A hotel may be your first choice when looking for a place to stay while on vacation but should it be? I've stayed in a wide range of unique stays from convents to apartments. Take it from me when I say you shouldn't be staying at a hotel if you want to save money! Of course there are those hotels that are so charming that you can't pass up but once you get a peak at their rates it'll probably scare you away. If you can afford it great! If you think it is worth it then I say go for it! But for those of us on a budget we need to think outside of the box. 1. Done Orione Artigianelli Cultural Centre, Venice: That Time I Stayed at a Monastery (& I am not religious) The morality of me ...
France
Wanderlist Series #1: Provence
I depart for London in just over 3 weeks and I've got plenty on our to-do list for that trip. But I have my sights on June 2017 (always wanderlusting) in Provence. I figured it would be a great place to turn 30 with my husband or even solo if no one can make it. There are so many places to go and things to see so I am starting a Wanderlist. Every 2 weeks (maybe more) I'll be publishing a list of amazing experiences from different places that I am very curious about. My Wanderlist will consist of everything from dreamy foods to try and unique activities like cliff jumping or cooking classes. You can find the full Wanderlist with links below, including unreal places to stay! Amazing ...
My Best Travel Photography: Europe Edition
Life has been so busy lately I have barely had time to celebrate the year my website turns 5. It's official birthday was in March of this year but with the redesign underway I wasn't able to give it a proper post. This week my family was rooting through images looking for suitable photos to put in the wedding slideshow. Nostalgia abound and got me thinking I should do a roundup of my favourite photos for each destination I've been. For this post I am focusing on the European destinations I have visited and loved. There's at least one hundred photos for each destination but these are my very favourite and some of my best travel photography over the years. You can also see my development as we ...
Sunday Pranzo: The Best Meal I Had in Paris was Greek
Ok. Maybe I should rephrase that. One of the best meals I had in Paris was in fact eaten at a Greek restaurant in a terribly touristy area. France has just beat Nigeria in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, hence the craziness in the image above. We had snuck out our small packed bar just before the game was officially over. Parisians chanted French rhyming songs, something to do with "caca" and we knew the race was on to find a nearby restaurant or else risk going hungry for the night. We ducked beneath a blue awning sitting street side to people watch the excitable fans meander to and fro in the streets of Paris. Particularly the streets of the Marais not too far from the Pompidou. I ...
How to Love Versailles: Make like Marie Antoinette
Raised on my tippy toes I struggled to see the hall of mirrors for what it was in its entirety. People of all nationalities and all languages were buzzing about to and fro without any sign of slowing. I stumbled off the tips of my feet and fell into a girl making what's known as a duck face. She was taking a selfie. Worst of all she was taking a selfie with nothing behind her. No gilded mirrors or chandeliers. No view of the gardens. No frescoes nor paintings of the Sun King or Marie Antoinette. Only her own duck face with the lens strategically placed so that further cleavage played peak-a-boo with whomever she was about to send her photo to. She hardly noticed me bump into her shoulder as ...
Sunday Pranzo: Paris’ Les Bistronomes Wine Bar
A narrow quiet candlelit dinning room with accents of slate, natural woods and a chalkboard with expertly handwritten "Shalapata" across it in white chalk. We were the typical tourists that night dinning at an early 6:o0 pm for Parisians which meant we were the first to arrive on a Sunday evening at Les Bistronomes. I was looking for a perfect final meal to send us off back to Canada. I wanted something to dream about, something that would call me back in my moments of longing for travel, something that plagues me the most in February and March (if not all year round). The entrance was charming enough. I was nothing but happy to be there with my family (+1 meathead). I had searched ...
ArtSmart: The Life of St. Nicholas in Medieval Stained Glass at The Cluny
For those of you new to the ArtSmart Roundtable, we are a group of travel bloggers with a passion for art. We write monthly about a designated topic publishing it on the first Monday of each month (although I am a little late). This November our topic is "Hidden Gems" and I'll be focusing on the oldest living stained glass featuring the life of St. Nicholas, on display at The Cluny Medieval Museum in Paris. You can find more hidden gems highlighted by my colleagues at the bottom of this post. As soon as Halloween ends the hype over Christmas seems to become rampant as stores and even television begin to shovel the holiday spirit down our throats. I love the holidays but when I saw that ...
