The lake district in north west England is truly a magical location. We stayed out in the countryside at the best B&B we’ve ever visited – the Summer Hill Country House. The owners were so friendly and helpful and our room was just the coziest little place ever. We did several of the area’s hikes and drove for miles and miles on tiny carriage roads just taking in the scenery. Then we took a 4 hour drive down to Bath where we met up with friends to explore the town and do dinner before heading to our hotel/B&B in the tiny, picturesque village of Castle Combe. England is exactly my “cup of tea” with it’s people, charming architecture and history. And the fact that I can actually converse with people doesn’t hurt either
We were blessed with a wedding in Metz France, so off we went in early May to stroll the streets of Paris, dining on the most wonderful food, and taking the train to Metz for this gorgeous wedding. We arrive in Paris on a national holiday so not much was open but we enjoyed seeing all the locals out and about in the streets enjoying their day off. The one restaurant that we had really wanted to try did happen to be open – Les Papilles. My expectations were fairly high, because in my book, a restaurant where you don’t have to order is the epitome of a perfect restaurant. Just bring me your amazing food please! I can’t even describe the soup we had, but I could have eaten a gallon of just that and been rolled back to the hotel happily. The main course was a lamb dish, and normally not a fan of lamb, we devoured it like we hadn’t eaten in months. amazing. The next day we ate at a restaurant with almost no choices because the menu was tiny (seriously, these are good things, who needs 1000 choices, just make what you’re good at) Le Petit Troquet. Also a fabulous spot that I highly highly recommend.
Then we were off to Metz, a city on the border of France and Germany, and clearly influenced by both. It’s perfectly walkable and the architecture was AMAZING. Seriously the number of gorgeous churches here seemed to rival Paris. The city is on a river, making it oh so charming. We really enjoyed the smaller town feel vs the big city life of Paris.