The spirit of wanderlust on the towpath at Lagny sur Marne
\u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

Feed Your Wanderlust Close to Home<\/h2>\n

Hidden travel treasures are everywhere\u2014sometimes just around that corner where you\u2019ve never been before and sometimes just a short adventure away.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t always have to make plans months in advance\u2014 to grab the best transportation fares or lodgings\u2014nor do you necessarily have to spend days reading TripAdvisor reviews to make your plans for far-flung corners of the world.<\/p>\n

You can often feed your wanderlust close to home.<\/p>\n

Looking toward a distant Paris from the Chemin de la Machine in Louveciennes
\u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

Close Adventures of the Third Kind<\/h4>\n

When you\u2019re in a new city, especially a city like Paris, each day offers hundreds of choices. It\u2019s rewarding to spend the days exploring the layers of life, history, and culture that the city offers, but don\u2019t forget the adventures just a short train or metro ride away.<\/p>\n

The Bois de Vincennes: Just at the end of the Line 1 Paris metro.
\u00a9 Meredith Mullins<\/p><\/div>\n

British Author Annabel Simms has made this kind of short expedition a travel theme, with her book An Hour From Paris\u00a0<\/em>and her new book Half Hour from Paris.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

She has researched off-the-beaten path daytrips that provide a pleasant walk; interesting local and historical information; a touch of nature, including what flora and fauna\u00a0one might encounter; where to stop for a caf\u00e9\/restaurant break (that also has worthy food or unique artifacts); and how to get there and back (without necessarily retracing your steps).<\/p>\n

The River Bi\u00e8vre in Igny
\u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

Time Is Relative<\/h4>\n

It\u2019s important to clarify that time is relative. It can actually take more than an hour to get from one side of the Paris arrondissement snail map to the other. But Simms\u2019 travel books offer specific times from exact start points (train, metro, and RER stations) so you can put time in perspective.<\/p>\n

Simms also imagines that most travelers to Paris have the more well-traveled daytrips already on their radar:<\/p>\n

\n
• Versailles (Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette\u2019s chateau, fountains, gardens, and park)<\/li>\n
• Giverny (Monet\u2019s final home and gardens)<\/li>\n
• Fontainebleau (chateau and lush forest)<\/li>\n
• Auvers-sur-Oise (where some of Van Gogh\u2019s most famous paintings were created . . . and where he died).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  One of the many peacocks in the Parc de Bagatelle
  \u00a9 Meredith Mullins<\/p><\/div>\n

  Simms offers new experiences that are more of the hidden treasure variety.<\/p>\n

  The ten adventures she suggests in the new Half Hour from Paris <\/em>include medieval walled towns, markets, little-known museums, formal and wild parks, riverside pleasures, and picturesque towpaths.<\/p>\n

  \n
  • Parc de la Poudrerie (remains of a gunpowder factory hidden in a 137-hectare woodland park)<\/li>\n
  • Lagny sur Marne (medieval market town with 12^{th<\/sup>century abbey church)<\/li>\n}
  • Meaux (medieval town with a gothic cathedral near the peaceful Canal de Chalifert)<\/li>\n
  • La Fert\u00e9 sous Jouarre (once the millstone capital of the world, with early Christian tombs)<\/li>\n
  • Neuilly Plaisance (guinguette by the Marne river and walk by the Canal de Chelles)<\/li>\n
  • Igny (on the River Bi\u00e8vre with a house\/museum dedicated to Victor Hugo)<\/li>\n
  • Chateau de Vincennes (ch\u00e2teau, Bois de Vincennes, and the Jardin Tropical)<\/li>\n
  • Parc de Bagatelle (ch\u00e2teau, roses, irises, waterfalls and peacocks on the edge of Paris)<\/li>\n
  • Malmaison (home to Napoleon and Josephine, near Bougival, a favorite haunt of the Impressionists)<\/li>\n
  • Marly le Roi (ch\u00e2teau, park, and walk in the footsteps of the Impressionists)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Entry to the Parc de la Poudrerie\u2014a whole new mysterious world
    \u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

    Not only does Simms do a thorough job of exploring and providing her exploration notes so you can follow a guided path, she is also good at finding the hidden treasures in these obscure spots.<\/p>\n

    She discovers the remains of a medieval stone-bas relief of the town patron saint in the toilettes\u00a0<\/em>of the local caf\u00e9. (The carved St Furcy appears at the Caf\u00e9 St Furcy in Lagny sur Marne.)<\/p>\n

    Hidden treasures in the Caf\u00e9 St Furcy restroom in Lagny sur Marne
    \u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

    She stumbles on her first snake of Paris while taking one of the countryside walks (harmless, she is assured by her French walking partner) and also observes the droppings of wild boar (also harmless, she is assured, with the old \u201cthey\u2019re more afraid of you than you are of them\u201d story). (Not to worry, though, as these “sightings” were well outside the half-hour-from-Paris mark.)<\/p>\n

    The wooded towpath along the Canal de Chalifert in Meaux
    \u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

    She embraces nature wherever she travels, finding wood anemones, mandarin ducks, and red squirrels near the abandoned gunpowder factory and even discovering a giant sequoia (native to California) rising up near the three ponds in the expansive Parc de la Poudrerie.<\/p>\n

    She follows the network of rivers surrounding Paris, just as traditional Parisians did years ago, to escape the pressures of the city.<\/p>\n

    La Fert\u00e9 sous Jouarre on the River Marne, once the millstone capital of the world
    \u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

    Parisians would spend Sunday afternoons eating, drinking, dancing, and socializing at the riverside guinguettes. And so, you too can follow in their dancing footsteps in Neuilly Plaisance, mentioned in Half Hour from Paris, <\/em>and in Villeneuve Triage, mentioned in An Hour from Paris<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    The guinguette “Chez Fifi” in Neuilly Plaisance
    \u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

    She highlights places like Ch\u00e2teau des Roches in Igny\u2014a country home visited by Victor Hugo, Berlioz, Gounod, Ingres, Liszt, and Chateaubriand\u2014and the mysterious crypts of La Fert\u00e9 sous Jouarre, with a grand finale behind a small locked door where the tomb of St Agilbert is revealed along with a well-preserved 13^{th\u00a0<\/sup>century bas relief entitled Christ in Majesty.<\/p>\n}

    A Merovingian crypt in La Fert\u00e9 sous Jouarre
    \u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

    Oh I See: Savoring the Moment<\/h4>\n

    Most of all, Simms relishes experiencing the \u201cFrenchness of France, where the slower pace of life just outside of the city lends itself more easily to savoring the moment.”<\/p>\n

    Feeding your wanderlust, finding hidden treasures, and savoring the moments\u2014travel lessons for us all.<\/p>\n

    Savoring the moments
    \u00a9 Annabel Simms<\/p><\/div>\n

    For more Paris adventures close to home, visit Annabel Simms website.<\/a><\/em>\u00a0 If you’re in the Paris area, Annabel Simms is presenting her new book at the American Library<\/a> on December 18 at 7:30 pm.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Comment<\/a><\/i>\u00a0on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,211],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-travel","category-paris-mappoints"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32732"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32796,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32732\/revisions\/32796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}