Day 45 Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Our new Airbnb in Mulhouse is lovely. We have nine days here to relax a bit and get ready for the second half of our trip. It is hard to believe but today marks the midway point of our holiday.
This is the view from our third floor balcony.
We are both ready for a restful day. Bob does go for little walk and buys a few grocery necessities. On the way home he walked down this street that has a lot of graffiti art…some better than others!
Day 44 Monday, October 13, 2025
First stop on our way to Mulhouse is a pretty little town called Esslingen. At first sight we thought this was a real person!
Our Airbnb in Stuttgart had a calendar with almost this exact photo. It was the impetus to visiting Esslingen.
Autumn has definitely arrived. I love walking through the fallen leaves.
We walked into this church because its doors were so interesting,
I didn’t record the name of this church, but it had a very austere dark interior…
…but the area to light candles was small and intimate and appealed to me. We lit a candle for all our family members and friends who are facing health challenges right now, and spent a few moments in silent contemplation.
Back outside, we see Esslinger Castle in the distance. But this castle isn’t actually a castle, it is a well-preserved part of the medieval city fortifications, located high above the city centre. Originally expanded in the 13th century, it was reinforced in the 16th century with walls up to 5 meters thick. We can see people up there but we don’t have time to go and explore. Travel days don’t allow for in depth exploration and only give us a chance for brief visits to sites along the way.
One thing I love about European cities and towns are the unexpected little things, like the face on this wall. There is always something interesting and different to discover.
We pass this road construction site. I think they were replacing some pipes. All the little stones from the cobbled sidewalks and streets are piled up and then relaid in the pattern that matches the rest of the in place stones. Very labour intensive, but such a wonderful final result.
Built in 1423 as a sales hall and tax house this building is the Old Esslingen Town Hall. We were hoping to hear the Glockenspiel and see the figures on the clock move but later discovered that only happens five times a day. We are out of luck.
The cobbled streets are lined with ancient timbered houses…
…and there are canals here too. We could have piloted our own electric boat for a trip on the canals but they stopped operating the end of September.
The town is surrounded by vineyards.
I thought this house was particularly spectacular. It is dated 1531! 
As we are leaving Esslingen I quickly snap this photo from the car window! I just googled it and dick means thick in German, but also discovered that F. Dick is a German cutlery manufacturer that owns this smokestack…too funny!
Next stop is Baden Baden. We spent some time in Baden Baden a long time ago so we thought we should stop there for a visit. There are flowers everywhere, but bathrooms are few and far between! We spent 45 minutes trying to find a bathroom. Using Google maps we walked several blocks to where there was a WC…but we couldn’t find it. Turns out it was in a parking garage and both of us walked right past the doors to the washroom twice without seeing them! They were on either side of the of the parking payment machine with a tiny sign on each door!
I love how people have tiny potted gardens on their window ledges or on the street beside their doors. 
Baden Baden has a lot of very high end shops. This watch is priced at €15,500…no prices on the others. I presume they are even more expensive. We also see small diamond earring studs that range from €399 to €820 and there were no clothing items on display in the shop windows below €100! A bit too pricey for us, but it is fun to window shop.
Loved this stork fountain!
This is the Baden Baden Casino. Bob thought we could go in and tryout luck but men must wear a suit jacket and tie. We wouldn’t be allowed in with our jeans and casual sweaters.
The drive from Baden Baden to Mulhouse in France was interesting. I see these strange structures on Google maps while navigating…turns out they are huge shopping malls with parking on the roofs of the buildings.
Screenshot
Just a few kilometres down the road I see this huge truck rest stop on Google maps. I count 86 trucks stopped for a break! Bob’s biggest complaint about driving in Europe is all the trucks on the roads. The right lane is one truck after another and when a truck pulls into the car lane to pass a slower moving one all the cars have to slow down until it manages to pass and get back into the truck lane.
Screenshot
Remember the German highway speed limit is usually 130 km and often there is no speed limit so a truck pulling into your lane at 90 km is actually quite dangerous. Bob does enjoy the chance to drive at 156 km/h though!
We get caught in traffic for almost half an hour, moving just a car length at a time. We finally figure out why. This huge boat was trying to move through a rather small covered bridge so all traffic was stopped during this operation. Notice our speed now…1.6 km/h!
We arrived just in time to meet our Airbnb host, but our planned stop for groceries has to wait for another day.
