Europe: Simply Irresistible!

Venetian Lagoon

As you know, we're moving to France very soon,  Lord willing, and although summer here on the farm is idyllic, I'm sort of chomping at the bit. I keep thinking of all those places in France that I could be visiting.  And all of those places in Europe that will suddenly be practically next door! So thank you, Anita,for inviting us on another wonderful European holiday! Hop on over to her lovely blog and join us on a tour of Irresistible Europe!

France is my favorite European country, but Italy is right up there, too.  It was the first place I ever visited in Europe, and it simply blew me away. I was an art teacher at the time, and my colleague and I took a group of students on a tour called Belle Italia.


We arrived in Venice right in the middle of Carnevale!  It has been my favorite Italian city ever since.

the approach to Venice in a water taxi

my friend Betsy  and I immediately got our faces painted.  Hey, it was the '90s!

I cannot describe the thrill of my first gondola ride!

Years later I returned to Venice with my husband, and I must say, the gondola ride is still just as thrilling!  And more romantic!

I can't wait to return to this magical city once we are living in France.  I checked the cost of fights from Orly and we can fly round trip for around 70 euros!

Europe, here we come!

santa maria della salute

Off to visit the rest of Europe on Anita's blog party.   Bon Voyage!

p.s. You can follow me on Bloglovin' or by email.  And I promise to talk more about France from now on!

Missing Venice

These are both made from the one good image I got of this iconic view in 2005. When I went back in 2009 , it was covered in scaffolding

Santa Maria Della Salute

I've been thinking about Venice this week, as it was the week when we are usually in Venice, the time of Carnevale.  There is no place as exciting and colorful as Piazza San Marco [ Saint Mark's square ] when it is filled with thousands of revelers, many in the outrageous Baroque costumes which are worn by the true celebrants of Carnivale.

This is typical of the kind of costume you see

I took this one on the back side of the island, in an attempt to escape all the tourists [ the "other ones"] around San Marco.  A bit darker than my usual process, but I wanted it to look like an old master's painting.

A Venetian Romance

Some of my friends were actually in this shot, but I cloned them out [! Nothing personal, I assure you!] and added these19th century figures.

This was actually taken in the middle of the day, and it was quite odd that I got this without any people in it.  Carnevale just ended on March 8, but there's always next year...Anyone up for going?