James' Europe Travel Blog

Giverny is famous for the gardens that Claude Monet spent so much time painting. Following the old chestnut "April showers bring May flowers," the annual pilgrimage to Giverny starts in the spring and lets up in August a bit. But August is actually a good time to visit the gardens, according to local guide Ariane:

"August is one of the best time to visit Monet’s gardens at Giverny. The pond is covered by water lilies. The nasturtiums invade dramatically the main alley. And all the summer flowers give their big show."

But it doesn't stop there. The giant flowers come in late summer and early fall, " Sunflowers of course, and also giant dahlias, rudbeckias, cosmos or helianthus as thick as walls of flowers."

And best yet, the big Giverny festival is going on in September. Find out about the festival and how to visit the village of Giverny even if you don't have a car, and get some ideas of how to spend your time in the artistic Haute Normandy with our Giverny Travel Guide.

The first auto race I attended happened to be in north Holland, at Zandvoort. It was a club race, nothing like Formula One--meaning the racing was close, spirited and interesting all day. Not only that, the track fries were hot and served with mayo, as is the tradition in northern Europe. Yum. Who would ever again think of putting sugared tomato on fries once they've tasted them with mayonnaise?

In any case, I still don't don't think of The Netherlands as a hotbed of auto racing, but they've initiated a new racing formula: Formula Zero. The zero refers to the amount of emissions each flashy race car produces. Zero. They're running on hydrogen fuel cells. The first grand prix was held over the weekend in Rotterdam. You can read about the program and get the results from the Formula Zero web site.

Just as you think the summer's almost over, you realize that if you were in Florence you could be enjoying all sorts of music in historic venues through the end of September at Firenzestate 2008, the big Florence summer festival.

If pots are more your thing, you could spend October 4th and 5th in Piazza SS Annunziata for the Ceramic Fair.

As for me, I'm a hands-on fresco kinda guy. I'd likely head out for the Fresco Workshop.

So little time, so much summer.

Florence: What You Need to Know: Florence Transportation | Florence Maps | Florence Travel Essentials | Florence Train Station, Santa Maria Novello, in Detail

With the withering dollar, why would anyone go to Europe these days? Yes, that's the question on everyone's lips and I wish they'd wipe it off.

I go to Europe twice a year to find facts to give to you freely. Surprisingly, I never seem to notice prices going up as fast as the dollar has gone down.

But this morning I was updating our Munich travel planner and found something interesting. The article recalled that we had stayed in the Hotel Europäischer Hof for € 99 in 2002. The link to the hotel was broken, so I set out to fix it. Well, was I surprised. According to the hotel's web site, their daily best rates for a double (drum roll please...) were now € 77.

You see, it's the sign of the market at work. Fewer tourists mean that smart service providers have to reduce prices to lure folks in.

So here's what we've learned:

1. Prices of tourist services aren't rising as fast you you might have feared.
2. Look at a hotel's web site before you book through a booking engine. You might be pleasantly surprised at the prices.

If you're getting excited by running now that you've seen Jamaica's Usain "Lightning" Bolt make a mockery of every "runner" that came before him looking for Olympic sprinting gold, you'll want to gear up for Dam tot Damloop. The 24th edition of the Dam tot Damloop run will take place on Sunday September 21, 2008. Last year 35,000 participants showed up in Amsterdam for the 10 EM (English Mile) workout. You can just watch, of course.

Also announced in Amsterdam is the new All-in-1 Travel Ticket. It's good for both airport transportation to the city and back, as well as city trams, buses and the metro.

And if that weren't enough hot news for the Holland traveler, we have word that the miniature city Madurodam is now offering a laser light show called Madurodam by Light: "Every evening after sunset visitors will be submerged in a fascinating Dutch fairytale that tells the story of Hansje Brinker and the fight against the water. Madurodam uses the most modern projection techniques for this show of water, light and lasers."

More: Holland Map | Amsterdam Travel

Yes indeed, with the Euro losing strength against the dismal dollar, maybe it's time for a little splurge. We've written before about leasing a car on your European vacation. But not once have we scribbled a single word about leasing a goat.

Until now. You see, just as there are benefits to leasing a car instead of renting, leasing a goat in Flumserberg, Switzerland can open up a world of benefits as well, including a Goat Brunch, according to My Switzerland. I'm not sure if that means you eat goat or you eat with the goat, because the supporting information isn't in a language I speak.

