Paris has just about everything … but when it comes to the, OK, less-than-highbrow concept of the sports bar … well, they don’t do it often and often don’t to it well. All these years later, we finally seem to have found a competent sports bar that is a sports bar in a way that […]

[Read more →]

I had been in Paris barely 10 minutes today when I had my pocket picked. Arrived from the south of the country on the fast train into Gare de Lyon, made my way downstairs to the Metro’s 1 line, got into a jammed car just as the doors were about to close … and then […]

[Read more →]

Amsterdam may have as many interesting sights per square mile as any city on earth. From 50-some museums, to the canals, the architecture, the flower market, the zoo … something interesting is just a few minutes walk away. The most famous of the museums is the Rijksmuseum, which houses Rembrandt‘s The Night Watch, among hundreds […]

[Read more →]

One of the upsides to being based in Europe … is how close so much of Europe is to the casual traveler. In the United States, a 90-minute flight from Los Angeles would not be sufficient to get to Portland, Oregon. In Europe, a 90-minute flight from the south of France, a few miles from […]

[Read more →]

Far as I am concerned, first thing you do when visiting Barcelona is go to the northeast corner of the city and see how things are coming with the construction of the basilica known as the Sagrada Familia. Yes, even before making the pilgrimage over to the city’s great earthly structure, the football club’s Camp […]

[Read more →]

So, it’s warm in the Languedoc … let’s give the Mediterranean a try. It’s what all tourists from the northern regions of France do, in July and August, when they decamp to the southern half of the country. We can consider that a hearty recommendation, no? Well, we could. But that would not keep the […]

[Read more →]

We returned from Paris to the Languedoc yesterday, and I remarked on how crowded the TGV was. It seemed as if the train had more people than seats; several travelers seemed to spend hours standing in the small spaces between cars. I was informed that the Saturday following Bastille Day — and this is what […]

[Read more →]

We mention the words “massive military parade” and we think of repressive regimes. The Soviet Union, and now Putin’s Russia. China. North Korea. And France? Yes. France has a big military parade each year on July 14, Bastille Day, which is a sort of a Fourth of July for France. Except for the enormous military […]

[Read more →]

The 20th-century dictator Benito Mussolini was famously credited (deserving or otherwise) with “making the trains run on time” in Italy. About now, France could stand more than a little improvement in its trains’ on-time performance. That’s four consecutive French trains now, that I have met or ridden, that failed to arrive on schedule. None of […]

[Read more →]

If you don’t look too closely, Normandy’s beaches, from Vierville-sur-Mer and five miles to the east, look like any other holiday spot in the northwest of France. Long, sandy stretches that can be hundreds of yards deep, when the tide is out. A sea wall, in many places. And steep bluffs rising behind the beach. […]

[Read more →]