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Piggy enjoyed a quiet evening here. Can you guess the name of the town she was in? Remember to email your guesses to me at katherine@365saturdays.org!

[Russ] We saw historical sites from different time periods in Jordan: Castle Aljoun is a mammoth 12th century hilltop fortress that dominates multiple valleys in Northern Jordan. It was a successful defense against Crusader invasions. We enjoyed finding clay pots with holes for wicks, most likely an early form of hand grenade. The Citadel of […]

   In America, we all turn our televisions on and switch to our favorite news station, be it CNN or Fox News, or 7 News. Sometimes we hear bad things about the Middle East, and how there are extremist terrorists around every corner. Clips of fighting and barren towns, soldiers running and patrolling occupy your […]

To be entirely honest, I was a bit apprehensive about visiting Jordan.  The country is, after all, situated in the heart of the Middle East, a place I had never been and had only heard about in the news.  I was extremely conscious of being an American in a region where I imagined Americans were […]

We came to Jordan to see the ruins of ancient civilizations, but we left enthusiastic about the modern country as a destination.  This is a fascinating place to visit – a Muslim Arab place where Americans are nonetheless welcomed as a people if not for their foreign policy – and a place where Americans can […]

We drove to a local Jordanian family’s house for a delicious dinner. It was a cool evening and thunder was coming from our bellies. As soon as we got there we quickly unbuckled and met our host. A smiling gray-haired man met us at the door and ushered us in to meet his wife. The […]

We had a great time in Jordan. This is at one of the highlights. Can you guess the location of this building?

We walked for about an hour through a dusty gorge in Petra, peering around each bend.  Pitted stone walls of crimson and grey towering over us like Manhattan skyscrapers.  We were here to see the fabled “Treasury Building” – a jawdropper that was made famous as the resting place for the Holy Grail by the third […]

The second day in Jordan we headed south from Petra to take a jeep ride a desert region called Wadi Rum, known for its fantastical sandstone formations.  Katherine and Carter each write about their favorite part of the experience – the camels. Katherine: As we were driving in the Jordanian dessert we came across ten camels. […]

After six months in Europe, it is time to get back on the road and see more of the world! We move now to the Middle East, starting in Jordan. We arrived at night and at a fairly nice international hotel – where guests enter through an X-ray machine! The next day the touring began […]

We had walked by the Chanel windows a hundred times.  The boutique was right next door.  Katherine and I often paused to admire the beautiful and occasionally outrageous outfits.  Then one day in early December, we saw something which took our breath away:  there amidst the winter white ensembles and holiday decorations were scores of […]

How to celebrate Christmas on the road?  It was a question Russ and I hadn’t really considered when we started planning this trip but it loomed large as the end of December approached. We had initially planned to spend the holidays in Vienna in order to explore the famous Christmas markets.  However, due to visa […]

When the day finally arrived to leave Paris, we dried our tears and left home four hours early for the train station.  We knew there would be some sort of weather delay because heavy snows had already cancelled most of the Eurostar trains from Paris to London the day before.  We stumbled out of the […]

This weekend my cousin Zoe came to visit!  Zoe is a junior at Brown with strong interests in genetics, medicine and anthropology and she can tell you a lot about old bones and also Narwhals.  We were especially happy to see family around the holidays and she was excited to visit Paris for the first […]

This week we took an overnight trip to Strasbourg which is the capital of Alsace, the eastern-most region of France.  Alsace straddles the border between France and Germany and throughout history has ping-ponged between the two.  It officially rejoined France as recently as 1918 but maintains a Germanic feel and flavor.  The joint cultural heritage of […]

The streets of Paris are its heart. Parisian rents are high and apartments are small.  Rather than sit inside, Parisians head out to the cafe to see friends.  A glass of wine costs $5-7 but it can be nursed for hours. Since this is expected, no waiter will demur.  In the true spirit of egalite […]

The following are short posts and pictures about different activities we did with the Kahns. The Kahns are our friends from Lexington MA and they came for one week to visit us in Paris. We’ve been friends with the Kahns since my Mom and Dad were in college. They have two children, Sophie and Rachel. […]

The Kahns were visiting and it was time for some cultural immersion.  We were going on a fashion tour along with our friend Nathalie, and our first stop:  Chanel.  Our tour guide in front, we walked to Chanel (down 6 doors from our apartment), stopped in front of the windows, and listened to Sophie our […]

Le Grand Vefour has been around for a very long time. It was the first restaurant in Europe to be open to the public with a menu. So with our friends Rachel, Sophie, Sandy, and Grant, we went there for lunch. Guy Martin, the head chef, met us at the door. We greeted him then […]

We wanted a genuine cultural immersion in one of Europe’s greatest cities.  That’s why we decided to rent an apartment in Paris versus stay in a hotel.  We’d make the beds, run the errands, and do all the cooking and cleaning.  Everything would surely be more fun in French. While this has largely been true, […]