Day 26 Thursday, September 25, 2025
Another quiet day, but I do venture out. We drive 15 minutes to a nearby town to do a bigger grocery shop. The store Bob has been going to in Fontoy is limited so we are going to a big E.Leclerc grocery store.
Traffic circles often have interesting displays in their centres. This one has flags from many European countries. There are a lot of traffic circles of all sizes in France and Belgium!
After 1 1/2 hours shopping we spend €104 for two big bags of groceries, which seems fairly reasonable. This store is huge and it takes a while to find all the items on our list. Heading home, the countryside is pretty but it is cloudy and still raining on and off. 
This is just down the street from our apartment, which happens to be right beside train tracks! Luckily the windows are very soundproof and we barely hear the trains at all.
The plan is to drive to Metz tomorrow. There are a couple museums we want to visit.
Day 24 Tuesday, September 23, 2025
We are staying in Fontoy, France which is 35 minutes from Luxembourg because we couldn’t find a place to stay in Luxembourg. Fontoy is a small town with a population of just over 3,000.
Our Airbnb is very nice, even though it is up three flights of stairs…no elevator.
I have had a sore throat for a while and now I have the beginnings of a cough and cold. The weather continues to be cold, wet and windy. I need to stay home and rest for a few days and this is a good place to do that. We both have a quiet day. Bob does go get a few groceries, washes our clothes and I have a two hour afternoon nap!
Day 14. Saturday, September 13, 2025
We visit the Arras market which is held in the Place des Héros in front of City Hall. It is packed with tables, tents and trailers selling a wide variety of goods. I adore these baskets, but they would be a difficult to take home.
Many shoppers are carrying beautiful bouquets of flowers. Two of these pink bouquets are only €5!
European markets often have an interesting assortment of mushrooms…
…and of course, many different cheeses.
We buy sausages, green beans, a baguette, a red pepper, bananas and two baskets of yummy Belgium strawberries. 
This plaque with our shadows shows the Original Belfry survived from 1463-1914, and the City Hall from 1502-1914. They were both almost completely destroyed by German bombardment in October 1914. They were rebuilt in the 1920s, using modern materials but replicating their original style. 
A view of the huge market in front of the Town Hall. The vendors were also located down the side streets of the square.
During our tour of the Boves on Wednesday our guide said that every building around the Grand’Place and the Place des Héros has underground cellars that are part of the caves that were dug under Arras. Each building has three levels of cellars, one at each of 4, 8 and 12 meters. Many restaurants and pubs are now located in these cellars. Each building’s cellars are “lined with metal” to prevent any thefts. Our guide’s English was fairly basic so we weren’t sure if she meant metal gates, or something else.
It is a short 10 minute drive to the Carrière Wellington. We don hard hats and we are soon 20 meters underground. 
Tunnellers from New Zealand connected the town’s medieval chalk caves and tunnels to create a network of underground barracks to accommodate 24,000 soldiers in the First World War. Images and films are projected onto the cave walls throughout our tour. These are the NZ tunnellers.
The tunnels we visit today housed 1,500 soldiers in the weeks up to the surprise attack against the Germans on April 9, 1917. Film of British troops arriving in Arras
Images of individual soldiers were projected here. I wonder how many of them died in the coming battle.
These ancient caves were used as building stone quarries for Arras in Medieval times. They are very large with high ceilings.
This projection showed some of the NZ tunnellers who volunteered to come to Arras. In front of the image are pick axes and shovels used to build the tunnels. No sledgehammers or explosives were used as the noise could have been heard by the Germans. The German front line was very close to the town of Arras.
Bottles found in the caves, included everything from Perrier water bottles to beer, liquor, cream and HP sauce bottles. 
A facsimile of the bunks that were made for the soldiers. It was damp and cold and water dripped onto the men as they slept.
We hear a recording of a church service that plays while we view this projection of a soldier’s drawing of the service given just before the battle. 1,500 men crowded together in this part of the caves to attend the service.
This is Command Headquarters. 
A view down a long tunnel towards an opening where the soldiers will exit onto the battlefield after an underground explosion opens the way.
This last part of the tour was very moving. Projections of men writing their letters home before the battle. The contents of some letters are read aloud and we hear if the writer was injured or died in battle. Then we see these steps leading to an exit. There is a film with shadows of soldiers charging up the stairs to exit a doorway that flashes bright with loud explosions. We can hear the soldiers yelling and breathing hard. It is so difficult to watch…so many died to launch this surprise attack on the Germans. 
