Circus Maximus, we’ve all seen the movie, Ben Hur and watched Charleton Heston race around the track. When you yourself get to walk down that exact same soil, you can feel the thunder under your feet!
And then as a Huge surprise, we got gifted with Real horses thundering down the track. My body and brain screamed to be let on a horse so I could really feel the thunder under my body. Alas, I don’t yet know Italian, nor do I know who or why these people were allowed to do this wonderful Sunny Sunday horse day? I was SO jealous and so thrilled at the same time!
We never did find out who or why they were there and we asked and googled a lot with no headlines of any sort. One day however, I will get my Ben Hur day! one can hope right?
Our first trip to England one of my favorite things so far is the Old old Pubs, like Really Old. Made it my goal to visit each towns oldest of old and have a pint. found some really great ones and had a great time researching all the old ones and their history.
The oldest in Salisbury was 898 and the newest was 1714! I love the history, the wonky floors, the giant wood beams but always Beware when going to the Loo, its usually up or down a tiny tiny winding staircase and the stair is for shoes size 6 or smaller! Truly watch your Ps and Qs!!!
(Points to those who know what a Ps and Qs is? Do you know?) private message me if you don’t know 🙂
Champagne Ardenne Valley is something to see and a must on your list. Champagne Caves and how the whole process is done by the names you’ve always seen: Moet, Tattinger, Veuve Cliquot and more. Super cool information on my favorite subject: Champagne!
It is well worth the monies and the time to go thru the caves and see how its all done and how it all started. And even better, there’s always the tasting at the end of the tour!
We went thru several: Veuve Cliquot, Tattingier,Castellane and Many local ones as well. The big houses give the best underground tours, but they all have great tasting tours. Its a must for anyone’s bucket list and I highly recommend it. There are two main cities to go to and they are about 40 min apart.
REIMS: The largest and a quite big city but the majority of the Champagne area and the Old City are small and very walkable. The Grande Dames of champagne are here: Veuve Cliquot, Mumm, Tattinger, Pommery,Martel and more. Additionally to the Champagne houses is the other very important site, the Unesco World Heritage Notre Dame (the Other Notre Dame) and the statue of Joan of Arc.
Epernay is the smaller of the towns but also bigger than you think with lots of shopping and plenty more houses: Moet, De Castellene, Bollinger, Pol Roger, Pierre Jouet.
We just arrived in Champagne France and the Marne Valley, for our first European house sit and the beginning of our life abroad. Its so appropriate that we would start our journey in Darla’s favorite thing/place on earth–Champagne!
Just down the road from where we are staying, is a gorgeous Mansion/Manor with the most beautiful park like setting. the Perfect Fall environment especially for newly landed Californians who never see fall colors.
One of the biggest Hints to know in a foreign country, not just France, Never leave the airport without some local money. Not too much because the exchange rate at the airport is way too high usually, BUT you do Not want to get in a rental car and take off without any local cash.
Case in point: We arrive our first day to Paris, getting our rental car and heading to drive to the Champagne Region. After a crazy flight, crazy depart from the airport (we drove around twice before finally figuring out what/where the Exit sign was; seeing how it was in French we didn’t know what Exit was!
(Sortie by the way, (Exit) is the sign you are looking for)
We hopped on the motorway only to discover it was a toll road. We are whizzing along feeling all smug and happy we had figured out how to rent/drive/leave the airport and get to our destination on our own UNTIL……
The toll booth! UnManned toll booths that is! And all in French! No clue what to do, out on a lonely stretch of motorway, with no one there but us (thank goodness hindsight) and we had No cash at all except American money!
Fat lot of good that will do you in Europe. (not just at toll booths but anywhere in Europe – NO they do Not want American monies so don’t bring much)
ok sorry back to the toll booth: Having no idea what to do, we sat reading the signs on the booth like somehow we would all the sudden read and understand French! Nope that doesn’t work; we finally figured out the little tiny pictures were a diagram of a credit card. Victory, they take credit cards!
We stick our American Visa into the slot and hold our breaths, Hoping it will work. We are in the middle of nowhere it felt like, green grassy fields everywhere your eyes look but no people anywhere and a giant bar across the toll road, no way around it. Viola, it worked! woohooo Victory as the bar lifts up and the box returns our credit card to us.
So, either be sure to have money OR be sure you have a credit card! Seriously though, get at least $20-$40 of local money no matter where you go, before you leave the airport: taxis/trains/toll booths or cafe, they won’t take American monies so be Prepared, plan ahead.
YES this is our Real Luggage we brought over! and it was Way too much. Originally we were going to ship 21 large boxes with full kitchen/household linens/accessories and personal clothing items. I spent days and days and even weeks trying to figure out a shipping company that was legit and never found anyone and it was going to be around $2000!
We gave up on that idea and I can save you a ton of time and money; if you aren’t being moved by a company or the military the cheapest way to move is the dumb airlines luggage overage charges! you can get ALOT in luggage and the price of airline fees is cheaper than ANY shipping that isn’t a full container. If you have less than a container than there truly is no cheap way, forget postal/fed ex no longer does it and I never found any other way.
BUT, however, if you are moving over, I would recommend taking Half of what you think you want/need!
What not to bring? First and foremost, too much clothing! Trust me there are stores here with tons of cute fashion!
Electronics, they won’t work here without an adapter and even then they might not work (see my post about the blown up heating pad)
Shoes, there are Tons of GREAT shoes, better shoes in some cases than in America.
And if you are going mobile traveling and not renting a flat, then you REALLY need 1/3 of what you think you want/need. What you use/need in America is Not what you need here. and it becomes a major burden to lug all this stuff with you. Find a way to keep it back home until you have been over here awhile and KNOW you are staying forever. Know you miss it enough to think about it while traveling, and then bring it over.
Meantime keep it simple and bring only the basics.
