One of my favorite experiences in Paris last year was a private walking tour (The Sweet Side of Paris), so I decided to schedule another tour for this visit.  These small tours are a great way to see the city and learn new things.  My mom, John, Wendy, and I decided to do the Treasures of the Marais Walking Tour.  We were all interested in the architecture and history of that district. It was a wonderful tour! Our small group of eight learned a lot about some of the key buildings and squares in that district and it was fascinating. Our guide pointed out marks from the past, like damage from WWII bullets… …and an 1830 cannonball stuck in the side of a building… One of the most interesting places our guide pointed out was Campagnons Du Devoir…  (Ah, stupid broken iPhone camera.) I was attracted to the blue facade

I’m ho-ome!  For those who haven’t been following on Instagram or Facebook, I spent two weeks in Europe and arrived back in the States yesterday.  I didn’t want to work on blog posts during my trip.  Instead, I took lots of pictures and kept a detailed journal, so I could share it all with you when I got back…and, boy, I have a lot to share!  I filled my entire journal and then had to turn it over and start writing on the backs of the pages because I ran out of paper.  (I’m a one-sided page writer.  It’s just tidier to me.) Anyway, before we dive into the trip, I wanted to let you know that this will be a series since I have so much to share.  I couldn’t possibly fit it all in one or two posts.  I’ll share the posts in chronological order and try to

Last week, I got all of our final plans in place.  Our Italy leg is all planned out by Inspired in Tuscany, so I only needed to make travel arrangements and schedule some tours for Paris and for one day in Florence. One thing we wanted to do this visit was to see the French countryside, so our big excursion is a day trip to Reims-Champagne with Artventures France.  We’ll be visiting a couple of champagne houses for tastings, an old village, and a cathedral.  I am so excited for that day! We are also doing two tours in Paris with Localers again.  We did our Flea Market Tour and Sweet Side of Paris tour with them last year and both were excellent.   We did the Sweet Side of Paris tour on a whim and it was such a wonderful surprise and memorable way to experience the city. This year,

Originally, we planned on staying in the hotel in Florence where the rest of our group stayed before we all met up in Barga.  But, I decided to “call an audible” after I heard their stories about that particular hotel… It was noisy.  It wasn’t close to the “main attractions.”  The rooms were small, cramped even.  Those reviews were enough to make me second-guess our decision to stay there.  It was the stories of a few ladies getting stuck in a small elevator during a power outage and of someone trying to enter a couple’s room in the middle of the night that finally convinced me to change our plans. Since our reservation was made through Booking.com (not a sponsored post), I could still change it without having to pay a fee. I couldn’t hop on my computer fast enough and find an alternative place to stay. I’m sure that the

When Dana, the owner of Inspired in Tuscany, first pitched the idea of a creative retreat to me, she sent along some pictures of Tuscany to woo me to that beautiful little corner of the world that seems stuck in time.  I honestly thought the pictures were stock photos from a travel website.  Truly.  They were just too beautiful to be believed.  But, I came to see with my own eyes that she sent me legitimate pictures (that she took herself ) of the actual town where we were going to stay and find rest and inspiration – Barga. It’s a place that is so perfect in its quintessential Tuscan look and quaintness that it smells of a corner of Disney’s Epcot Center or a movie set.  But it’s not.  It’s a real town nestled in the rolling mountains on the upper west side of Italy’s boot. It’s a place

Before we move onto Tuscany, I wanted to write one last post to scoop up a medley of things from Paris that I haven’t written about in other posts.  If you missed any of them, you can catch up on them here… 1820’s Silver Dip Pen The Louvre and Museé d’Orsay The Paris Apartment  The Sweeter Side of Paris Where Julia Shopped I gained 12 lbs in Paris   Wow…that’s a lot of posts for just three days in Paris!  There was so much to share, though, and I wouldn’t do it all justice if I squished everything into three posts.  And even six posts weren’t enough, so here’s the overflow… the biggest bang for the tourist’s buck My mom and I did a ton of walking while in Paris.  Even though we hopped on the metro whenever possible, lots of walking was inevitable and, I must say, enjoyable.  We