France Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

April 27, 2026April 27, 2026

enjoying Paris

this trip was done last year but it looks like I might be back again in a month or so so I wanted to put these photos up.

Elegant dinner enjoying Paris — The following photos were from an elegant dinner I had with my college buddy from Japan.

Beef with sauce enjoying Paris — A nice piece of beef with the sauce

French onion soup enjoying Paris — At the hotel the onion soup was very delicious and it was ““French “

An old shop Bill Smale — This old style shopfront was just fascinating. Instead of automobile it says motor car. The shop is, or was, specializing in getting people and things sent to many places possibly in the world

Buffet breakfast Bill Smale — The buffet breakfast had some of my favorites especially lots of bacon

The French motto which is in English, “liberty, egalitarianism and brotherhood“

The old Bourse, stock exchange — At the old Bourse which is now a museum and has an excellent restaurant

Inside the old building with a cement structure designed by a famous Japanese architect/artist

Famous restaurant artwork — Artwork on the table at this famous restaurant

After the meal final are you finding a place we can have a cigar

The hotel knew it was my birthday since they had a copy of my passport and so they brought me this and sang a song sad go back go back

Babysitting a dog, a Jack Russell named Dolly

Gelato — A day cannot be completed without gelato

Neighborhood crowded bar — This is obviously the place to go in the evening. It was a very young crowd.

Nice meat — A really beautiful piece of meat with a nice wine

Old bridge at the park — The old bridge on the right it’s not in good shape so people are not allowed to use it

The two dogs — Dolly on the left and King on the right

Small parking spaces — Parking skillfully on narrow streets and small parking spaces

Putting in a new window — These guys were trying to fix this new glass window and it was looking like a little complicated

Little Italy — A very popular name for Italian restaurants

Interesting name for a restaurant. And I was interested to see there is such a thing as “French tacos”

Sangria — I didn’t know you could get sangria in such a cheap container

Dolly reemerges — Dolly finally comes out from the nice warm spaces

November 14, 2025November 14, 2025

just south of Bordeaux, a few hours by train, you come to an interesting small town in the Aquitaine. Bordeaux is known for wine, especially red wine but honestly I found the wine offered experiences to be really great for novices and people who have never visited a vineyard or had the chance to hear someone’s explanation of how to appreciate wine. But I started learning about wine when I was 10 years old and visited so many vineyards in California and through the years in many countries. Wine being my drink of choice always, maybe because I grew up with it or maybe because I enjoy the incredibly huge variety of flavors and combinations of tastes that come with a new bottle. So go to BOURDEAUX if you want to learn something about wine or want to spend a lot of money to try to wines at the new exhibition hall for wine in the city. But for that reason I did not do any wine tasting in Bordeaux. Instead I experienced it in this small town. I will explain below.

Stinky cheese with wine in Bayonne — Wine and cheese and salami are my evening heaven. Ever since I was a kid it was the really stinky cheeses that pleased me. Bier cheese was often available when we had guests over for a bridge game. I would sometimes sneak into the kitchen, very quietly opening the refrigerator door and pulling out the bier cheese. To understand how stinky this cheese is, you count to four after peeling back the rapper to cut a piece off in the kitchen while everyone else is in the living room playing bridge. After those four seconds mom would say in a very stern and loud voice, “ Billy, stay put the cheese back“. Two days ago I passed by a cheese shop and asked for the stinkiest cheese they had. This is what she provided. It is not quite as stinky as bier cheese but the taste is just as pungent and delicious.

Bizarre outfit — This is a really bizarre outfit. It reminds me of a Japanese ancient Shintopriest outfit.

above I mentioned wine tasting. While walking I passed this Small restaurant and the owner, Jerome, a sommelier, greeted me and talked a little bit about the wine tasting he offers and some foods he has in the restaurant. But the most interesting things he mentioned were concerning the local and tourist attraction to big name and fashion restaurants and chains. He explained it’s not easy for independent shops like his to attract attention. Since I am not really attracted to big names or fashion I decided to give his offering a try as he provided to tastings of reds, one with a lot of tanin flavors and another one from 300 m up in the hills not far from Bayonne. That one was more interesting for me so I ordered it and then the second option on the menu which was a pork liver pate with chestnuts and a vinaigrette dressing for the lettuce and tomatoes. It went extremely well with the wine. These little shops are the places you should be visiting since they have not only good service and attention to details but they are very personalized and the people are interesting. Jerome knew some of the wines from California and so we had a discussion about some different flavors. Having the opportunity to receive an introduction to local wines and pairing foods from a sommelier is usually extremely expensive but not at Jerome‘s shop. If you’re ever in Bayonne make sure you stop by, taste a few wines and get his suggestions for the food that goes with it. This was the highlight of my visit to Bayonne.

