29.8.08

Florence

I’m back after some very nice weeks shared between Provence / Camargue and Tuscany.

Most of the time was spent in Tuscany at a small place called San Donato, half way between Florence and Siena, where we had leased a house together with kids, their partners and grandkids. I have no intention to make any long stories about the different visited places. Last year, I made some rather full posts about my Provence / Camargue holidays and I will not repeat it.

I have already visited Tuscany a few times and did not make any real sightseeing or museum exploration this time. The essential thing was to relax and spend time with family. Especially the swimming pool was in the centre of our activites. I thought however that I must give you some “proofs” of our presence in Tuscany, today starting with a few Florence landmarks. There will be two or three more posts about Tuscany before I return to my normal Paris reporting, but I will now essentially spend my blogging time on checking what you all have “produced”. After almost one month’s absence, I guess there is a lot to be read and seen.

I will be back on Monday and wish you in the meantime a very nice weekend!

39 comments:

Virginia said...

How lucky I am to be the first to welcome you back from your obviously grand holiday. Of course, the lovliest of all the photos has to be the two precious granddaughters! How proud you must be. Your travel photographs are wonderful as well. I will enjoy looking over them carefully. We have been a rowdy bunch while you were gone! HA Look forward to Paris through your lens.
V

Azer Mantessa said...

you don't have to proove anything ... we trust you :-)

looking forward for the long story versions.

meantime, have a good rest and nice weeekend.

EMNM said...

Welcome back Peter!

A very nice trip, i have been in Florence last summer, it´s a great city, and few days ago in your home, Paris, finally I could visit the Petit Palace thanks to your post, nice place and nice art collection.

Olivier said...

tu arrives déjà que tu reprends un weekend de repos......j'espere que tu as bien profite de tes vacances. Nous allons donc visiter Florence, j'adore la photo de nuit. certaines villes italiennes sont de vrai musée.

alice said...

C'est bien agréable de te retrouver!

hpy said...

Comme le dit Alice, c'est un plaisir de te retrouver. Aurons-nous aussi le plaisir de te voir en chair et en os le 14 septembre chez Lyliane?

Gaëlle said...

Alors ces vacances dans le Sud ?
Et non pas de posts sur la Suède sur GrenobleDP mais par contre tu peux aller jeter un oeil à mon autre blog (lorangequisaigne.blogspot.com), là il y en a plusieurs et probablement d'autres à venir d'ailleurs !

sonia a. mascaro said...

Welcome back, Peter!
Great photos! Looks you and all family had a wonderful time! Love all photos, principally the photos of the kids! You did a great reportage indeed!

PS: Yesterday I saw your post, but Blogger did not allowed left a comment...maybe a bad Internet connection...
Flora asks me to say thank you for your greetings.

marie6 said...

Welcome back, Peter, sounds like you had a great time. Nothing beats spending quality time with your family especially when it's a relaxing holiday.

Great photos too especially the grandkids, very cute!

Nathalie H.D. said...

Adorables, les deux zozos dans l'eau. Et tes autres photos sont magnifiques. Moi qui ne connais pas (encore) l'Italie, tu me fais rêver.

Lucie said...

Welcome back, Peter, avec un message sobre qui me ramène... plusieurs décennies en arrière
Je me vois encore contempler le David de Michel Ange, alors que lui du haut de ses siècles ne prêtait guère attention à moi (même si celui ci est une copie), me frayer mon chemin au milieu des étudiants en liesse vers le Ponte Vecchio, monter et descendre les jambes flageolantes le campanile de Ste Marie des Fleurs.

Félicitation pour la magnifique photo du dessus. Une merveille. Quel beau cadrage, quelle belle mise en valeur de ces volumes différents.
Ma mémoire flanche un tantinet, les ans en sont la cause. Où étais tu pour trouver un si beau point de prise de vue ?

A la semaine prochaine Peter, pour de nouvelles aventures.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, Peter! I was happy to see you today. Lucky you, Florence! The sky looks brilliant, I hope you had a fantastic month. I look forward to seeing more from this trip, and of course Paris.

SusuPetal said...

Oh, your vacation has been a lovely one!
Welcome back!

claude said...

Quel beau voyage tu as fait là Peter ! Contente de te retrouver !
Ce qu'il y a de bien avec les blogs, c'est qu'on voyage gratis.
Bientpot ce sera le Portugal avec Lyliane. Moi aussi j'ai voyagé, mais moins loin et en France et en plus en majeure partie pour le boulot.

Shammickite said...

Welcome home Peter! I am sure you have had a wonderful break and you're full of stories and pictures to share on your blog. It's nice to see you back on my computer screen. Your granddaughters are lovely, and that swimming pool looks very inviting!
My son and DIL syaed in that area of Italy and also went to Florence 2 years ago... they loved it!

Neva said...

Peter it is so good to see you back! I am sure you are well relaxed and ready to blog. I love the pool pictures! you have a lot of catching up to do!

