Author Archives: John

A “Cruise” on the Loing River

A great benefit of staying here for a longer time is that we can do things that we wouldn’t do if we were here for three or four weeks. Today is an example of that. In 2013 we stayed in … Continue reading

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The Loire Valley Ramble: Three Chateaux

Last week we went back to the Loire Valley, a two-and-a-half hour drive south of Samois-sur-Seine, our current homebase. The Loire is famous for its many chateaux – some estimates put the number at somewhere around 3,000, for the Loire … Continue reading

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Paris

We made a long sojourn into Paris last week – five days and nights. That’s the longest we’ve stayed there in years, and although it was the hottest stretch of the year – between 85 and 92! – we had … Continue reading

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An Event Worth Noting

A week ago, June 29, Laurie and I celebrated our 50th anniversaire de mariage. We were perfectly okay with that until I mentioned that we’ve been married half a century. That took away both our breaths! Our French family gave … Continue reading

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Sancerre, Guédelon and Briare

On our first long stay here (2013), we did a ramble to Bourges and some places around there, and we asked Mary and Gilles if we could go to Sancerre. Although we were not great white wine fans, we’d heard … Continue reading

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A Walk in Saint Mammès

Saint-Mammès is one of our favorite places to visit for a walk, so today off we went. As always we enjoyed our stroll, and the morning ended with a surprise – a good one, at that. Saint-Mammès is at the … Continue reading

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A Walk in La Rochette

As we have no rambles planned for the next two weeks, we’ll be doing lots of walks and day-trips from our home-base here in Bois-le-Roi. I’m working on a post for just Bois-le-Roi so you can see where we are … Continue reading

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With an Old Friend in Paris

We had the great pleasure to introduce an old friend to Paris a couple weeks ago. When Laurie and I were in Coronado, across the bay from San Diego (in my Navy days), we became closest of friends with Paul … Continue reading

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Clermont-Ferrand and back to “home”

After Albi, we turned toward home (Bois-le-Roi home, that is), making two stops on the way. The first was near the town of Puy-en-Velay, and the second at Clermont-Ferrand. Viaduc de Milliau Both regular readers of this blog will know … Continue reading

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Albi

After three days in Toulouse, we hit the road again. We spent a night in Albi, which has two really amazing sights: a museum and a cathedral. I know you’re saying, “Another cathedral!?!” Yep, and one different than any we’ve … Continue reading

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