Our base in Portimao was an excellent spot for exploring the south coast of Portugal. In the spirit of adventure, we decided to go all the way to Sagres. Drive west from Lagos and you’ll find yourself at Parque Natural do Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina, a national park in Sagres. It’s not the kind […]
day drives
A Walk Through Florence
As I mentioned in my previous post, we were staying at a campsite in the north of Italy. Using this location as a good base to explore the north of country, we set our sites on Florence. Catching the train to Florence The closest train station is Empoli. It takes about 20 minutes to drive down to it […]
The Pearl of France
Nicknamed the Pearl of France, Menton is well-situated between mountains and the Med. The city was ruled by the Princes of Monaco until the French Revolution. It rejoined Monaco in 1814 and then separated from Monaco again about 40 years later. Apparently this was partly due to the tax that was being imposed on lemon […]
A Walk Through Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Saint-Jean-de-Luz has one of those sunny, shimmering, colourful harbours that you’ll see in guidebooks and think: Now that looks really lovely. That’s how it got onto my itinerary anyway. This wonderfully-quaint old town has a lot of water. Various rivers meet the sea here and the view of the sea from the sandy bay stretches […]
Exploring Beautiful Bordeaux
After exploring Bayonne, Espelette and the biggest sand dune in Europe, our next little outing was to the beautiful city of Bordeaux! In 2008 I had lived in Bordeaux for about a month or so and I sort of got to know my way around. I just had to go back to this charming French city […]
Europe’s Biggest Sand Dune, Pyla
Arcachon is a town facing a basin of Atlantic sea, on the western side of France. It’s about fifty kilometers south of Bordeaux and easy to reach by train. The town is relatively new. It was covered by the pine trees of the Landes forest and little wooden huts just 150 years ago. A chilled sea-side town Today […]
Hiking to the Passerelle d’Horzarte
I saw a photo of this beautiful gorge and cool-looking suspension bridge in a travel book, and thought “I’ve got to go there!” And we did! Finding the Passerelle d’Horzarte wasn’t easy. Horzarte is a strange word, and not very French sounding. That’s because it comes from the Basque meaning for “between walls”, holtze arte (referring the […]
A Quaint Basque Town, Espelette
After a day trip to Bayonne, we decided to venture onwards to check out more southerly places like Espelette. If you read my Bayonne post, you’ll know that a paste made form the peppers is used in the curing of delicious Bayonne ham! This is a foodie adventure. A little Espelette history You […]
Tours, Where the Real French Accent Comes From
Tours is a strange name for English-speakers because, well, its English meaning is just the plural of tour (as in, “I went on a tour of France”.). Although to be understood in France you have to pronounce it with an “oo” sound rather than the natural English pronunciation. There we go. Now you also have a […]
Hiking at Knockomagh Hill
It’s summer – real summer; warm with blue skies. The perfect kind of day to get out of the city or try out a new hiking trail. Or maybe even one of those incredibly beautiful hikes you’ve done before. The lush, forested hike to the top of Knockomagh Hill near Baltimore in West Cork is […]