travel
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Provins, Medieval town
Provins became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001. The town is known for its remparts, Cesar tower and fortified walls. The tower dates from the 12th century. Provins held a well known annual trade fair in medieval times and the town also boasts undergrounds tunnels with inscriptions. There are different tours you may take to learn about the city but since we had already done a couple of those in the past, this time we chose to wander the streets, the remparts and go to one of the shows, the legend of the knight. We first walked from one rempart gate to another. Since there were some renovations happening,…
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Parc des Felins and Terre des Singes (Feline park and Monkey land)
On our first full day in the north of France, we decided to visit the Parc des Felins and the Terre des Singes in Lumigny-Nesle-Ormeaux. These two animal parks are only 10 minutes from my friend’s house and we bought the pass for both and took advantage of the discount. This was by far our most expensive outing but it still was not too bad at a little over 100 euros for the whole family. We first stopped by the village’s boulangerie (bread bakery) for fresh baguettes for our picnic lunch. I was very impressed with the size of the enclosures at the Feline Park and how natural they were…
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Montpellier, a university town
I lived 7 years less than 2 hours from Montpellier but for some reason, it was not a town that we visited. I am sure we have been to Montpellier and driven through it but I do not recall visiting the downtown area. My older brother actually spent two years there at the university and after spending an afternoon there, I came away with how pretty of a town it is! We met my high school friend Caroline which I hadn’t seen in 21 years at her apartment and after some refreshments she and her family gave us a walking tour of the town. Through cobbled streets and other pedestrian…
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My “home town” of Perpignan and an excursion to Villefranche
I spent 14 of my growing up years in France and seven of those years were in the town of Perpignan in the south of France, half an hour from Spain. There we visited my Godparents which I had not seen for about 14 years so they had not met any of our children. It was an emotional reunion for me and I made them promise to come visit us! Villefranche de Conflent is a medieval town that dates back to 1098. The town is surrounded by ramparts and is very picturesque. We took a self guided tour of the remparts and walked around the town one afternoon. My son…
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Catalunya, Spain Part 2
We’ve been home for almost a week now and are still talking about how much we enjoyed our time in Spain! Girona In Girona, we ate lunch in a large beautiful park accross from where we parked. Parking was most often paying parking but usually just 1 or 2 euros for a couple of hours. Since we were driving a large, large van it was much easier to park in outdoor lots than parallel park most of the time. A note to large families when traveling: call the car rental company to make sure the car/vehicle you are renting is a true 7 seater. We arrived at the airport to…
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What I wore in Spain and France
Since I have started writing this blog, I have been paying more attention to what people wear. I was somewhat surprised to find that in my opinion people were more fashionable in Spain than in France. That might be because of where in Spain and France we were. We were in a nice hotel in Spain and visited pretty coastal towns where there were tourists from France and different part of Spain. In France we were in smaller towns/villages and I did notice more stylish clothes in Paris. I only saw white pants in touristy places a handful of time and never wore the pair I brought. Everything else I…
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Catalunya, Spain
After two wonderful weeks visiting friends and two countries, we are back in the US. As usual, our trip abroad was busy as we wanted to see as much as we could while we were there. We spent two days in Spain at the beginning of our trip and one more before our flight back. We flew into Barcelona since it was close to my Godparents’ and my high school friend who live in the South of France. It was also cheaper than flying into Paris. I will be recapping our trip over the next few weeks, focusing on fashion on Mondays and sharing our travels on Wednesdays and Fridays.…
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Birmingham Botanical Gardens Part 2
This second post focuses on the beautiful flowers and scenery we saw at the botanical gardens. All of the pictures were taken by my oldest son. We walked through the gardens for about 1 hour and a half starting with the rose garden. It probably was a week past its peak so some of the roses were past their prime. We then walked to the Japenese gardens. I love the water features: I just wanted to take of my shoes and waddle in! Look at this succulent: Wish I had a green thumb! We ended with the cactus. For some reason I find cacti fascinating! Hope you enjoyed this foray…
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Growing up in Mexico
The year I turned 16, my parents and I moved to Mexico. My younger brother was living in Spain at the time while my older brother was going to the university in France. This was a difficult move for me considering that I thought I was going to live permanently in France and I was in my 2nd year of high school (we have 3 years of high school -lycee- in France and 4 years in middle school -college-). My only stipulation with the move was that I go to a French high school in Mexico City. So we moved there before school started. In France, in high school your…
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Growing up in France
For many years I considered myself more French than American: our family moved to France when I was 2 1/2 and we moved to Mexico when I was 16. Growing up, French was my first language while our parents tried to make us speak English at home. Even after having lived in the US now for more than 20 years, I still speak with a slight French accent. Now that I am married and have children, the US feels like home but I can’t say I wouldn’t mind living abroad for a couple years. The first fun memories I have are of living in a village called Moumour near Oloron…