Castro but not Cuba

Above:   I couldn’t believe my eyes. We shifted into a hotel within San Fran itself today … all part of the plan to be more accessible to everything after a night of luxury.  We grabbed lunch with a friend of Kim’s who was living near the Castro area (nothing to do with Cuban leader). Tomorrow […]

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Bad news from home

As it wasn’t going to be a long drive today, we spent the morning shopping in Monterey.  Many of the stores are the same nationwide and they offer the same good value and quality not found anywhere else in the world.  This is a very blessed country in many ways. We checked into the very […]

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Hearst Castle

We explored the San Luis Obispo area briefly this morning before heading up the Pacific Coast Highway to do a sight we had previously missed out due to lack of time.  This was the Hearst Castle which is located about halfway between LA and San Fran. We had previously done most of the attractions in Monterey and […]

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Driving up the PCH

After a slow start, we caught up with a crew friend who was overnighting in LA.  In the early afternoon we headed up the Pacific Coast Highway bound for San Luis Obispo for our nightstop. Much of the route wasn’t new so we didn’t do all the scenic stops … only a comfort stop at Santa Barbara […]

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Around the world in 80 trades

I flew out of Charles de Gaulle for Heathrow today, to meet up with Kim before boarding our flight together to Los Angeles. While I’m not usually a movie person on flights, I watched 5 TV programmes this time. Four of these were episodes of “Around the world in 80 trades”.  This follows the journey […]

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More of the real Paris

Above:  View from Belle Ville Park shows the Paris skyline including the Eiffel Tower. I thought revisit Sacre Coeur today but Marie took me for another “real Paris” outing.  We took the bus to Belle Ville park in the northeast and walked back down.  The walk back down was a mix of African, Asian and […]

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The other Paris

This morning Marie took me to the northern part of Paris around Gare du Nord (the northern railway station).  The area is a hotchpotch of people from Africa, Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent living in more rundown conditions than the Paris we know and love. The markets were incredible and far cheaper than in […]

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Culture shock at French swimming pool

Above:  Lacy undies?  No, the Eiffel Tower. As Paris isn’t entirely new to me, there was any pressure to do the touristy things.  Instead it is quite nice to do the day-to-day activities … very soon the familiar become strange! In this case it is swimming … Paris seems to be well-equipped with council swimming […]

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Visiting the departed

One thing I haven’t done in my previous visits to Paris is the Pere Lachaise cemetery which is home to the remains of many famous people. From a quick googling, I found that it was best to approach from the rear entrance if one is interested in finding Oscar Wilde’s grave … not totally unexpected […]

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The day that disappeared

We travelled back to Paris today.  It was an early morning wakeup,  It was dark at 7am as Loix is in the west of the country.  1.5 hours on the bus followed by 3.5 hours on the train followed by another bus ride within Paris meant that the day disappeared  🙁 It would have been […]

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