An unabashed tourist and her family explore the world one holiday at a time.
Imagine my distress when I logged into social media late night on 15 April, only to be confronted by a slew of images of the Notre Dame on fire. I’m not embarrassed to say that I was in tears. I spent the rest of the evening in a shell-shocked state, watching footage of the fire raging, of the enormous cloud...
The year is 2001 and I’m posing for a photo in front of Château de Chenonceau wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “I will not kiss the boys”. Unknown to me at the time, this shirt is strangely appropriate, since Chenonceau, also known as the Castle of the Ladies, had been the residence of many influential women over the centuries...
The museums of Europe are famous for their statues celebrating the nude form. And the French are notorious for promiscuity and their differing views of indecency (at least from what we are used to down here in the south of Africa). However, in the gardens outside the Louvre in Paris, we came upon one statue that found the antics of...
It is as if time has stood still in the little fortress town of Carcassonne in a tucked-away corner of the south-west of France. While wandering through the twisting cobblestone alleys, it is easy to imagine that I have stepped into a time paradox where donkey-driven carts and high-tech internet cafés rub shoulders, where the old lady with the wrinkled...
Venice, Italy It’s a cold winter’s day in the Piazza San Marco. I am posing for a photograph with a pigeon sitting on my head. The square is filled with people, but the bustling crowds of summer are absent. My husband and I have just had a wonderful day exploring all the little alleys of this historic city and my...
I love Paris in the Springtime, I love Paris in the Fall… The words of the famous song, made even more famous by the contradictory statement of a francophobic Meg Ryan in French Kiss, flit across my mind as I walk through the grey streets of this grey city. One of the first things I noticed the first time I...