Drifting on the Seine: A Champagne Boat Tour with Ô Chateau {Video}
No matter how your trip is going in Paris - good, bad or a topsy-turvey mixture of both - nothing will settle you in more than a relaxing drift along the Seine. There we were the six of us floating past the Eiffel Tower with a glass of chilled Champagne in our hands. Cut to thirty minutes earlier than when we stepped foot on the boat and you would have seen a very different scene. Picture the six of us running through the streets of Paris frantically trying to catch the right metro to get from the Marais to the Eiffel Tower. We only had 18 minutes to spare by the time we purchased our tickets and got on the right train. The mugginess was getting to us. Our makeup never stayed on for the ...
La Grande Dame: A Champagne Day in Reims, France
Things never quite work out how you planned them to be. This is especially the case while traveling. Before departing Canada I had customized our own tour of the Champagne region for 6 people. I arranged the train tickets (Paris to Reims, Reims to Epernay, Epernay to Paris) with a stop at the Veuve Clicquot champagne house, Notre Dame Cathedral and finishing off at Moët & Chandon in Epernay. With an 8:30 am departure from Paris this was just not a practical itinerary for 6 people with lunch in between. Mostly because we were so taken with the city of Reims. We began our tour of Reims by heading straight to Veuve Clicquot Champagne House. I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed by ...
Sunday Pranzo: A Birthday Dinner at Camelia, Paris
Planning a birthday in Paris is tough believe it or not. My birthday falls within a week of my moms which meant we would be celebrating two birthdays in the city of light. Luckily I didn't have the daunting task of choosing my own birthday dinner location. Instead, that burden fell to my parents and sister who did not disappoint. It has been a while since I wrote a Sunday Pranzo post. If you're unfamiliar with my Sunday Pranzo Series, it is when I write about a foodie experience I had sometime in either the near or distant past. Sunday Pranzo itself represents the sunday family dinner that many cultures take part in on Sundays, especially Italians. My family, not at all Italian, take ...
Skip the Line with Wine: A City Wonders VIP Louvre Tour {+ Video!}
I remember hearing that the Louvre only has 10% of it's collection on display in Paris. If you haven't been before it is a massive museum and would take you over a month to explore every room and see every piece. That's a daunting thought for a first timer hoping to visit the museum but don't get overwhelmed! There are ways to narrow down your visit without overdoing it. But first you have to surrender to the fact that you won't see everything you had imagined. On the other hand, you can see the pieces that have tickled your imagination in the first place. Here's how... In order to avoid the ridiculous lines and over populated rooms get a Paris Museum Pass. It was the first thing I ...
Paris: First Impressions for a Long Time Dreamer
I can't remember if it was when I was in high school while talking with my teacher about her travels to France and Germany or if it was when I tasted my first escargot but I knew the French had something going on and I wanted to be apart of it. I just didn't know when. It has been a long time since the seed of traveling to France was planted in my impressionable mind. Finally, 2014, I was able to make it happen thanks to the stars aligning. One of those stars was meeting GowithOh in Dublin at the TBEX event. They would be the fuel to my jet pack, the "flux capacitor" to my DeLorean, the wind beneath my drone propellers. Essentially, GowithOh was the reason I was finally able ...
ArtSmart: An Art Day in Paris – My Accidental Walking Tour
This month the ArtSmart Roundtable theme is "An Art Day in..." and having just returned from my first time in Paris I have plenty to write about. Almost every day was an art day in Paris and much of it was unexpected, unplanned and unreal. If you're new to ArtSmart it's a group of passionate travel bloggers who cover a variety of topics but we all love art. We publish on the first Monday of each month with a new topic and you can find links to my colleagues' interpretations of this month's theme at the bottom of this post. Sigh...Paris. I was surprised at how spread out it is but at the same time it isn't. The Louvre, Notre Dame, Musé D'Orsay, Centre Pompidou, Place des Voges are all ...
