I Heart Utrecht.

Utrecht is absolutely delightful. Canals, a bustling city with lots of people and social activity, fantastic bike infrastructure, and the perfect spot for fabulous bike trips out of the city and into the little towns surrounding. Lovely. We stayed in a condo in the Lombok neighbourhood, where many families from Turkey and Morocco immigrated and...

rot in a dam :) (Seb made this title)

  Erick: Apologies for the title....the Boy, what can you say? 🙂 I've been coerced by the Queen Bee to write about our first day visiting 'downtown' Rotterdam, since her post about it would have been filled with expletives. She was not a big fan. A little background: although Rotterdam dates to the 1200's, it...

Gent all the way :)

Gent, a place we almost skipped over when planning this trip, is now at the top of our list as one our favourite cities so far. It is a city that I could actually imagine living in. With canals running through it, squares packed with people, beautiful medieval architecture, bicycles in abundance, and a hopping...

Oostende is RAD! :)

Sebastian titled this entry. I don't know about rad. Oostende was a...surprise. Not exactly what we expected, but enjoyable none the less. When we chose Oostende as a stop on our trip, I imagined spending the days lying on the beach and swimming in the sea, going for long bike rides and finding quaint Belgian...

Arras

Well, our time in Arras has been lovely, and full of surprises. First of all, it was a major adjustment after our time in Paris. We arrived to quiet streets with little to no people, almost no cars and the small train station was about 4 minutes from our lovely apartment. We discovered that nothing is...

Au revoir, Paris

Well, our time in Paris has come to an end. We decided to spend our last night in Paris soaking up the city at night, which is beautifully lit. We headed out around 8:30pm and started our walk to the Seine. It doesn't get dark here until about 10:30pm, but it was lovely lighting for...

The Necropolis

Well, the past couple of days have been jam-packed. There is so much to see in Paris, so we have tried to just relax and accept that we won't see it all. We have managed to see Notre Dame Cathedral, wander through the Musee D'Orsay, stand 2 feet away from original Monet and Van Gogh...

Visiting the Phantom of the Opera….

So, we managed to reset our clocks with the help of a park nap, a reasonable bedtime (before 11:00pm!) and some melatonin. Today, we decided to wander into the centre of Paris. The kids were very keen to see the Eiffel Tower up close, and we thought we could hit a few sites along the...

The Arrival

    So, the family is here!  I'll keep this one short and sweet, with more photos (just for you Nicole 🙂 ). Their flight arrived on time and after making it through a crazy customs line they got to our place by about 11am. Nobody slept the entire flight (10 hours of screen for...

A Happy Father’s Day in Paris!

So, I guess it’s only fair that I open the Benefrance blogging festivities given that it’s Father’s Day. Admittedly, spending today alone isn’t my ideal choice……but I’ve been particularly looking forward to this one since I get the best gift of all – seeing the Family after two and a half weeks of being in...