Kate said...

What a fun time you all must have had. Terrific location...Tuscany, would love to visit there again! Your photos represent the area well.

Mona said...

O how exotic those scenes look! The photographs are so stunningly beautiful, How lovely it must have been to visit all those places & that too with the family!

I love the way Paloma & Matias are enjoying themselves!

HZDP said...

Pete,
welcome back! Nice vacation.

krystyna said...

Welcome back, Peter!!!
Four weeks with family in Tuscany...wow..you are great father and grandfather.
This month I spend much time with my grandsons too. But in home. You know, Kevin must be home. He is in good condition now, but still with chemo./until 2010/

Thank you for sharing your always amazing photos!
Have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

You have some magnificent photographs here of magnificent buildings and such. Welcome back.

I opened my Brookville Blog again and was spammed again. I had reported the guy as a spammer but he is back again. Not sure what I will do now but I did report him again as a spammer.

Chuckeroon said...

Peter! I am indeed greatly looking forward to having to "suffer" the display of your holiday snaps!

The "boredom" caused by the Florence set was quite big. Will the Camargue be even "worse". I hope so, and cannot wait.

As always....'roony.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see you back, Peter, and with such interesting photos. I just returned from Bavaria and I will be near Firenze soon. So it's even more interesting to see the photos.

claude said...

On va où on peut Peter ! Effectivement livraison de meubles à Marcq en Baroeul, tout près de Lille puis visite à Laon chez un ancien, mais retrouvé, copain d'armée de mon Chéri qui nous a fait visiter la ville que je montrerai la semaine prochaine.

Jessica said...

So glad to have you back! I've been missing your Paris stories and your wonderful pictures. I don't know how you got that great shot at the top of the page. It looks like a post card!

It looks like everyone had a great time. It's nice to take a relaxing vacation once in a while. Travel isn't always supposed to be constant running around.

Enjoy your weekend!

GMG said...

Hi Peter, great to see you back!
What a holiday: Provence, Camargue and Tuscany. I had a friend that used to say «When I'll become a rich man, I'll buy a house in Tuscany»... Great choice!
Wish you a great weekend!

PS: Finally Greek Isles 2007 started to see the light of day... only 12 month delay. Improving!

sonia a. mascaro said...

Hi Peter,
I would like to invite you to join Ecological Day, next September
2th. You can post on your blog a diversity of issues about the master theme of Ecology. I will open Mister Linky in September
1th, 06:00 PM. More informations on my blog. Would be great if you will join us.

Have a good Sunday!

Alain said...

Vraiment merveilleux avec des angles nouveaux pour ces monuments que l'on a beaucoup vu.

abcd said...

Hi Peter, Lovely picture from Florence. (I still prefer David in full body) hee..

Italy is the place I surely wanted to visit. However, Paris should be my top preference, therefore, I might be visiting paris soon... I've sent you email to your hotmail account. :)

all the best.

Maxime said...

Heureux retour, Peter !
Florence est magnifique, et pour la piscine, tu as bien fait de choisir le sud - par ici, c'est tout juste si il n'a pas fallu y mettre de l'antigel... Mais beau temps ou pas, il n'y a rien de mieux, pour les vacances, que de profiter de la présence des enfants et petits-enfants !

PeterParis said...

I thank you all for your kind comments! I will answer some of of the questions directly by email!

Shionge said...

Welcome Back Peter and what amazing shots you took, you have took me down memory lane as Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice) is one of the country I visited during my honeymoon in 1990 :)

Great to see that you are having a good time....whoa the race is fascinating.

Ash said...

I love the first shot and of course - the splash shot and most of all - that of your grandkids :-)

Ash said...

So glad you are back Peter. You were sorely missed!

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

Hi Peter,

Fantastic it was in ITALY, I can tell by your photo's , and wow! the David is one of my favorite statues too! Great statues they have in FLORENCE eeh?... The DUOMO is fantastic too, when you go inside and watch all over (a part of) Florence....Did you also went into the UFFIZI"S Gallery? That great to be seen....fantastic paintings they are showing there inside, and the little shops on the brige are worth to be seen too...

Thanks for showing me/us this beautiful shots, brings back some good memories, (I lived in Italy/Rome for 6 years...) Florence/Tuscany is almost as good as Paris eeeeh?

Good to have you back in Blogland:)
JoAnn's D Eyes/ Holland

Ming the Merciless said...

Thanks for sharing Tuscany with us. The photos are excellent.

I don't know if I've been to Tuscany. I know we (my family) went to Milan, Rome, Naples and Capri when I was about 10 years old.

PeterParis said...

shionge:
Honeymoon memeories must be nice!

ash:
Thanks for you kind words!

joann:
This was my fourth visit to Florence, so I neglected the museums this time!

PeterParis said...

ming:
If you don't remember, I believe you must go back! :-)

Magda Machnicka said...

This truly is the most beautiful town on Earth :-) Thank you for reminding me my love.