Good wine in Bayonne — The food was delicious

The Spanish gate. I was wondering if this was a dividing line between France and Spain.

Old buildings — The old buildings still standing

The church — Cathédrale Sainte-Marie de Bayonne

Woman — The lone woman in a private conversation

Very beautiful — I found this church to be amazingly beautiful

Stunning colors — The colors inside are really stunning

September 7, 2025September 7, 2025

Crowning Kings in Reims

Reims is a pretty interesting ciy to visit, the place where French kings were crowned for many centuries .

The roman wreath for crowning kings in Reims is what the lady is carrying

piano Crowning Kings in Reims — Many train stations in France have pianos for people to play some music, a very interesting and enjoyable idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Colbert

French roof — Nice architecture. The roof identifies it as French

crowning church — The church where the king were crowned

Garment Lao bag — Still carrying my Lao garment bag

coffee and cigar — Nice coffee but not my best cigar

continental hotel — John Wick’s Continental Hotel?

Hemingway hotel — Didn’t ask if he stayed here

August 20, 2025August 20, 2025

Luxembourg Adventure

Any Luxembourg Adventure starts with the main city which has free public transport (countrywide) and is also very walkable.

Beautiful building. This is a government building

bridge view — From the brdge. Lots of grenery

river exercise area — By the river bank lots of space for people to exercise in

beggar dogs — Beggars in Phuket got dogs when they saw how many people crowded around me when I had a cute puppy. Now it is a worldwide thing. Beggars need dogs.

Some hotel and archives related to Joan of Arc

church Luxembourg Adventure — Beautiful church

church burial — Churches bury famous people in the floors

nancy cathedra — Moving on to Nancy in France

Vienna coffee — I thought Vienna Coffee was a Japanese invention but that is not the case.

Palace — One of the Grand Duke’s palaces

July 29, 2025July 29, 2025

Busy Lyon (France)

I have to clarify “Busy Lyon”. I was told by a Paris resident Lyon is a French food capital. It is! The restaurants were packed. I didn’t try a lot of the local food since I was not willing to eat the large portions presented (still on my strict diet). But It all looked so delicious. If you are into food and are in France I think you should visit Lyon. It is an interesting city, though expensive during this tourist season (June).

packed restaurants — The good restaurants were packed

toy. Busy Lyon — Look what some kid dropped on the street.

The cathedral at the top of the hill is popular pilgrimage church.

Is this a typical old style store? I am fooling you. This is a miniature of a store presented in the Cinema Museum in Lyon

packed restaurant — I told you it is packed

cheap food — Shops along the river, very good prices

asian food store — A huge Asian Food and commodity store

coffee cup — I finallly found the perfect cup to carry for making my own coffee

July 27, 2025August 10, 2025

Lyon Cinema Museum

You wouldn’t think Lyon in France is where you would find one of the largest cinema museums but it is indeed here. Here are some things I found interesting at the Lyon Cinema Museum. All of the items here are from the actual movie productions. This museum is also housing many miniature movie sets that are really fascinating to see. It is well worth the entry fee if you are interested in movie memorabilia.

A Ford Anglia I recognized right off. I had a miniature Matchbox version years ago. It was used in an England movie. Lyon Cinema Museum

Ghost Busters Lyon Cinema Museum — A ghost capture device from Ghost Busters.

Edward Scissorhands — Edward Sissorhands` hand

Camera Lyon Cinema Museum — One of the old movie camers used for many decades produced in the first town I lived in, for just one year.

One of the original auto tape destroying recorders used in the Mission Impossible TV series.

Mock heads used in the Thelma and Louise cliff dive final scene.

Hellboy suit. This would be very hot to wear.

sword — The way an actor gets “run through”

July 17, 2025July 17, 2025

Hopping around Paris

Hopping around Paris you will see really interesting things and experience many interesting people. Remember to always greet people every time you meet them and to leave with a greeting as well. You can find many interesting museums to visit at one which I recommend. It explains the Dreyfus affair.

Deadly angles — Watch out for the deadly angles

River trip — You can take a trip on the river Seine

Blanket hiding — What do you think would be hiding in the blanket. Actually it’s a miniature pincer that wants to keep warm in the cool of Paris

Something hiding — We see something hiding here too

It’s a Jack Russell with a head cone to keep it from licking a wound

Arcade — A typical arcade with a café outside

Old Peugeot — An old Peugeot where everybody can take photos

Famous tower — A tower of somebody famous

Large space — Enjoying a large space looking at the Concorde

On the bridge — Hopping around Paris managing the dog

Hawaiian Poké bowl is even a thing in Paris

Ice cream — The two dogs on a walk but I can’t reject ice cream

Hopping around Paris painting — I just liked this painting

The Dreyfus affair — Dreyfus was accused of treason, and easy target to be framed partly because he was Jewish. But after five years the person who framed him confessed. You can visit this museum which has many artifacts of the Jewish presence in France.

