20 Travel Books That Will Give You Serious Wanderlust
We are hopeful 2021 is a year of travelling again - and these books will help you pick a spot or two.
Across the Normandy Countryside to Vimy
We start our drive out of France, our longest stay in one country since Australia, by heading to Dieppe (pronounced, we learned last night, as “deep” in Kiwi) and onwards towards the beaches of Normandy and ultimately Vimy. A...
The Long History of Le Mont-St-Michel
Mont St Michel's ramparts and fortifications resisted the English assaults 3 times during the 100 Years War, but today they succumb to the thousands of tourists who assault Le Mount Saint Michel and storm the many stairs to the...
A Gentle and Insignificant Paris Rain.
We decide to split today. No, not what you think, but pretty close. dEven in the beautiful city of Paris, there are bound to be days of travel fatigue. A Typical Paris Day I decide to spend some time on my own today and head out...
The 9 Best Travel Experiences Around the World
The world we live in is so small, yet so vast at the same time. We don’t need more than a day or two to reach almost any destination on the planet, yet we rarely venture far beyond the boundaries of our own comfort zone. The...
Extended Travel Weariness: from the followsummer archives
I stumbled upon this blog entry from August 2004 as I was going through some files here on followsummer. So interesting to note and remember our feelings of a year full of travel, and with only three and a half months left in...
Arriving on the Normandy Beaches
On June 6, 1944, Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy to open the way to Germany from the West. Victory in the Normandy campaign would come at a terrible cost. The Canadians suffered the most casualties of any division...
The Day Before All Souls
It is the day before All Souls Day, and it seems appropriate today that we join friends and family as they visit the graves of their loved ones, for we will visit a couple of the many WWI cemeteries that dot this part of the...
Alsace: Take it In
A bright mix of German, French and Swiss cultures, the troubled past of Alsace History, located on the banks of the Upper Rhine and neighboring Germany and Switzerland, has been heavily influenced by historical decisions,...
Touring France and Germany with These Two Books
“Despite everything, Ruby had loved living in Europe. She loved having history envelop her as she strolled the streets; she loved the French word ‘flaneur’ – to amble along or to hang around. It applied here...