Amiens is a great destination for a weekend. Just a shade over an hour’s train ride from Paris Gare du Nord, its cobbled streets, Gothic houses and canals lined with bistros and cafes are a delight, along with numerous monuments and sites to visit. There’s a wide choice of hotels around the town, and the perfect starting off point for visiting the WWl battlefields of the Somme.
There are many treasures to discover in Beauvais, most notably its Cathedral–Cathédrale Saint-Pierre–which is one of the most outstanding Gothic cathedrals in the country. Built around 1247, its vast height is breathtaking at over 46m, making it the tallest cathedral in Europe. It’s also famous for its elaborate astronomical clock, exquisite stained glass windows, and magnificent tapestries from the 15th and 17th centuries. The town itself, including the beautiful Hotel de Ville and the episcopal palace, make a visit to Beauvais well worthwhile. So go and discover why, in 2012 the town was awarded the prestigious accolade of “Ville d’Art et d’Histoire” by the French Ministry of Culture.
The spectacular fortress of Carcassonne is regarded as the best-preserved medieval fortress in Europe, and according to many experts, the world, and has been the inspiration for countless castles that have been invented in fairy tales. Carcassonne is located in the Department of the Aude in the Occitanie region of southern France, a 3-hour drive from the Pyrenees and only 150 kms from the Spanish border. To the northwest, it’s about 80 kms from Toulouse. The city boasts splendid ramparts with watchtowers, a portcullis, a drawbridge and elevated defences built on top of a hill. All of this, together with its almost 2,000 years of history, it’s easy to see why this World Heritage site is one of the biggest drawcards in the country.
We had sailed past the island of Paros a number of times in the past, but were always en route to somewhere else in the Cyclades such as Santorini, or Naxos, which is just 8 kms away. We determined this time around that we would make a point of stopping there for a few days and explore what had looked to us, peering across at it from the deck of a huge ferry, to be a picturesque town with pretty beaches and bays full of boats, large and small. What a gem it turned out to be!
The island of Patmos in the Dodecanese group is widely revered as the place where St John the Evangelist wrote the Book of Revelation. We had sailed past the island on a number of occasions in the past but hadn’t stopped off, as we were always en route to somewhere else. This last visit, we determined to add Patmos into our itinerary as we were staying on Kos, only a 2 hour trip on a fast ferry. This beautiful island is relatively small at barely 20 sq. kms, but has a lot to offer for a short, relaxing stay.
