort St. Elme for just as long. The fort started off as a watchtower built by the occupying Berbers during the 8th century, was fortified extensively by subsequent rulers, was stormed by the real-life d’Artagnan and friends, and was last occupied by the Nazi …
CHAPTER 6 In our previous lives as a traveling couple, we would rarely have paid to ride the little tourist train that departed from Collioure’s town center every hour. But now, as a traveling quartet, with one member of our merry band being particularly spontaneous (and insistent) whenever we chance upon anything resembling an amusement ride, be that a carousel, …
CHAPTER 5 We arrived in Collioure looking forward to slowing the pace of our trip down a bit. With ten days of nothing to do but go to the beach and explore the small town, it promised to do just that. We responsibly spent the afternoon of our arrival getting our parking situation sorted and going to the grocery, which …
CHAPTER 4 Heading south from Le Mont Saint Michel we didn’t really have a plan, other than we needed to check into our apartment in Collioure, a small Mediterranean coastal village some 600 miles away, in three days time. It was overcast and rainy the whole day, and we had just stopped for lunch at a kebab shop in the …
CHAPTER 3 Our ultimate destination after leaving Paris was to be the sunny beaches of the French Riviera, but we decided to make a slight detour and head west to the coast of Normandy and a particular island that I’ve always wanted to see. Le Mont Saint Michel is something right out of the imagination of Tolkien or Martin: a …
CHAPTER 2 Our time in Paris went quicker than we thought it would, which was good considering the circumstances of our rather bedraggled crew, but bad for our sightseeing ambitions. We had gone into this endeavor knowing any sort of museum was out of the question, indoor tours such as castles and churches a close second, and that outdoor monuments, …
CHAPTER 1 We landed in Paris with high hopes for a good start to our six week sabbatical… unfortunately those hopes were quickly crushed when our bags did not arrive with us. By the time we received the last bag three days later, things had gone from bad to worse: we were all in various states of despair due to a …
