Travel another way

I love my job because it offers a great variety of tasks: my favorite one being leading the tours, of course, because I enjoy interacting with my guests, sharing their joy and showing them wonderful new places.

However, most of my tours happening between May and October, many people often wonder what I do then. No, I do not sit and relax for 6 months ! It is in fact when I have to do the toughest part of my job: marketing, selling and organizing.

However, having started my company 6 years ago, it becomes easier and easier: I have solid contacts and partners, and “word-of-mouth” makes wonders ! Right now, my cooking tour is really successful and Belgium is getting more interest than the past years . Belgium 2010 is  a cultural tour with an optional  writing workshop. My new tour in Tuscany  is getting filled. As for Provence and the painting workshops, they remain the greatest hits !

For more information and availabilities about all our tours in 2010, check  www.frenchescapade.com

Picture info. 1. Visit of a ranch in Camargue / Provence 2. Picture by Jan Hagan

I just wanted to share with you some details of my recent stay in Switzerland: half for pleasure and half scouting for places to soon offer a new tour in Switzerland.

As usual, my main concern was to find authentic places and people, interesting places to visit and a fun ambiance for our future groups.

Moreover, one of the goals of French Escapade is to introduce our guests to the culture of the visited country, and mostly to meet locals. So I visited farms and was glad to meet wonderful hospitable people we will be able to meet.

It didn’t take too long to decide that the Gruyere area was still a beautiful preserved countryside, with stupendous chalets, peaceful herds of cows enchanting our ears with the music from their bells, cheese and chocolate makers all around, and friendly people.

So here is a special preview of the possible visits for this new tour for you (work still in progress!):

• Gruyere cheese fabric
• walk to mountain chalet (when season permits) for artisan cheese making
• medieval village
• pastry workshop
• lunch in a private home to discover Swiss specialty food and drinks
• paper-cutting artwork demonstration
• 18th / 19th chalet villages
• Balthus chalet
• Swiss Riviera and Geneva Lake
• Montreux market
• salt mine
• terraced vineyards
• Medieval castle
• Scenic train ride
• cable car ride to peaks
• Nestle chocolate factory

In 2010, we will probably start with a painting tour in this area (just a few cultural visits and great painting opportunities) with teacher Sonja Hamilton.

If you are interested or want to check all our 2010 destinations, visit us at www.frenchescapade.com

Our painting tour in Belgium  has ended. Everyone had a wonderful time. The weather has been wonderful, sunny but not too hot. The painting sites were delightful. We had our “last supper” together at the hotel.

Below are some of our guests’ drawing and paintings (they are work in process):

Our hotel near Bruges, by Bonnie C.

A house on the herring market in Damme by Sylvia G.

Curtain at the  hotel near Bruges, by Teresa G.

Windmill in Damme by Margaret A.

Statue at the hotel near Bruges, by Catherine D.

House in Bruges by Sandy Delehanty, our teacher on the tour.

Sheep statues at our hotel near Bruges, by Linda C.

If you want to join us on our next plein air painting trips in France or Belgium, please check www.frenchescapade.com

Today we visited the capital of Belgium:  Brussels.

We took the train from Bruges to Brussels. At the train station, some of us had a hard time reading the signs without their glasses so Linda gave us a tip: Close one eye and look through your fingers with the other. It sounds odd but it works. Everyone tried it!!!!!

We started the day with a visit of the Palace of the King. This is not where our King, Albert II, and the queen, Paola, live but where he works. Since the king is on vacation, the palace is open to the public.

The Palace is of course very luxurious but maybe not always at our taste. We had a hard time with the ceiling of the mirror room decorated with 1 million 500 thousands beetles from Thailand!! Yes, real beetles (dead of course!!!). It makes it all blue and green. Even the chandelier was all covered with those bugs. It was maybe in fashion under the reign of  King Leopold II (the second King of Belgium at the end of the 19th century) but it was for sure not ours. Wish we could have taken pictures…

While we were walking in Brussels, Bonnie stayed at our accommodation near Bruges and painted all day. Here are some of her paintings:

During that time, we were still wandering around and of course eating some Belgian waffles. Actually there is not such a thing as A Belgian waffle in Belgium. There are two types of waffles: the Liege waffle or the Brussel Waffle. The Liege waffle is harder and has more sugar than the Brussel waffle. The shape is also a bit different (oval for Liege, rectangular for Brussels).

Here is the Brussel waffle (with powder sugar and whipped cream ):

And here is the Liege waffle:

You can of course have them plain or with whipped cream, chocolate, strawberries, etc…

The day ended with a great dinner at our hotel, served by Monique who is a real delight. To characterize Monique, I will just say: “Ask and you shall receive.”

Teresa was cold one day and Monique prepared her a hot bath with candles for the ambiance. Sandy can’t eat sugar, so Monique would bring her an alternative dessert. Teresa wanted to take a pic of her chocolate pralines and Monique brought her a plate and arrange them for the picture to make sure it looked nice. It wouldn’t be the same without her. That is a big reason that made me choose her accommodation.

The evening ended with some of us dancing in the dining room (Teresa and Catherine on the picture)!!!!!

Tomorrow, I will post some of the paintings made by the group. Make sure to check again.

Join us next year on this fabulous trip: check our site at www.frenchescapade.com

Today, everyone spent time painting at the house in the morning. The sun was out, everyone was so relax. Linda and Margaret chose to paint in the sun room because this is their favorite spot on the premises.

Sylvia preferred the pool while Bill, her husband, was editing his pictures.

In the afternoon, off we went to the North Sea, direction Ostend. We couldn’t have a nicer day to hang out by the beach.

