Nice - glorious coastal town in Côte d'Azure

My first time in Nice was either in 2003 or 2004, I can't remember exactly. That was only one night stay in a small hostel up on the hill. What left in my memory from that trip was a next morning walk somewhere around my place, a nice and quiet neighbourhood.
I came back to Nice this time with 2-night stay, my boutique hotel was right in the heart of Nice, one street behind the most famous, probably the most prestigious hotel in Nice - Le Negresco. From my hotel to Nice's main boulevard "La Promenade des Anglais" - only 2 minutes walk.

                      Le Negresco - the jewel of Nice Ville in his centennial celebrations 

The village of Pomelo - Làng bưởi

The expression "Làng Bưởi" sounds quite nice in Vietnamese but where I have been last week - not a village or pomelo farm, it was more like a huge countryside-style or garden style restaurant, only 45' away from Saigon by car.

                      "Souvernir shop" in the village of Pomelo 

Sur le pond d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse...

I could make a bet that everyone who is reading this review, already knew or at least once in their childhood heard of this song's melody "Sur le pond d'Avignon". This could be the only song in the entire world magically turned this small town widely famous. Millions of tourists continue coming to Avignon just to see the bridge, to walk on it...as I did last month.

                     Legendary bridge of Avignon over the famous river - Rhône 

Carcassonne - 2500-year-old medieval fortified town in South of France

I can't remember exactly why Carcassonne was in my itinerary... Partly because of the fortress, the castle? Partly because I simply wanted to stop somewhere before Avignon as I had to skip Aix-de-Provence in this journey? Anyway, I arrived to Carcassonne at noon, it was a bit hard for me to find my hotel by a "paper Google map", I was almost close to it, but then I took another way and I got lost.

                     One of two main gates to the fortified city, the other one by the river Aude.      
     

La Roque-Gageac - one of the most beautiful villages in France

Wherever you go in France, despite small or big town, you always find the tourist office. There you will be able to get many useful informations about the tours, hotels, restaurants, museums, transportation, tickets to some events...After one day of exploring my favourite historic Sarlat on my own, I needed to get out to La Roque-Gageac - one of the most beautiful villages in France.

It turned out very simple, the lady in the tourist office nicely booked for me a taxi-van for a round trip to the village, I shared the van with a couple from UK, so the fare was only 20 Euros per person and I had almost 4 hours at La Roque-Gageac : from noon to 4:00 PM. Perfect!

                I found this old stone house, deep inside a huge bamboo garden in Roque-Gageac. 

Day out at the bird's nest farm in Bình Dương

Last week I spent a day in the bird's nest farm in Bình Dương with some of my old friends. The farm belongs to a friend of mine. I knew him since I still worked for a Finnish company, but we didn''t see each other for a while until last year we met up again.
It was quite interesting day-out to his farm, to witness how they do the nesting houses for thousands of swiftlets, to harvest the bird's nests - one of the most expensive foods that we consume these days.

               The nesting houses in my friend's farm in Dầu Tiếng (Bình Dương province) 

Sarlat-La-Canéda - a mind-blowing town in South West of France

I left Blois early in the morning after having a breakfast in hotel. Talking about the breakfast in France, to save time, I often grabbed some of my favourite sandwich-baguette with either an Evian or a mini-bottle of fruit juice at the train station, it cost me around 5 or 6 Euro. Later I realised if I pay 2 or 3 Euro extra I could have a whole breakfast buffet in the hotel with a lot of choices (in France most hotels didn't include the breakfast in their rate).

                   Place du Peyrou - Centre of Sarlat at night.