February 12, 2014
Picture this. You arrive at Marbella’s harbour on your super yacht. You are whisked away by the on-board helicopter to your hilltop sprawling estate (it covers the entire top of the hill). Your chauffeur is polishing your Bentley at the end of the driveway and your personal assistant is putting together the list of social invitations for the week for you to choose from. Yes, this is life. Not my life, but somebody’s. ... View Article
February 11, 2014
We left beautiful Sevilla on a Saturday, driving down to our next destination Marbella on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain. It’s a beautiful drive through rolling hills , agricultural landscape and picturesque white villages cascading down the hillsides along the way. The independent community of Andalucia (one of 17 such communities under the Spanish constitution) has 8 provinces within it and we were driving from the province of Seville through the Province of... View Article
February 4, 2014
Oh, Sevilla. The romance of Sevilla engages your senses and stirs your emotions. It will be hard to leave this place. We came here for a few weeks, intending to make a couple of excursions out of town but there was no way I was going to leave Sevilla and go anywhere else. With the charm, character, atmosphere, food, culture and history that Sevilla offers, months here would not be enough. So much Spain, so... View Article
February 2, 2014
So we bade farewell to Valencia and the Mediterranean coast of Spain and headed inland south and west to Andalucia. Our immediate destination is Sevilla where we plan to spend a week exploring the history and culture. I have a feeling that Sevilla will be one of the highlights of this trip. We packed our rented Audi, set up the GPS and drove south on A7, eventually connecting with A-92N that would lead us straight... View Article
January 29, 2014
One of the charms of España is the culture of tapas. Tapas originated in the southern province of Andalusia, where we are headed to soon. The word tapa means “to top” and the tradition started accidentally when vendors used a piece of bread to cover the customer’s drinks, so that flying insects don’t drown in the wine. Customers were eating the bread and vendors begun to top it with thin slices of ham or cheese to... View Article
January 28, 2014
You have to cook peppers when in Spain. It seems like a national thing here and I didn’t want to miss out on the fun. The issue is, they all look the same, but you never know what you’re going to get. Most of the peppers are mild but once in a while you may get one that’s not. If you get a hot one, well, grin and bear it. Ask for a piece of... View Article
January 26, 2014
Here is a city that took me by surprise. I knew it was the third largest city in Spain and expected it to be beautiful, but did not anticipate the incredible charm that Valencia has to offer. We are in Valencia, walking downtown among orange trees. I have never seen anything quite like it. Where else would you have orange trees laden with oranges line the city’s large avenues and narrow ancient side streets? Only in... View Article
January 23, 2014
Wine bars are the latest development in the food scene in Paris. Instead of going to dinner to taste wines you can go to a wine bar and socialize over a glass of wine (or a bottle) with small plates of food. It’s an opportunity to sample different wines by the glass in a comfortable, low key yet hip atmosphere. Wine bars have sprung up all over the city (many in the 11th arrondissement on... View Article
January 20, 2014
This mediterranean coast of Spain is a charming stretch of beaches and resort towns that seemingly cater mainly to European vacationers. We are staying in a villa near the town of Altea, a slow paced small town built around an old city on a hill. A beautiful blue domed church dominates the scene at the top of the hill and whitewashed houses cascade down towards the sea. Altea was saved from the large hotels invasion... View Article
January 14, 2014
Spain. There is something about it that makes you fall in love. I don’t know if it’s the people, the language, the music, the food or the vibrancy that’s in the air or all of these things combined but it definitely swept me off my feet. We arrived in Barcelona by TGV train from Paris and had a short stay en route to our destination on the Costa Blanca along the western Mediterranean (east coast... View Article
December 24, 2013
If you are a shopper you may have heard of this gigantic indoor and outdoor mall about 35 km east of Paris in Marne la Vallee. Promoted as the largest mall in Europe, Val d’Europe attracts travellers from all over the continent and is a shopping destination for Parisians who can reach it by a quick train ride from central Paris. Val d’Europe is close to EuroDisney and represents the Disney concept of creating “idealized”... View Article
December 13, 2013
No other arrondissement in Paris has been painted, written about, featured in novels and movies, had music composed about it and philosophy debated in it’s cafes as much as Saint Germain Des Prés. Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir philosophized with the intelligentsia at Cafes Flore and Les Deux Magot, Oscar Wilde lived on 13, rue des Beaux-Arts, Picasso painted in his atelier on rue Saints Augustines, Hemingway stayed there and wrote about it, Charles Aznavour... View Article
