Lyon is the gastronomy capital of France, so we are told. If you want authentic Lyonnais dishes while in town, then you are best served to seek out a certified bouchon. Many restaurants in Lyon call themselves bouchons; however, only 21 in the city are certified as genuine by Les Bouchons Lyonnais. So where did…
Author: Garrett and Stephanie Estep
Retired early to travel the world.
Lyon, France (May, 2024, Part I).
The Lyon Beer Festival was held on April 27 and 28. We arrived in Lyon on April 30. Damn. Well, at least we made it here. We almost didn’t. Less than 24 hours before our scheduled arrival, we received a cancellation notice from our Lyon Airbnb host, mentioning a water heater and plumbing problem. Neither…
Grenoble, France (April, 2024).
Grenoble has the distinction of being perhaps the single greatest disappointment on our travels to date. Not the city, which seems fantastic, but because of the weather that greeted us upon arrival in mid-April for our two week visit. So far we have been fortunate not to have periods of extended lousy weather during our…
Monaco (April, 2024).
Hotel or not? Monaco is twenty minutes from Nice by train (€9,80 roundtrip per person). Though it is always enjoyable to get away, why spend the night out when we are only going twenty minutes from our Airbnb? After much discussion and research we decided on a night out at Hotel Forum, which is situated…
Eze, France (April, 2024).
Despite numerous recommendations, we were ambivalent about going to a hill town. Several were considered, with transportation being the defining factor. The easiest hill town to get to from Nice is Eze, the most well known and popular hill town in the area. Over the course of a few days our discussion about Eze went…
Antibes, France (April, 2024).
There was no particular draw for us to visit Antibes, other than that it was nearby, an easy day trip, and somewhere different to experience. We arrived by train shortly before 10:00 AM and headed straight over to Port Vauban d’Antibes. With over 1,500 berths, and 19 for superyachts, Antibes is home to the largest…
Nice, France (April, 2024, Part III).
Along the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera) are numerous coastal walks ranging from about 1.5 kilometers (just under one mile) to over 10 kilometers (six miles), which are perfect for a few hours on a beautiful day. Our first coastal walk was from Nice to Villefranche-sur-Mer, which we did “backwards”. This walk is almost always described…
Nice, France (March, 2024, Part II).
A few days of predicted on and off rains prompted us to buy Nice Museum Passes for €15 each, giving us admission to ten different area museums over the next four consecutive days. Ordinarily we prefer to spread out museum visits over several weeks, but we weren’t going to pass up this deal. We went…
Nice, France (March, 2024, Part I).
Probably the most important thing we do when planning a trip (after buying plane tickets and securing accommodations) is downloading necessary apps to our phones. To date, every major European city that we visited has one app for its local public transportation system, including maps, routes, and tickets. If someone can explain to me why…
Playa Del Carmen, México (February, 2024).
For our last week in México we are taking a vacation at the Hilton Adults Only All Inclusive Resort in Playa Del Carmen. Stephanie still had several hundred thousand Hilton points collected over the years while traveling for business. Previously we used about half of her points at a Hilton resort in Puerto Vallarta. Now…