La Bataille des Fleurs – The Battle of the Flowers (3/8)
By Stephanie Sommers
Honestly, someone should have warned me that the Bataille des Fleurs, the Battle of the Flowers, was not a contest between the...
The Carnival of Nice: The King arrives (2/8)
By Stephanie Sommers
The King arrived at 9 pm on Friday. By then it had become apparent when I asked various Niçois what happens on...
Feeling the pulse of Nice as the stage gets set for France’s largest Carnival...
By Stephanie Sommer
Before I moved to Nice to study French and look for work, I had been warned by friends in nearby Provence that...
Natural expedition in Vendée or Still life with children
Given the choice between an afternoon with screaming kids and a nature expedition in flat, damp Vendee, south of the Loire by the Atlantic coast...
La Rochelle: Part III, History and Practical Information
Following a winter wanderbout in La Rochelle by night and by day, a brief accounting of local history, some practical advice, restaurant tips and hotel suggestions for this town for all seasons, whether for a 1-, 2-, or 3-night stay, plus excursions to the nearby islands.
La Rochelle: A Winter Wanderbout in an Old Port Town, Part II: Day
The following morning is sunny and cool. I have breakfast in a café facing the port. I visit the Saturday morning market in and around Les Halles, the covered food market on Place du Marché. I enter the massive, graceless cathedral looking for a chapel of ship-theme ex-votos. Every port town has one. ..
La Rochelle: A Winter Wanderbout in an Old Port Town, Part I: Night
I am not a seafaring man. My ancestors took several billions of years to evolve from the deep; I see no reason to go back. But give me a safe old port town on a misty evening, even on a cold winter’s night like this, and I’ll wander about for hours as if looking for chance.
Sight-Sitting in Toulouse
No need for tired feet when touring Toulouse. Here are select seats from which to do some sweet sight-sitting in the bright brick city with the distinctive southern accent.
Travel Beyond the Clichés While Looking Back In Angers
There I was in the local newspaper in a picture borrowed from the web and a paragraph hailing me as “a globetrotting American writer with a new book out entitled Travel Beyond the Clichés.”