Dreyfus Museum front — The front of the Dreyfus museum

Visiting Notre Dame — Notre Dame is now complete and available for visits free of charge

Impressive pulpit — a very impressive pulpit

Interesting pipe organ — an interesting design for pipe organ

Clean and bright — my friend noted that before the fire the inside of Notre Dame was very dark due to dirt and suit and hundreds of years of aging. Now it is clean and bright

Beautiful design — a beautiful design with the ceilings in the Royal French blue

I’m not French so I guess I am not a bastard. This is a famous French bakery

Wonderful dessert — a wonderful dessert thoroughly aged in Brandy

A real French croissant — My first croissant in France. It is so much different than what a croissant in the US taste like.

A beautiful park with a bridge whose foundation is crumbling and needs reconstruction

Duck and potatoes — Roast duck whiz cheese mashed potatoes. The best mashed potatoes I ever had

Great restaurant — a great restaurant. I highly recommend it

Piling on the pillows — With King you could pile on all the blankets and pillows and she wouldn’t mind

Day of the dead — I found this very interesting. It reminds me of the day of the dead in Mexico

Picasso Museum view — Looking out the Picasso Museum

Picasso figurine — Picasso worked in many genres. He was more versatile than I had ever imagined. You should visit this museum to get a good perspective of his versatility.

June 19, 2025June 20, 2025

Try champagne in Châlons en Champagne

This town in the Champagne area is a really cute town to visit and they have a nice champagne winery to visit. Enjoy the photos with Bill Smale Adventures.

Châlons en Champagne Yeast settling — Down in the caves you can see how these bottles are stored in order to get the yeast to settle so they can extract it. Sometimes the extraction is done by hand.

Settling yeast — The shows a bottle with yeast that still needs to settle.

Cool cave — As with all wine caves this one is nice and cool. It was pretty warm outside.

Grape types — These are the three types of grapes used for their champagne at Châlons en Champagne. Only the Chardonnay grape is used for the Blanc de Blanc.

Vineyard map — This shows their vineyards throughout the champagne area.

A Chinese restaurant named Angkor . I wonder if they’re playing with the Cambodian Temple complex name.

Perfume shop — Typical French perfume shop

Decoration — I think this lights up in the evening

Securing a building — Making sure this building doesn’t fall while they are putting up a new building beside it.

Pipe organ in Eglise Collégiale Notre-Dame-en-Vaux

Beautiful windows — Beautiful stained glass window

Original church — The original remains from the church

Original stone panel — One of the original stone panels

Canal map — the map of the canal and locks

Canal lock — The different locks in the canals in France allow boats to travel all over the country

Going up to the lock — a boat travels up to the lock

Control light — There is a control light indicating whether they should enter or wait

Entering the lock — The boat passes the first lock and up to the administration window

Securing the boat — The boat owner ties the boat to the stanchions to make sure it’s not moving too much

Ready to untie — When the lock is filled she can then untie the boat and proceed through the next lock

Front gate — This is the front lock gate

June 18, 2025June 18, 2025

Blois, France a real gem

After 10 days in Paris staying with a friendit was time to move on. I had this idea to see a number of castles and this town, Blois, France, seem to have a number of castles in the area so off I went. But when I got downtown the bus schedule seemed to be sparse for the castles. By 11:30 the buses had already left and there wouldn’t be any others until the afternoon at about four or five so I decided to spend the day walking around town. What I found was very interesting. There is a castle here built and occupied by many of the kings of France for the past 800 years and there are different kinds of architecture depending upon when the structures were built to serve the king of the time. And of course there are some interesting churches and a beautiful town with a Tudor like architecture of plaster between wooden beams and supports. So I highly recommend visiting this small and very interesting town.

Fleur de lys explained — Here is the explanation of the fleur-de-lis usage by the French royalty

The station — This is the whitest station I have seen in a long time

Blois, France Diana — I think this is the statue of the goddess Diana of wild animals and the Hunt.

