Just One Suitcase

EXCEPTIONAL EATERIES | Belle-Île-en-Mer | Citadelle Vauban

29 July 2014 ♦

One of the most unusual hotels I’ve stayed in was also the location of an incredible, exceptional restaurant – but before I tell you about the restaurant, I must first describe the journey to get to this unique location. I took two trains, one bus, and a ferry from Paris…

Style Moment | Sauzon, Belle-Île-en-Mer

28 June 2013 ♦

STYLE MOMENTS

“I used to have only earth colours on my palette…at Belle-Île-en-Mer I was seduced by the brightness of pure colour. I returned from my trip with a passion for the colours of the rainbow.” Henri Matisse (1869-1954) French painter

COOL HOTELS | Brittany | Citadelle Vauban Hôtel

24 June 2013 ♦

DON’T MISS

In all the time I was in Belle-Île-en-Mer (“Beautiful Island by the Sea”) off the coast of Brittany, I never stopped being awestruck by the fact that I had to walk over a moat and through the walls of a fortress to get to my hotel. It was one of…

Style Moment | Au revoir, Belle-Île

6 August 2011 ♦

STYLE MOMENTS

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) American novelist and poet

Eye on Design | Belle-Île-en-Mer | La Marinière

1 August 2011 ♦

EYE ON DESIGN

Coco Chanel made nautical stripes, la marinière, fashionable after she saw the fishermen on the beaches of Deauville, France wearing them. In Belle-Île, la marinière is practically the dress code. I couldn’t get enough… (more…)

Belle-Île-en-Mer | Journey Across an Island

28 July 2011 ♦

STORIES

It started out as an interesting excursion…a visit to the studio of an artist who makes tiny ships out of mussel shells. It turned out to be yet another unanticipated adventure. (more…)

Belle-Île-en-Mer | Frites

26 July 2011 ♦

DON’T MISS

Check out the variety, and unique names, for all the sizes of french fries at this sandwicherie along the Belle-Île harbor. By the way, I saw the “familiale size” and it would feed a village.

Beautiful Belle-Île-en-Mer

22 July 2011 ♦

STORIES

When painter Claude Monet spent time on Belle-Île-en-Mer in 1886, he was fascinated by the constantly changing weather and the way the landscape altered with the tides. “I am staying in a tiny hamlet on Belle-Île and working hard. It’s a very beautiful, very wild place; the sea is incomparably…

Belle-Île-en-Mer: The First Day

16 July 2011 ♦

STORIES

Today I took two trains, one bus, and a ferry from Paris to Belle-Île-en-Mer, an island off the coast of Brittany. I left my hotel in Paris at 8:00 a.m. and arrived in Belle-Île-en-Mer at 3 p.m. Here is the tale of my journey, and my first day on the…