An informative story came out of Paris, France yesterday.  The staff of the Louvre Museum walked off the job in protest due to the increasing concern for visitor safety at the hands of pickpocket gangs.

I met Lyle, where else? online.  We connected through Linked In when Lyle contributed his first Peruvian recipe, Lomo Saltado.  Since then, Lyle (who lives in Cusco) and I have become great webpals (my made up name for penpals) and he has contributed multiple recipes to our collectioni.

When do you cross the line between being educated and paranoid, when it comes to travel smarts?  Is there such a thing as being too cautious?

Hands down the question we get asked the most often is,  “When you travel do you stay at B&B’s?”  We always smile and answer, “No,” which of course leads to the second most often asked question, “Why not?”  Well, because it’s kind of like being at work.  And that’s the truth.

Is there such a thing as smoke free travel?  Before I try to find an answer to my own question, let me say right up front this post is not meant to offend anyone who happens to smoke, it’s just my perspective; how it impacts my life and our travels.

The forecast for January 25 was a brutal 26 degrees, by far the coldest day of our stay.  We gave thought to whether it was a good idea to stay in Paris for the day, roaming, or get on the RER and head out to Fontainebleau.

Is Paris all it’s cracked up to be or is it just another city?  If you’re a fan of Sex and The City you know how much Carrie romanticized life in Paris.  She turned down flying off to Paris with Mr. Big but did, after much deliberation, accept the offer to go with Alexandre Patrovsky and Paris was in fact all she dreamed it would be, until it wasn’t.

How do you describe that which is beyond description?  That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for the past 10 days.  We visited the Palace of Versailles on January 17 (2013) and I’m still trying to wrap my head around what we saw.  The Palace of Versailles is the epitome of opulence and a lesson in what can go wrong at the same time, while it has stood for centuries as a showcase of French history, art and culture.

You know how when you’re getting ready to travel everyone has an opinion; a word to the wise tidbit for you?  Mostly, you tend to smile, nod your head and feign interest in what they’re saying.  Today, I was given a tidbit that was awesome, something I had never thought about but will definitely do before we leave for Paris.  But before we get to the tidbit…

We awoke this morning to p-o-u-r-i-n-g rain so the only reasonable thing to do was roll over and go back to sleep, which we did.  It goes without saying that we got a late start to the day, but we’re here for 7 days so we are in no hurry.