St. Vincent de Paul Church. I liked the Romanesque statue presentations in various parts of the church. This was a very interesting way to present figures

Light blue ceiling — You can see the preferred light blue color of the ceiling which was often used by royalty

Alter — This altar was also very interesting with the various statues and the framing of the portrait in the middle

The church outside — The church from the outside

When you look at the hotel name “Hotel de France” it is reassuring to note that there is a hotel in France

Blois royal château, built on a promontory high above the River Loire, forms the heart of the urban community. Around it is a bustling old town shaped by its history as a 16th-century royal town. There are several ways of getting to know Blois, a town of artistic and historic interest. You can follow itineraries indicated by brass studs on the ground, take a guided tour, or simply stroll along the streets or up and down the steps. Its diverse heritage spanning a period from the 12t to 20mh centuries, its links with. the Loire that is listed as a World Heritage site, its wide range of museums to suit all tastes, and its gardens with their breathtaking views constantly give visitors and locals alike a chance to see the town from a different angle.

Castle entrance Blois, France — The beautiful castle entrance decorations with a king on a horse

François I building — this structure was built by François I In Blois, France and occupied by Catherine Medici. Catherine left Italy, Florence, to become a queen of France and I believe one of the Strozzi family also went to France with her. My interest in this is that my great grandmother was a Strotz from Luxembourg and my great aunt claimed they were descendants of the Strozzi family of Italy, closely tied to the Medici family. No one has proven either way the veracity of this claim by my great aunt so I am spending time here and there trying to uncover the truth.

Beautiful staircase — This is a really beautiful staircase

Built by Gaston — The farthest structure was built by Gaston of Orleans as he laid claim to the title of King after the death of the current king. However, his nephew was born and it was decided he would become the future King, Louis the 14th, the one who built Versailles.

Porcupine figure — You can see the porcupine emblem above the door which it seems indicates the ability to shoot quills and conquer any adversary.

Beautiful chapel ceiling — in the chapel you see this beautiful ceiling with the light blue of the French royalty

Medieval defenses — This medieval structure as a defense battery remains

Beautiful view — Hey beautiful view of the town

Medieval building — The square corner building is left from the medieval times. The structure was built by Louis XII

Beautiful decorations in the Gaston wing — The staircase was built recently but the inside decorations were finished before the building was suspended due to the inability of Gaston to become king and inherited enough money to finish the project

Gaston d’Orléans, the son of Henri IV and Marie de’ Medici, commissioned one of the greatest transformations that the Château underwent in the 17th century. King Louis XIII’s brother and for a long time heir to the throne, he became Count of Blois in 1626 and lived there from 1634, when he launched the construction of a huge palace. The works were directed by the architect François Mansart. In 1635, a new main building was constructed at the rear of the courtyard, taking the place of the “Perche aux Bretons” building. But in 1638 the works were brought to a halt. The birth of the Dauphin Louis (the future Louis XIV) put paid to Gaston’s status as heir to the crown and to a large proportion of the financial resources granted to him by the King. Although incomplete, the new wing is a manifesto for French Classicism. It has a projecting central pavilion, a colonnade, perfect symmetry, three storeys, each with a different classical order, and two superposed pediments, all emphasising the sense of verticality. If the project had been completed, the Louis XII and François I wings would have been razed to the ground and replaced by new buildings. Gaston set up his apartments in the François I wing rather than finish the works. He died there in 1660. The Gaston wing remained an empty shell until the Château was turned into barracks at the beginning of the 19th century.

Fireplace — The beautiful fireplace on the ground floor of the François structure

Art — Some remaining artifacts are displayed here but the explanation says there are not many left since quite a few if not most were badly damaged since the king had to move here and there to remain control of his realm, stashing many objects in trunks and carried by carriages.

Remaining trunk — One of the remaining trunks

Beautiful windows in the chapel — Day to day life followed a rhythm of daily prayers.
The fervently Christian King and Queen attended daily public masses in the chapel and also had an oratory in their residence to allow them to pray in private.
The windows of this oratory, commissioned in 1858 by Duban from the master glassmaker Claudius Lavergne, were inspired by Michel Dumas’ sketches.
The Saints shown with their symbols all had a link to Catherine de’ Medici and the Valois familv.

The King's bedroom — The King’s bedroom where he used to accept visitors

Beautiful window — I really love this window

Different stain glass window themes — Each of the different alcoves had different color themes for the stained glass windows which I found to be very beautiful and creative

Beautiful window windows — A display of the varying window concepts

June 3, 2025June 3, 2025

A short stop in Nancy France

Just across the border from Luxembourg and a short train ride you can enjoy a short stay in Nancy France. I had no idea what to expect in the city. It had some fairly interesting things to see so I think it’s worth a day trip. It’s very easy to get around and it’s not a large town center. So at least when you tell people you visited France I think it’s fun to tell people you visited in Nancy France.