The Coast of Brittany, France

The Coast of Brittany France is the place to eat wonderful seafood and from the first photo you see the beaches are full of shells. I like to travel and taste the local goods as you might know from reading other blogs. The specialties in the north of France are Coquilles Saint Jacques (scallops), Huitres (oysters), other seafoods, crepes, cider, creamy sauces with mushrooms, leeks, green beans, creamy cheeses, Soupe de Poisson, caramel and lots of tasty pastries. I really enjoyed Brittany France because it reminded me of home in Northern California. It is a blend of sea, celtic history, green pastures and little towns.

Mont St Michel, Normandy, France

"The Castle in The Sea" It originally was a sacred place to the Druids and who knows who else before St Michael/St Michel was seen fighting the devil. The tide rises and falls around it dramatically revealing the sand around it. It's really beautiful and really touristy unfortunately. It currently is a working Abbey though in the past it has also served as a prison. It survived the 100 year war and 32 years of siege. All the decorations and previous altars were taken away so it remains empty in the parts where tourists are allowed to go.
















Get there early or deal with thousands of tourists.

Paris Trips

We love Paris and have now been there three times. Our favorite thing to do is just walk through the streets, people watch and discover hidden treasures that make up the character of Paris. People usually are really nice to us which is opposite of what one hears about Paris but we stay off the beaten path and end up in obscure places. We also like to shop for food at the local stores and cook fresh ingredients in the apartments we rent. It's a cheap way to travel but also fun for me who likes to cook and eat local ingredients. Paris is also wonderful for art exhibitions and we love to check out what is on display at the unending list of museums and galleries.
View over Paris from Sacre Coeur.
Sea of Humanity at the Sacre Coeur.
L'Orangerie where Napoleon grew his oranges now houses 8 of Monet's large waterlilly garden paintings. They are set in the wall in oval form as he envisioned them when he painted them. The eight different paintings feature the light and colors of dawn to dusk and are worth visiting.

We had a Buddha in our apartment. www.vrbo.com is a great place to find owner rented apartments all over the world and that is how we found this funky pad.
The view from our Montmartre apartment and the photos of the building follow. I cried when I saw the view because I'm a dork. The apartment where we stayed was were Picasso first stayed when he moved to Paris.



Steve and I in our funky Montmartre apartment we rented for the weekend.
TAG - An exhibit (at the Grand Palais in Paris) that featured the TAGGING of some of the world's most well known "Taggers". One Canvas was supposed to be their name and the other was to represent a concept of "Love". We had our pens checked in case we also wanted to "Tag" their canvases. We loved the irony of a guard standing over some tags.