Our next destination was a stunner.We headed away from the World War Two history and set a course for Mont-Saint-Michel, a French monastery which is a quite famous tourist attraction and has appeared in many photos. Driving towards the west coast, we turned a bend then saw a huge castle like structure rising up, only faintly outlined due to its distance away, and we were quite over-awed already! The closer we got though, the more alarmed we became at the traffic ...

Sunday is the craziest day to be on the road in France.We learnt this to our detriment recently, trying to sightsee among the teeming throngs of weekend French families. We set off first to see Monet's garden, not all that far from Paris and unfortunately this proximity to Paris means it is an ideal spot to take the International day trippers to. It is beautiful however and we had glorious sunshine to walk around the gardens and lily ponds then tick it off th...

On a narrow winding country road flanked by crops of corn, green rolling hills and occasional red poppies, we see in the distance a large white building. This is the Australian War Memorial near the village of Villers-Bretonneux and as we get closer we see neat rows of white gravestones amongst beautifully manicured lawns and flower gardens. The skies are gloomy and threatening rain, but it is still and quiet. It was at this place that Australians, and in particu...

Oh, to be back in Paris! It is an enchanting place and even more so this time as we met up with daughter, Ebony who arrived in London a month before on her working holiday.Our first night together was spent sitting up on the steps of the Sacre Coeur having a picnic tea and a bottle of wine. There were a lot of people and as it got dark a firework display began and we realised why the people were there. We did try to kid Ebony though, that we had organised this e...

Nice is the capital of the Riviera and the beautiful Cote d Azur. When people speak of ¨taking the South of France option¨ when terminally ill, you can see why. We had visited Nice for 5 days in 1999 but it will always be a great place to visit. Now we have 3 more days. The food is amazing and hours can be idled away walking along the promenade of the Bay of Angels and exploring the old city. We stayed in the same hotel as last time, the Antares, very noisy as...