Have you ever wished you could go back to college… and this time actually study?  With a couple of months of free time in Paris and the benefit of hindsight, I wanted to take a class and enjoy being a student again.  I signed up for a semester-long course at the Sorbonne called the Cours […]

It was late September and we were skyping with our dear friends the Ramsey-Troughtons when all of a sudden Karen asked “Hey, what are you guys doing for the Columbus Day weekend?”  I told her that we had no firm plans and she instantly replied “We’re coming!” Sure enough, two weeks later Karen, Colin, and […]

My family recently participated in an atelier at the Louvre.  An atelier is a workshop and almost every museum in Paris offers them.  This one was about photography. When we arrived we waited with some other families until the photographer got there. She told us what was going to happen in French, of which I […]

Who needs the elevator? Not Carter! Not Mrs. Altchek! And not me! The result was unanimous, to the top of the Eiffel tower without it. When we got to the first step, I was shaking. I’m not a big fan of heights…but there was sure to be fun at the top. Mrs.A started going up […]

Tennis was one of the things I knew I would really miss while traveling this year.  And not just for the exercise.  There’s not much better than giggling with my partner Devon as we flub drills at practice, the gentle ribbing of our coach Magnus as he tries to get us to focus, and the […]

Our last stop in the Loire Valley was the massive Château Chambord.  The building was commissioned in 1519 by a 25-year-old King Francois I.  The stated reason was that he loved to hunt and he dreamed of having a hunting lodge so princely that nobles would flock there to hunt in royal style.  In French class we learned […]

We have seen a lot of castles on this journey. Whether built for battle or governance, very few have struck me as a place to live. They tend to be massive structures with imposing facades that dominate the landscape. The scales are generally so vast and the interiors so cold that despite the tapestries and […]

“I have wasted my hours” is a famous Leonardo da Vinci quote. We did not want to do that, so we decided to take a road trip. We went to four main places, one for each of us to blog about. And I am blogging about Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci has an amazing mansion. King […]

     Can you guess what noble castle Piggy is dining in tonight?  Remember everyone wants a chance to guess, so email your answer straight to me at katherine@365saturdays.org

My family recently went to Mont Saint Michel. My parents had always wanted to take us and we were all excited. As we neared Mont Saint Michel, we saw that the only way to get on the island was a long strip of land, very narrow, and pretty high.  As we drove on to the […]

The family (including piggy of course) had a wonderful long weekend.  We went to two main places and this is one of them.  Can you guess where Piggy visited over the weekend?  (Pssst… it is not always completely connected to land!) Remember everyone wants to guess so don’t just post your answer – email it straight […]

When we got there the line was extraordinarily long. We were at the Salon Du Chocolat, which in English means the festival of chocolate. Everyone got there at the same time, after lunch. After waiting for about a half an hour, we got inside and what we found was a chocolate trade-show. It was a […]

Here are brief descriptions and photos from other activities in Paris this October: – Playing in the Tuileries.  Paris has turned to autumn colors, and the leaves are down in the nearby Tuileries park.  One day the factors all aligned and the whole family had a few free hours at mid-day with no tours and no […]

A few days ago we went to La Tour d’Argent, or the “Tower of Silver.” We entered the tower and were greeted by a woman in a black dress and a man in a suit. The woman took our coats and the man ushered us in to a fancily decorated waiting room. We sat on […]

Intent upon maximizing our culinary explorations in Paris, despite the great risk to our waistlines, we have now had the good fortune to have dined at three of the city’s most famous restaurants:  Taillevent, Le Grand Vefour, and La Tour d’Argent.   An amateur’s review and report seems to be in order.  This time, however, I […]

So far we have been to three different cooking classes, Macaroons, Cookies and lemon cake, and Chouquettes. Macaroons: We went with our friends Colin, Matthew, and their mom Karen, to an English cooking class. Dad had class but he assured us he would be there for the eating part. There were four other people and […]

Cooking in Paris has been hard because there are so many fabulous restaurants to tempt us that we often eat out.  However, we sometimes visit the weekly outdoor markets and become inspired. As Russ’s photos will attest, the stalls there are laden with every tasty thing you can imagine:  pyramids of colorful vegetables which seem […]

One day when Linda and Hugh were visiting we chanced upon Madame Grevin’s Wax Museum. Grevin was the original master who taught Madame Tussaud – a relative who some say stole the technique and escaped with it to London.  Inside there are numerous sculptures, eerily lifelike.  Each of us took a photo with someone famous. Stumbling […]

My sister and I have French lessons 3-4 times a week, with our awesome teacher Blandine. Our lessons are each 1 ½ hours long, and great fun! Back in your childhood, or maybe more recently, you may have heard that the French Teachers were strict, proper, had the ability to hit students with a ruler, […]

Naomi had taken us to the L’Orangerie museum a few weeks ago. Today we were going to use the knowledge she imbued upon us and transfer that knowledge to my mother. We arrived at the L’Orangerie and decided to go for the most famous exhibits first:  Monet’s “Water Lillies” collection. Monet had painted the set […]