explorish.com

September 2009
Troyes (read: “tro’ah”) was one of the nicest surprises this year. On the way back from Champagne I stopped just to check it out, had no idea what to expect. Had read that it has an interesting old town, but I didn’t expect… this:

I had read there are old wooden Fachwerkhäuser,

but I didnt [...]

September 11, 2009
I had no idea that Mr. Moët invented the champagne drink, sometime around 1743 on a Wednesday.
Or that Mr. Chandon was his son-in-law.
Or that the black Pinot Noir grapes give white juice, unless you leave the shells in the mix.
I didn’t know much, but I learned a lot visiting the champagne house Moët&Chandon [...]

After doing Route Napoleon in 1 day, the second day was reserved for Cote d’Azur. Started out in Cannes, where I decided spontaneously that it would be the place to spend several hours, to “take it all in”. Continued to Antibes with its fortress on the sea shore, Nice, which is nice, then Eze, a [...]

A recent trip to Southern France consisted of 3 main parts. The first was Route Napoléon, the route which he used when coming back from the island of Elba to reclaim the throne. He chose to avoid the regalist Rhon valley and went for the mountains, from Cannes to Grenoble.
I did it the other way [...]