Mercure Valence Nord 2m Bourg-les-Valence

... Most places we visited were 4th or 5th generations of the same family producing the same Syrah.

Our last day in the Rhone we did the other side of the bank; H'ermitage, and Crozes H'ermitage. (Yes Gretchen; we're bringing a bottle). Something we learned is that the villages themselves are not always where to find the best wine of the region. Crozes H'ermitage is the tiniest town way back in the hills with hardly any winieries in it ...

found a great little town in Provence.. and as they say "when in Rome (Provence)"... we had a great meal in true french restaurant... happy to be away from tourist food... and had some very nice red wine........ just a stopover but a friendly little place and nice hotel...

on the road again...

Après un été bien au chaud c'est bientôt le départ vers l'Orient...
Si je suis encore le nez dans mes valises ma tête est déjà partie.
Dans une semaine je serai de nouveau autour de Shanghai pour rencontrer des sculpteurs de racine. Sculpter des racines en Chine est un art presque codé; on doit d'abord trouver une racine d ...

Maison de la Pra : en plein cœur de la vieille ville de Valence





Un coup de cœur ! Voilà pourquoi Diane et Henri-Jean Bayart ont acheté cet hôtel particulier du 15ème siècle. Protégée par une lourde porte en bois, cette demeure ...

... e de forêts, de vergers et de vignes qui marque une douce transition entre la montagne et la plaine, les Alpes et la Provence. A découvrir: le Palais du facteur Cheval, les vignobles de Tain l'Hermitage et la capitale de la chaussure (Romans).
Royans-Vercors - Un paysage inoubliable: panoramas grandioses, routes audacieuses, rivières ...

... get fuel - this is an experience in itself and I did wonder if I was going to be pursued down the road by a siren blaring mini car with two burly grenedimes wanting to know why I had forgotten to pay for my fuel. The system is that you fill up then drive to a small shed with a woman behind a window , try to tell her which pump you were at and then hope she shows you how much you owe her ...

Possibly the most romantic destination EVER, the Chateau Du Bijou is very beautiful and totally away from it all, but only just! We spent the weekend exploring the Ardeche and Drome
areas, situated either side of the Rhone Valley, which are both also really beautiful
and unspoilt holiday destinations. No crowded beaches, but fresh rivers
for ...

You know you have been away from home for a long time when you start speaking english the way foreigners do, like in my title.

The French keyboqrd is "azerty", not "qwerty" like in Cqnqdq: qnd so zhen you type you get qll kinds of strqnge zords: qnd punctuqtion: I guess the ,ost noticeqble szitch is the q zhich is q a insteqd111: Zhen I type I reqlly hqve to pqy qttention to the keyboqrd or I ,qke qll ...

... met toch wel een 40tal meter voorsprong. Volgende week neem ik revanche!! Een beetje competitie is altijd leuk =) Thuisgekomen hebben we gekookt voor mijn kotgenoot Mathieu. Biefstuk peperroom met frieten en verse natuur (wortelen, salade, ajuin en tomaten met een vleugje provençaalse kruiden). Het ging allemaal heel vlot binnen. Na het eten hebben we hem leren pokeren. Dat was het zowat voor dit weekend Fijne moederkesdag van jullie 2 brave zonen! xx

... Naively I never realised how different our European cultures are, in Grenoble we are all of course mostly united by the pressures of skiing, having a good social life and university study (in that order); however the latter is made a whole lot easier as lecturers have proved to be fairly susceptible to the old ploy of gently explaining that exams are too taxing and stressful for us poor struggling Erasmus students, so an essay would ...