Notes: No, I don't know if you can rent a goat instead of leasing one. You can, of course, adopt a sheep in Italy's Abruzzo region. Perhaps you'll soon be able to rent a herd of gastropods in France. Did you know they're experiencing a snail shortage? That ought to get your goat.

Pilgrimage is a great way to get your thoughts together while exploring a country in a way that most tourists will never experience. Ancient pilgrimage paths take you through towns which have benefited economically and spiritually by pilgrims passing through, becoming the great cities and villages of Europe. Churches, hospices and inns were financed by rich and powerful pilgrims in the day when the Bible was taken at face value and it was thought to be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to go to heaven.

Even though these days are long gone, the idea of pilgrimage has suddenly become popular. For example, the Centro Nacional de Cultura in Portugal is developing pilgrimage routes to Fátima. One route leading from Lisbon and proceeding mostly along the River Tejo is now complete. Another from Porto is underdevelopment. The routes are planned to take the pilgrim through quiet countryside instead of busy roads. These shorter pilgrimage routes deserve consideration from vacationers who like walking in the presence of like-minded strangers.

When I return to the Lunigiana in a few weeks, I'll be right on the Via Francigena pilgrimage route that takes pilgrims from Canterbury to St. Peter's in Rome, This time I'll have Paul Chinn and Babette Gallard's LightFoot Guide to the via Francigena with me. The authors have created a very detailed record of the Via and what you'll find along it. It's always a great feeling to know that there are people who work toward a common cause that is spiritual, or at least doesn't have as its aim the domination of the world or the destruction of other cultures.

Walk in peace, pilgrim.

One of the things I really like about going to Europe are the abundant opportunities for taking interesting walks. Rural places like the Lunigiana, where I will be heading to in a few weeks, are perfect for the landscape photographer, offering cultural surprises like this chapel (with a castle and mountains behind) at every turn.

Rudy Maxa of television travel fame, has partnered with National Geographic Traveler magazine and Apple to produce a series of podcasts titled "50 Walks of a Lifetime." They're mostly cities, and mostly American, but he'll talk you through some of Europe's best city walks as well.

My favorite places to walk in Europe? Well, in general, besides the Lunigiana, I like Asturias and Cantabria in Northern Spain, the northern Rhone Valley in France, but I've also got some favorites in Rome and Greece.

Within every big city, there will be colorful markets to stroll, like Nice's Cours Saleya Flower Market.

So don't forget that there are some means of transportation that don't require vast amounts of fossil fuel when planning your vacation. And please, don't overplan those trips so you don't have time for a stroll!

Here's some general information on walking in France and walking in Ireland.

It's hard to believe it's been thirteen centuries since the archangel Michael appeared to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches in Normandy and instructed him to build a church on the rocky tidal islet then known as Mont Tombe. The church was consecrated a year later, in 709, after monks brought back relics of the archangel from Monte Gargano in Italy.

To celebrate the 13th centenary of the founding of Mont-Saint-Michel, The Centre des monuments nationaux is presenting a major photo exibit of sacred mountain sites displayed both inside and outside the abbey church on Mont-Saint-Michel. They've called it "Between Earth and Heaven: Mont-Saint-Michel and sacred mounts around the world" and it plays from the 2nd of June to the 11th of November in the abbey church capping Mont-Saint-Michel.

According to the Centre: Over 150 photographs are on display at the abbey church. The staging makes full use of the church’s architecture to create links among the different holy sites. Visitors are taken along the routes followed by pilgrims, discover local religious rites and ceremonies, the architecture of the shrines and the daily life of worshipers.

You can order tickets online for the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel and other monuments in France.

Spiritual pilgrimage has both created and preserved some of the most compelling destination sites in Europe. If a traveler to a county simply marked the pilgrimage routes on a map and visited the major centers, she'd find that an excellent vacation had already been planned for her. After all, pilgrimage brought not only churches and inns to the route, but trade in both ideas and goods. It is this interchange which makes a place grow up to be strong and good.

More on Mont Saint Michel: Map | Pictures

The 3rd Opera Festival of BASEL/Riehen presents Gioacchino Rossinis's "Il Turco in Italia" in the Reithalle Wenkenhof, Riehen near Basel from 30th August to 6th September 2008.

Switzerland's largest Roman festival will take place at the end of August at Augusta Raurica, the excavations of a Roman settlement east of Basel. The well-designed site has lots of information on the excavations, museum, and events.

Don't know where Basel is? It's one of my favorite cities of Switzerland. See a Switzerland Map.