In a theatre after the tour we watch a film about what happened after this battle and I am shocked to learn that the British advance slowed in the next few days and the German defence recovered. The battle became a costly stalemate for both sides and 4,000 men a day died in the days after the surprise attack. The British had 160,000 casualties and the Germans about 125,000. Up until hearing this I thought this Arras surprise attack was at least a success. I really hate war!
On a lighter note…for dinner tonight we have a salad and an order of Arras’s world famous frites. Yes, this is one €6.00 order of large frites. More than the two of us can eat!
Day 13. Friday, September 12, 2025
It is an hour drive to Amiens from Arras where we will visit Jules Verne’s house, the largest cathedral in France, and take a unique boat ride.
We luck out and find a parking space right beside the Jules Verne museum. Parking downtown in French cities is very difficult, there are more cars than spaces available. We have our picnic lunch in a little park right by the museum but these chestnuts were falling and landing with a crash around us…the spikes on the green fruit are very sharp and we decide to move to a safer bench.
Jules Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. Jules Verne is the second most translated author in the world, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare. His novel Around the World in 80 Days is printed in 18 languages.
The winter garden was the original entrance to the Jules Verne house. Tropical garden plants were moved indoors here to spend the winter.
The dining room and salon on the main floor.
One of the second floor rooms was a reconstruction of his first boat. Jules Verne loved to sail and his first boat was a 9 metre long. His second boat was 20 meters in length and the third was 30 meters! 
This second floor room was a library. The second photos shows the original library with over 12,000 books. When he read these books Jules Verne wrote notes on index cards to use as reference information for his novels.
From 1882 to 1900 Jules Verne wrote every day from 5:00 am until 11:00 am in this little room.
Climbing the tower which was added to the house by Jules Verne. It allows access to all three floors of the house.
The third floor attic has a collection of original movie posters…
…and other memorabilia. I look like I am one of the exhibits!
Bob and a fictional flying machine from one of Verne’s novels. 
A view from the front of the house showing the winter garden.
it is a short walk to the Amiens cathedral. Notre-Dame d’Amiens is the largest medieval cathedral in the world. It was built in 1269 and is twice the size of Notre Dame in Paris.
The sculpted decorations in the portals have survived in a remarkable state of preservation…
…and the 16th century wood carvings of the choir stalls are unique in the world. 
Sandbags were used to protect the exterior and interior of the church during WWI. The stained glass windows were removed and stored elsewhere. Unfortunately there was a fire and some of the windows were destroyed. A bomb did fall directly on the church but it did not detonate. Whether by faulty fuse, divine intervention or sheer luck, the cathedral stood unharmed. Info and photo~ church heritage.eu
This is a massive cathedral…
…with stunning stained glass windows.
Do you see the people? They give a sense of scale.
Looking towards the richly decorated altar…
and in the opposite direction, the organ that was built in 1549…
which has just been cleaned and restored.
Love this statue of Joan of Arc.
There is also a labyrinth from 1288.
When we leave the cathedral, I look up and there are the gargoyles! I am very fond of gargoyles.
We have time to walk back to the car for tea and cookies and a little down time before we get ready for our boat ride at the Hortillonages.
Shaped by generations of market gardeners known as ‘hortillons’, this site is the only one of its kind in France. The Hortillonnages are made up of a multitude of small cultivated islets surrounded by water, accessible only by boat on a network of waterways
We spend a relaxing 45 minutes travelling these waterways. We see market gardens, private gardens, cottages and some islands that look very wild and unkept.
The Hortillonnages have been here since ancient times. They are located on the naturally marshy terrain of the old bed of the River Somme. The site’s name has its origins in the Latin ‘hortus’ meaning garden. Nowadays, the ownership of this 300-hectare site is shared by over 1000 individuals who use it for market gardening or leisure activities such as gardening, fishing, and observing nature.
Walking back to our car we pass yet another war memorial, a reminder of the war and those who fought and died for France. 
Day 9. Monday, September 8, 2025
Arras is only185 km from Paris but we like to stop and see sights along the way. I am navigating and I see this beside our road on Google maps. I have no idea what it is!
When I zoom in, I realize that this is a gigantic car park! A bit of Googling and we discover it is a carpark covering more than 28 hectares and containing more than 22,000 new vehicles! 
