It’s a rainy, yucky day in Grasse today. The fog is so thick I can’t see anything outside my windows..

One of the many reasons why I chose to stay in Southern France was because I was told (by people from here,) that there are a lot more native speakers who are happy to oblige in public. That is very true, but my hosts are very old-school French people who either did not learn English [...]

A conversation with my dad a little later:

Dad: you know, the name just sounds bad.

Dad: tripe…sounds like it’s related to Gout, or Phlegm..

Me: IT PROBABLY IS.

Grasse is a little town just outside of Cannes in the Cote D’azur region of France. I chose to stay here because 1) It was totally in my price range 2) It sounded like a more interesting place than typical Cannes or Nice and 3) Doesn’t it sound overwhelmingly charming to stay in the perfume [...]

..but I just haven’t felt like it? Is that fair?
I’m finally in France. It’s beautiful and wonderful and grand. And my first few days here were a total nightmare.
I left Los Angeles excited about this trip and what it meant for me..and from the moment I arrived here until about three days later, I [...]

I just arrived in London and am waiting for my connection in Nice – two more hours to go. My flight from Nice to London has been delayed because of a strike — how French. London Heathrow Terminal 3 is freaking ridiculous.  It’s like a mall on crack. Every ridiculously expensive store known to European [...]

Accommodations were my biggest concern while doing research for this trip. I  already decided that I would be using the “home base” technique for my travels when I ran the gamut of possibilities through my head:

I hate how hard it is to find people/guidebooks/ traveling planning sites that will fully disclose what they spend on so-called ‘budget’ vacations. What I’ve done – as I’m sure many have – is take the fabulous tips I have read and use them to avoid  the many, many plunders that seem to sucker every [...]

This is my tentative itinerary for my trip to Europe beginning on March 18, 2009 and ending on June 10th, 2009.
Departing from LAX, London-bound. Connection flight from London to Nice, France. Arriving in Nice at 7:25 local time, on March 19th.
Nice, France : March 19 – April 21.
Taking the train from Nice to Corniglia, Italy [...]