A trip to London

In this article Françoise describes her busy long weekend in London.

A month later, having just recovered from our trip to Roma we decided to spend a few days in London, my 13 year old son wanted to visit it for a long time.On the first day we travelled by Eurostar ( Paris - London just an hour thanks to Greenwich time) the hotel was near St Pancreas and we left the bags . The kids were already hungry because they had seen a "McDonald's" golden arches. So a hamburger later we took the direction of the centre of London and the river Thames.
At 2.00pm we caught a double decker sight-seeing tour ( the ticket could be used the following day) It was a good idea for the kids because they didn't want to walk a lot and the weather was very bad that weekend. ( rain, cold, even snow!) So we could see the sights from a comfortable bus : the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham and at the end of the tour Trafalgar Square. After having a hot chocolate we walked back to the hotel and walked along little streets and Regent's Street. We had a break in a pizza restaurant ( nicer than lunch!! ).
On the second day it was snowy so the changing of the guards was cancelled. What a shame!!

So we took the city sight-seeing tour for another trip this time ( there are three kinds of them).

We went to the river Thames on a boat trip to the Tower of London but before that we had lunch in a pizza restaurant.

( It was too cold to have sandwiches in a park and it's so difficult to please 4 kids and 3 adults that have different tastes!!)

The tower of London which includes the crown jewels was perfect for visiting on a cold day. It looked like an adventure for the kids who could be knights for a day.

6.00pm was the closing time so we went back to the hotel on foot. We saw St Paul's cathedral and had a great dinner in Chinatown. Everyone agreed on the same kind of food and when we were full we said goodnight.

On the third day we tried the city bus. Great. 3.50 Euros per adult and free for kids all day long and on a double decker. We stopped at the British museum to see the mummies ( better than the Louvre) After the museum we saw Big Ben , the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. There wasn't a flag on top of the palace so the Queen was not there for a cup of tea with us! Never mind! We went to Harrod's, it was fabulous! The girls were fascinated and we were " flat broke" After a short walk in Regent's Park to look at the squirrels we were pressed for time so we ran to the hotel, picked up the bags and ran to St Pancreas. Whew!! we were on time but the train wasn't. The police were in the tunnel and we had to wait an hour and we were not sure to get back to Paris at that time because Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to arrive in London the following day.

Whew!! after a while all was OK.

Goodbye London.

Acknowledgements : Photos provided by Robert Stokes ( Houses of Parliament), edgley Cesar ( Trafalgar Square), Aditi Pany ( London sightseeing tour), Wallig ( Tower of London) , Susiedepinger ( Chinatown), OliverBruchez ( St Paul's cathedral), SantiMB ( British Museum), christine (bpc) ( Harrod's) and DG Jones ( Regent's Park) under Creative Commons Licence via Flickr.

A trip to Venice

In this article Kilian describes his short trip to Venice.

A few weeks ago I went to Venice for a swimming training. I've been swimming for competition for six years now. So we travelled to Venice and visited this wonderful town.

On the first day we left the hotel and caught a bus to get to the railway station then we took a train to Venice. After that we visited St Marco Square and walked in the narrow streets.

for lunch we had a picnic

( sandwiches) in a garden.

In the afternoon we were separated in four groups and we went shopping. The weather was very hot.In the evening we had to take a train to get back to our hotel and then we went swimming and trained from 7.00pm to 9.00pm.
I haven't seen much of Venice so I would like to visit it again by boat.

Acknowledgements : Photos provided by RoyalOlive ( Venice) , MichaelBravo ( Piazza St Marco) and Poppyseed Bandits ( swimming pool ) under Creative commons Licence via Flickr.

Property for sale

Our beautiful large house overlooking the " Vallée de la Marne" is for sale.

Situated on top of a hill overlooking a nature reserve and the river Marne our property is composed of two houses which can be easily converted in a large family home. This is a beautiful house with loads of character and a great location near Paris and an ideal investment opportunity to gain a good income .
The house consists of :

• Two fully equipped kitchens ( 14m2)
• Two lounges with a fireplace in each lounge ( insert)
• Five bedrooms ( one is about 25m2)
• Two large bathrooms with four separate toilet rooms
• A shower
• A utility room
• Full basement level

• A separate garage ( 2 cars)

Our garden is laid mainly to lawn but there is a cherry tree and some plants. It is an enclosed garden surrounded by fur trees.Noisy le Grand is a lively town (60 000 people) near Paris ( 30 minutes from the city centre by train) .It's very easy to get to Paris by RER there are excellent connections by bus and we're closed to airports ( Roissy Charles de Gaulle and Orly ), schools, shops and all amenities. In Noisy there is a theatre, cinemas, a shopping centre, a market three times a week, lots of shops in the town centre and many festivals , exhibitions and "brocante", all year long. It is a nice place to live in and very close to Paris.Our house is about a 15 minute walk from the town centre and 10 minutes from the river Marne. You can go cycling or have a walk for there is a cycle track and a footpath along the river Marne. The house lies in an exceptional environment in a calm and residential neighbourhood.

These photos were taken from the bedrooms except the fourth one ( on the right )

A trip to Italy

In this article Françoise describes her trip to Roma.

At the beginning of March, I went to Roma with a friend. It's very easy by train , we left Paris in the evening and arrived in Roma around 10pm.
First we got to the hotel and left our suitcases. Now Roma was ours!!! We started visiting

St Peter's basilica, the Vatican and of course the Sistine Chapel. As we just had a sandwich for lunch and we were very tired our reward was a delicious dinner at the "trastevere" We had Risotto and spaguetti alla vongole , huge and unhealthy portions but so good!! and then back to the hotel it was enough on the first day.

On the second day we decided to visit the

"Colosseo"and the surroundings. We walked along the Tiber River ( quieter than the streets ,actually Roma is a very noisy city) and then we walked over two bridges to get to the Tiberian Island.

We visited the Colosseo, the forum, the Palatin ( very antique remains). They are very impressive. On our way back to the hotel we saw the Maximilian's mausoleum ( one of the lattest kings of Italy) derogatorily called " the sewing machine" by the Italians. After a whole day visiting we had a excellent dinner at last in a pizza restaurant where I had a specialty called

" Suppa di Brodo alla Romana" ( veal stock soup) and back to the hotel we fell asleep like a light because of walking so much, actually it was the most exhausting day of our stay in Roma.

On the third day we decided to visit sights casually ( well, impossible when you're in Roma!!) so we just visited Piazza di Spagna, del populo, Campo di Fiori, Fontana di Brevis , Piazza di capitol, lots of churches too ( there's a church every other 5 metres) walked along lots a streets and the icing on the cake was a famous ice-cream ( gelatto) in a famous gellateria. That night the streets in Roma were very quiet because there was a football game on TV!

It was a a very nice stay, Roma is a very interesting place ( lots of sights to see : churches, ruins, piazza...) the problem was we wanted to see everything in a short time so it was exhausting but we really had a great time.

Ackowledgements : Photos provided by : wenzday 01 St Peter's Basilica, cfinke The Sistine Chapel, ControVento Trastevere Roma, BrittanyLEIGH Tiber river, delta air delta Gellateria ,AndyBell piazza di Capitol , and icomei Colosseo Roma under Creative Commons licence via Flickr.