Europe Bound, in Summer!

Postcard of Dreux, France.

It's only a week or so before we head off for Europe. This trip is a pleasant surprise - we're heading off to the wedding on the son of a dear friend in a town about an hour west of Paris. But, we decided to turn that appointment into a longer break. We'll be stopping off in London for a week to get over jet-lag, then we'll catch the Eurostar Train to Paris, thus ticking off one long-neglected bucket list item. We'll drive to the wedding and spend several days there, then the best part of a week (around Bastille Day) in Paris. We could have spent longer in France, but it's peak holiday season there (and everywhere in Europe, for that matter), so we decided instead to do a two week driving trip around the southern half of Ireland, where we have never been before.

Ha'penny Bridge, Dublin, thanks to Telegraph

Our trips are almost never in peak tourist season, never in Summer, so this will be a new experience. The timing was not our choice, of course, so we look forward to the unfamilar crowds and the associated touts and pick-pockets with some trepidation. The weather will be an interesting change from, for example, the sub-zero temperatures of most of our journeys. Anyway, because it's peak season, we have deviated from our usual road-trip practice and pre-booked hotels and rental-cars. No going where the will takes us on this trip, but we do have many unplanned days available in most locations so what we do on day trips is up to us.

London Eye at sunset, thanks to eArchitect.