France - Comfortably Numb

Feature: Walking a virtual Camino

Doing a virtual pilgrimage One of the few highlights of this long lockdown period (and I was in lockdown mode from 16 March 2020) was a virtual Camino I went on, for 36 + 3 days, starting early April. The invite came from our Camino leader Amy Gigi Alexander, she who has walked more than…

Book review: Le Road Trip by Vivian Swift

This is more a brief take than review. Le Road Trip by Vivian Swift. Because of its simply irresistible title. Because I have been hopelessly, helplessly, totally in love with Paris, with France, since forever (or since I first visited). Because this is a picture book: every page carries exquisitely detailed drawings of windows, cafes, streets, fields,…

Travel: Lyon, a moveable feast – In between bites

I have got to be honest and upfront about it: I had come to Lyon to eat. This city that sits tidily between two charming and seemingly placid rivers, the Rhone coming down from the Alpin glaciers and the Saone coming in from northeastern France, is one that the French, an epicurean nation if there…

Travel: Versailles, France

Viva Versailles! The Palace of the Sun King continues to dazzle, reports Sheila Kumar Most tourists visit Versailles with a view to upload some drama-filled history into their brains, aided by a montage of truly stunning visuals of the chateau, the palaces and the park. However, we were there for a different reason. Chasing history Being aficionados…

Travel: Chartres, France

Catatonic in Chartres The beauty of the ancient cathedral as well as losing her wallet rendered SHEILA KUMAR utterly speechless in Chartres. OK, first things first. The shrine is all it claims to be. The oldest and most beautiful cathedral in Europe, say the guidebooks. On this chilly, late autumn morning, it stands in…

Travel: Paris: Mogan, Montmartre, Madhu and Montparnasse

Madhu, Mogan and Montparnasse Sheila Kumar gets a rather unusual perspective on Paris, The City of Lights. Mogan Sue, Madhu and me meet Mogan-from- Tiruchirapally) one autumn evening in the foyer of our hotel, the Hotel Montmartrois in Paris. After Mogan spooks us with a slew of warnings about “being careful,” he insists…