France Travel

With all the famous châteaus in France (Chenonceau, Chambord and, of course, Versailles), the Château de Malmaison (website is in French only) often gets overlooked. Josephine bought this property in 1799 while Napoleon was off fighting. They agreed to a divorce after Josephine proved unable to produce an heir and she lived out the remainder of her days in Malmaison tending her roses.

Visitors to this charming château will be impressed with how little it resembles the hurried pace of other tourist attraction châteaus like Versailles. The house has been carefully maintained and contains many of Josephine's furnishings.  It also provides an opportunity to learn and understand more about Josephine's influential role in Napoleon's life. The house can easily be seen in an hour.   

The real attraction to Malmaison, however, is the roses. Josephine spent much of her time cultivating a beautiful garden here at Malmaison and the fruits (or flowers) of her labor can still be seen today. Take a picnic lunch to the château and enjoy a quiet afternoon just enough away from central Paris to remind you that his was once countryside. The château is located just outside Paris and easily accessible by public transportation (take the RER A to “Grande Arche” and then bus 258 to "Le Château"). Despite its close proximity to central Paris, the château is usually not too crowded.

The Mercure Paris Montmartre right in the heart of Bohemian Paris is a straightforward, clean and friendly location to base yourself during a visit. Despite what you may be thinking about the location, right around the corner from the legendary Moulin Rouge near Place de Clichy in the Montmartre district, the Mercure Paris Montmartre is a safe and comfortable place to travel to and from. We found neighborhood excursions to be entirely enjoyable at most any hour of the day. The Mercure Paris Montmartre is right in the midst of great shopping and eating just down the hill from the Sacre Coeur, one of the best places in Paris to snap some photos. There is also a nearby underground station.

The rooms at the Mercure Paris Montmartre are nothing out of the ordinary but they are quiet (our room had a double door so interior noise was practically nonexistent) and clean. The staff is extremely friendly and their level of English was generally more than enough to get across what we need. The morning buffet breakfast is good enough to get your through the first few hours of the day but you should try to either get there early or arrive after 9:00-9:30 to avoid a bit of a crowd.

We book our Parisian accommodations with the intention of having a clean, quiet place to sleep off our long days of walking and exploring. The Mercure Paris Montmartre was a perfect fit.

The day we decided to travel from Rennes to Mont-St-Michel there was a dark threat of rain on the horizon all morning. We almost decided to cancel our trip figuring that if we didn’t go, it wouldn’t rain. At the last minute, we embarked and enjoyed a rain-free afternoon at this splendid fortified abbey.

The island of Mont-Tombe and the abbey of Mont-St-Michel are approached from the south via a causeway that makes passage to the island possible even at high tide (something that used to not be possible). The towers that you pass on your way in (King’s Tower and the Arcade Tower) used to provide housing for the abbot’s troops. That’s right, the abbots here used to be quite powerful. This is, after all, a fortified abbey. Pilgrims in ages past came to Mont-St-Michel to honor St. Michael and visitors today take the same path, the Grande Rue, up to the church. Unfortunately, today it is a tourist thoroughfare that one must get through in order to start feeling the truly enchanting atmosphere of this ancient holy place.

Once we’d made our way to the abbey itself, we had a relatively crowd-free (perhaps the threat of rain had scared many away) chance to take in the beautiful abbey church as well as some wonderful examples of 13th century Anglo-Norman architecture in the monastic complex and the cloisters.
As the sun began to set, we perched ourselves with a view of the mainland and watched the storm clouds finally roll in off the ocean. By the time it started raining, we were back in our rental car, happy we’d made the trip.

Check out these France Hotels. 

The day we decided to travel from Rennes to Mont-St-Michel there was a dark threat of rain on the horizon all morning. We almost decided to cancel our trip figuring that if we didn’t go, it wouldn’t rain. At the last minute, we embarked and enjoyed a rain-free afternoon at this splendid fortified abbey.

The island of Mont-Tombe and the abbey of Mont-St-Michel are approached from the south via a causeway that makes passage to the island possible even at high tide (something that used to not be possible). The towers that you pass on your way in (King’s Tower and the Arcade Tower) used to provide housing for the abbot’s troops. That’s right, the abbots here used to be quite powerful. This is, after all, a fortified abbey. Pilgrims in ages past came to Mont-St-Michel to honor St. Michael and visitors today take the same path, the Grande Rue, up to the church. Unfortunately, today it is a tourist thoroughfare that one must get through in order to start feeling the truly enchanting atmosphere of this ancient holy place.

Once we’d made our way to the abbey itself, we had a relatively crowd-free (perhaps the threat of rain had scared many away) chance to take in the beautiful abbey church as well as some wonderful examples of 13th century Anglo-Norman architecture in the monastic complex and the cloisters.
As the sun began to set, we perched ourselves with a view of the mainland and watched the storm clouds finally roll in off the ocean. By the time it started raining, we were back in our rental car, happy we’d made the trip.

Check out these France Hotels.