Ostend is in the Flemish part of the country. It used to be a very elegant resort at the end of the 19th century. The king at that time, Leopold II, built a lot of rich houses and made Ostend the  queen resort of the North Sea. Unfortunately the 2 wars left their marks and now few buildings from that time remain. They are now surrounded by 20th buildings.

I decided to look stylish by wearing Catherines’s hat.

Check our site for the next tour to Belgium.

I am running a plein air painting tour in Belgium with one art teacher, Sandy Delehanty, and 7 students: Bonnie, Catherine, Teresa, Linda, Margaret, Bill and Sylvia.

Today, I have decided to post the travel notes from the art teacher:

“My students and I are on a Watercolor Workshop planned and guided by French Escapade, a company that specializes in small group tours for people who want to really immerse themselves in the culture of the country they are visiting. Scroll down to my previous post to see the lovely country hotel where we are staying and you will get the idea that this is not your typical “if this is Tuesday it must be Belgium tour”.

There is so much to see in Brugges Belguim that we decided to spend our first day exploring, photographing and soaking up the ambience in this beautiful city, “The Venice of the North”.

The only Michaelangelo statue outside of Italy is here in Brugge. It was commissioned by Sienna, but the people from Brugge paid a higher price, so it came to live Brugge.

Margaret with her lace fan she purchased from a young lace maker who showed us how she creates lace from 72 bobbins. The craft is passed down through the generations, but today’s lace shops sell mostly machine made lace to keep the price reasonable for purchase. The young lady had some small doilies for sale that took her 8 hours to make, but because they were small she had to price them at only 8 euros.

Bonnie and Catherine after our boat tour, it is very sunny today.

A painting everywhere I look. Scenes like this drew us to Belgium for our Watercolor Workshop. Our guide Jackie is from Belgium so we are getting the inside scoop on life in Belgium ” (from Sandy’s blog at http://havepaintswilltravel.blogspot.com/).

Today we visited Damme.

Damme is one of the most charming villages in Belgium. Located
in the Flanders, between the beaches and Bruges this village
enchanted everyone in the group: windmill, canals, barges, gothic church and
plaza.

We will also visited a windmill in activity since 1878. The miller (second to the L) showed us how they still make flour with a the 19th century machinery.

Everyone spent the afternoon painting and in the evening, we got our critique from artist / teacher Sandy Delehanty.

Bonnie was the fastest painter and managed to finish her large painting of  Damme windmill.

Everyone was quite happy with what they had accomplished.

Tomorrow, off to Brugges!!!!!!

Check our itinerary on our site at www.frenchescapade.com

The full group has arrived. It was not an easy thing. Sandy missed her plane and arrived a day later. Her suitcase stayed behind in Dallas.

Linda had to take the train to Bruges because of a mix up in the time. But finally everyone arrived.

Bonnie and Catherine arrived at the hotel last night after I picked them up at their hotel in Brussels so they already had a full day today. Bonnie didn’t waste anytime and has already finished her first painting, inside the wonderful sunroom we have at the hotel.

Everyone had time to relax and explore the lovely hotel. Sandy was amazed by the size of the flowers. They were huge!!!!

After everyone settled in, we had our first drink together. The dog of the house was sleeping very deeply on the sofa taking two spots for herself. Teresa moved her a bit to find a little spot to sit. She moved Cayenne’s head (the dog) and put it on her lap. Cayenne didn’t even wake up. Teresa felt quite happy to have a puppy for herself. It made her feel at home.

We had our first dinner together and it was a real delight. After the first dish (beef carpaccio), some people thought it was the end of the meal. What a surprise when we got fish with mashed potatoes and spinach,  and of course, dessert: ice cream with strawberries.

If you want to be part of our tours to Belgium, check our site here.

We headed to Ostend today, the queen of Belgian sea resorts. It started as a windy cloudy day but turned out to be warm sunny day.

The wide boardwalk was very colorful, sided by a multitude of restaurants and stands, advertising delicious wafles and the most typical Belgian dish: mussels and fries. However, ice-creams and candies were more attractive for some of us!

Some sketches were done, and tomorrow will be a painting day, for our second visit of Bruges.

BBQ dinner by the pool tonight! Yes!

                                                                                     Who didn’t get ice cream?

                                                                                         Seen on the beach

                                                                                       Sheltered from the wind!

                                                                                           Ostend Beach, by the North Sea

                                                                                                  Sketching session on the beach

Our favorite tour of Bruges starts at the beguinage, the medieval quarter for women who wished to live alone without having to be locked in a convent. We then walked the tiny winding streets bordered by lace or chocolate stores.

We watched a lace-making demonstration on our way, before reaching the canal area and finally the Markt plazza.

Not much painting today; only a few people sketched in the afternoon. The beauty of Bruges is overwhelming to pick the perfect place to paint in one day. We will go back there 2 more days  at the end of the week.

                                                        Lace demonstration

                                                                                      Lunch time … and Belgian beer tasting!

                                                                                                        Follow the guide !

Our first group visiting Belgium has arrived … under the sun !

We are very glad to host our third painting workshop with Californian artist Sonja Hamilton. Seven American watercolorists are attending, sketching and painting  quaint scenic vignettes of the Belgian Flanders.

On our first day, we toured the charming village of Damme, near Bruges. We had a delightful picnic by a windmill along a canal, before Sonja Hamilton gave a demo and assigned each participant to pick a spot to sketch and paint.

In the evening, everyone learnt from the critique session that was followed by dinner in “Il Sonriso della Nonna” restaurant in Damme.

                                       Picnic before sketching session

                                Demo by the windmill

                           Jackie explaining some historical  details about Damme by the canal

                                                                                            Some more views of Damme

                                                                                              Some more sketching pictures