We arrive at Beauvais to visit its Cathedral but the first order of business is finding a bathroom…not always an easy task. Then we walk through a huge square towards a carousel. European carousels always remind me of a trip we made 46 years ago when our oldest daughter was only four years old. We stopped for rides at every carousel we saw! Travelling with Sue is similar, she squeaked and squawked until we let her have a ride!
The Beauvais Cathedral was completed in 1272. 
The cathedral was damaged during the Second World War but remained standing and was restored after the war. 
The inside soars high above our heads and the light streams through the stained glass windows.
Many of the pillars are still decorated with intricate painting.
The centre of the church is under renovation so we are only allowed to walk around the aisles and ambulatory behind the altar. Bob is dwarfed by the tall pillars.
I take a photo of the altar by putting my phone through the grating in the above photo.
Bob took this photo with this light shining through the stained glass windows into this side chapel.
This “clock was built between 1865 and 1868 by Auguste-Lucien Vérité. It is 12 metres high, and 6 metres wide. The 52 dials display the times of the rising and setting sun and moon, the position of the planets, the current time in 18 cities around the world, and the tidal times.” ~Wikipedia We wait for it to turn 3:00 but not a lot happened other than three chimes and a few areas of the clock lighting up.
“In the 1990s, the choir started to become very unstable. In some places, the pillars had moved more than 30cm. The north transept had four large wood-and-steel lateral trusses at different heights, installed to keep it from collapsing.
Since 2000, scaffolding has been continually put up around the cathedral to overcome these problems. 
Also, the main floor of the transept is punctuated by a much larger brace that juts out of the floor at a 45-degree angle. It was placed as an emergency measure to give additional support to the pillars in an effort to stave off any further movement. Presently, Columbia University is performing a study on a three-dimensional model using laser scans of the building in an attempt to pinpoint where the weaknesses are greatest to see what further can be done to shore up the building.” ~Frenchmoments.ca
We take the smaller highways from Beauvais to Arras instead of the toll highway and see this Sommes cemetery. This is the information plaque. It is hard to comprehend that over a million soldiers were killed here. I think that ghosts must walk these fields.
The headstones seem to stretch forever and so many of these young men were never able to be identified. They are only “Known Unto God”.
I think it is important to visit these cemeteries and honour those who have died but they are difficult and emotional visits.
We continue our drive and arrive in Arras at 6:00 to meet our host for our Airbnb. 
Day 7 Saturday, September 6, 2025
Today I catch the metro about 12:30 to go drawing at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and Bob stays home a bit longer before going exploring on his own. He caught the metro to the Gare du Nord and then walked all the way south to the Jardin de Luxembourg to sit and read for a bit.
Sadly the studios of the Académie are no longer in the same historic building. These three photos are from previous trips and visits to draw in the 121 year old studios where so many artists have been before me.
On the way to the new location which is only a couple of blocks from the old studios I see these flowers that had been placed on a window ledge….I wonder what iis the story behind these roses?
Here is the new studio. It seems rather sterile and bare, but at least the life drawing sessions are still in operation. I believe that they are trying to find a better studio but the lady who talked about all this spoke very quickly and I only caught part of what she was saying. My French has improved, but not enough to understand the whole conversation. You can see my spot in the foreground of the photo, with my sketchbook on the stool and my red bag on the floor.
The model was tall and my drawings weren’t great today, but it is all a learning experience. Four 5 minute poses.
a 10 and a 15 minute pose
A 30n and a 35 minute pose.
After drawing I walked to the Jardin de Luxembourg to meet Bob. Thank heavens for cell phones and texting or I would never have found him. The gardens were very busy today.
The Medici Fountain is a monumental fountain in the Jardin de Luxembourg that was built in 1630. I really like this fountain. 
In 2006 we saw a giant nose floating in the water as part of an art installation.
We walk toward the Jardin de Plantes, a botanical garden about 45 minutes away. We pass the Pantheon, which is a mausoleum containing the graves of many famous people including Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Voltaire, Louis Braille, and Alexandre Dumas. It is closed and I don’t think we will have time to visit this trip…guess we need to return to Paris at least one more time!
I do not miss eating out in Paris. Sitting check by jowl beside smokers is not my idea of fun. I much prefer the meals we prepare at home in our bnb’s.
