View from Musée d’Orsay, Paris It would be our second time traveling Europe By Train, this time in spring to avoid the heat and crowds. We arrived in Rome early April. Like falling off a bicycle, I resumed my love affair with the Eternal City. http://dianarchambers.blogspot.com/2016/04/europe-by-train-these-roman-streets.html After a glorious week, we left Rome’s mammoth Termini railway … Read more
The Promenade Plantée is an abandoned railway line transformed into one of the secret parks of Paris, passing over viaducts and through tunnels. I decided to walk the almost three mile trail from Place de la Bastille to Bois de Vincennes, the enormous park in eastern Paris. There are wonderful high angles on wonderful buildings. … Read more
Paris is a little bit of everything, from high art to street art. The best way to get to know the city is by wandering her grand boulevards and petites rues, her waterways and cemeteries. Some days I would set a destination, then make my way there via serendipity and whim. Edith Piaf, in Belleville My … Read more
On our return to Paris, we changed trains at Avignon, the station as modern and vast as Arles is old-fashioned and cozy. We passed villages and farmland, rural France at its most timeless. Arriving at the Gare de Lyon, we couldn’t resist a cocktail at the ravishing Train Bleu. The next day, as part of … Read more
From Zurich, our TGV—Train Grande Vitesse—is smooth and speedy, and by mid-afternoon we have arrived at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. Soon we are standing on rue Chateau d’Eau, outside the courtyard of what will be our home for three weeks. Three flights up the polished oak stairway and we enter what was once probably … Read more
From Voler, Voguez, Voyager Louis Vuiton Exhibit, Grand Palais, Paris Why is it every time I’m getting ready to leave town―even for more Europe by Train!―my home tugs me to stay? The weather is beautiful; the wisteria is in bloom, the roses are providing yummy buds for the “dear” deer, and the spring bulbs are popping. My sweet Daisy … Read more
The Company She Keeps: Pomegranate Campari Cocktail (Sneak preview: To appear on Mystery Playground’s Drinks with Authors 3/20/15) Iran. About as far as you can get from Alert, North Carolina, but life takes you places. First stop Georgetown, DC, where Evelyn Walker learns from CIA officer Nick Daley that her smart techie boyfriend is a Soviet mole. … Read more
We say we’ll never forget, but we do. When I look back at my 2012-13 Letters from Asia www.dianarchambers.com/passages.php (written for Sisters in Crime www.sincnorcal.org), I’m grateful for the memories. So I wrote Europe By Train, a dozen posts in all, one per city. Please hop aboard for the entire journey or join me for a … Read more
Paris and I go way back, but this was the first time I will arrive by train. Arriving at the Gare du Nord is a step back to the era when trains were the modern way to travel. Taking the Eurostar from London’s St. Pancras station remains the modern way to travel, from city center to … Read more