For a truly Parisian experience, I love to explore the area surrounding rue Saint-Dominique. The length of this shop-lined street running from Saint Germain, past les Invalides to the Champ de Mars, provides plenty of opportunity to fill up a suitcase without the challenge of the Big Avenue crowds and, if one suitcase proves insufficient, there are a couple of wonderful wholesale…
Epicurienne’s Library
A Year in the Merde, Stephen Clarke This tongue-in-cheek account of the life of an English marketing executive working in Paris was an accidental runaway success. The author vanity published it initially but when word got ’round that this unknown had written a riot of a book about a chap called Paul West adapting to…
Eurostar Etiquette
Just before Christmas, Monsieur and I collapsed onto a Eurostar train to Paris unaware that we would have free in-carriage entertainment for a good portion of our trip. Soon after the train glided away from the platform, a bilingual girl, no more than 10 years old, had a fight with her little sister as they sat across the…
The London Dunder-ground
One of the pleasures of living in London has to be adventures on the public transport system. I’ve decided to keep a log of how many times I am delayed on the tube and the creative excuses that come over the tannoy… Do check for my updates because you know they’ll be frequent! July 2008:…
Protected: A Kiwi, A Frog and A Big, White Ball.
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
A Rocamadour high
The alarm went off in the dark. Usually, getting up pre-dawn means one of two things: illness or an early flight. Today was a case of the latter, but not in the normal sense. We left the hotel just as a hint of breaking sun highlighted the river mist, following the trusty Michelin map to…
Too long in London?
When I jumped on the plane that would take me to London, I never knew I’d stay here for so long. At first, I made common mistakes of vocabulary, such as calling a chap “spunky”, only to have my English flatmate explain that although she watched the Australian soap, Neighbours, and therefore knew what I…
The Positano Effect
It was a beautiful Neapolitan day in August 2005 when we decided to venture out onto the Amalfi Coast to explore this famous winding corniche. Wishing we had a sixties convertible with the top down, a chic headscarf and huge “Do you know who I am?” sunglasses, I couldn’t believe that this area really was…
Precious reminders
As long as I’ve been travelling, I’ve collected mementoes to remind me of special places or experiences. As I write, I’m surrounded by many of them: a small, treasured oil of the Doge’s Palace in Venice, a mass-produced Eiffel Tower in grey metal, a photo of Monsieur holding a kitten at a pilgrim’s hostel in…
Epicurienne – who is she?
Epicurienne, travel lover and amateur foodie, was born in New Zealand, where the green-lipped mussels and Tip Top ice cream spoiled her tastes forever. At university she studied European languages before crossing the Tasman to become a Sydney-sider for a while. After a year in Oz, replete with bush fires and dramatic sunsets, hotel shift work and the delight…
Epicurienne 