As we enter the Jardin des Plantes we see this huge Plantane tree which was planted in 1785 and is now classified as an ‘Arbre Historique et Remarquables’. It amazes me that someone knows exactly when this tree was planted… 240 years ago!
These little orchids are growing at the base of the tree. We have the same ones growing back home in Alberta.
Sue loved this interesting flower and wanted a closer look.
Another huge old tree. Can you tell I love trees.
We couldn’t find Sue but then Bob spotted her checking out this rather strange creature.
The Botanical garden was a bit of a disappointment, we had just started to explore some of the more interesting areas when we were told to leave as the park was closing, a half hour before it actually closed.
Everyday on our walk to the metro near our bnb we pass these beautiful Passion flowers. 
We got home about 8:30, another full day.
Day 5, Thursday, September 4, 2025
The morning didn’t get off to a good start. We tried to purchase an online e-SIM from Orange. I think it took almost two hours! Seems we need to confirm the purchase on our credit cards by entering the code they send to our phone number. Only problem is the phone number they have on file is our home land line! It took forever but we finally got it done, so now we have two different cell phone providers…hopefully at least one of them will be working when we need them. It poured rain this morning so at least we were still home when that happened. After the rain we set off to visit Notre Dame.
The restored Notre Dame is now open for visitors. I last visited the inside of Notre Dame in 2014 when I spent a month in Paris. It looks amazing, it is pretty much impossible to tell what is original and what has been replaced because of the fire. Our first view of the interior is stunning.
The Rose window on the south side of the Church.
This sculpted wall from the 14th century depicts scenes from the life of Christ. It forms a separation between the choir and the ambulatory. This is just one small section of the long carved wall depicting the story of the life of Christ.
The side chapels have been cleaned, repaired and repainted. They are absolutely stunning.
I love the sun shining through the stained glass windows.
Another view of one of the two rose windows with dancing lights from the stained glass.
Looking up towards the second floor galleries I see more coloured light. The chandeliers provide a warm glow as well.
We are impressed with the restoration. Notre Dame is back! It took 700 million euros and one thousand artisans to complete the restoration. We stay for Vespers and listen to the organ music and a young woman with the loveliest voice singing the Psalms. This is how cathedrals should be visited, when they are full of music and prayer.
Outside we take our first selfie of this trip. Unfortunately the rooftop is not yet open. I loved the time I spent up there in 2014, visiting the gargoyles and enjoying the wonderful views of Paris. There are 387 steps to climb in the south tower to visit the rooftop. It is supposed to open September 20th. We are planning make time to do this on our return to Paris on the way home.
We walk towards the Louvre and find a place for tea and a snack. We stroll along the Seine and find a place to sit, but it was very busy, lots of cyclists, joggers and people going by so we walk to the Tuileries Garden just west of the Louvre. The name comes from the tile kilns which occupied the site before the palace.
On the way we walk through the Flower market, just before they close.
This lady was making the most fantastic bubbles, they were huge and there were so many of them blowing in the wind. I would love to know the recipe for her bubble mixture.
This bride and groom were having their wedding photos taken but I thought they weren’t very comfortable following the photographers cues. There were lots of retakes.
The sun is setting on the Olympic Cauldron…very impressive.
Time to head home and we walk a few blocks to our metro line, which Bob can’t find….I see it right away…it is kind of hard to miss!
Day 4, Wednesday, September 3, 2025
We are still jet lagged, me more so than Bob. After a quiet morning we decide to find an Orange store to buy a SIM card for Bob’s phone. Not so easy, We walked about twenty minutes to the first store, only to discover that it was an Orange office building, no sales! Next we take the metro to another Orange store in a big shopping centre, only to discover that they do not sell SIM cards (go figure!) and they send us to a Tabac store in the mall. They only have one kind of SIM, and it isn’t one that will work for us…so we Google the location of another Orange store closer to the centre of Paris, take the metro again and surprise! They don’t sell SIMS either! Turns out we have to download an E-SIM. We sat down in the store to do that, thinking that if we have problems we could at least get some help, only to find that our Koodo roaming plan isn’t working again! AARGH! Enough…we quit and decided to go find a patisserie and buy some pastries .
We pass a world Heritage site, the Tour Saint-Jacques, a tenth century tower that is all that remains of the Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie Church. It always amazes me to see that something so ancient has managed to survive in the middle of a city.
We pass this interesting fellow dancing in the street, and he smiles after Continue reading
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