Bonjour Paris!
I took the train from Maastricht to Paris. It was a local from Maastricht to Liege, Belgium and then the high speed Thalys through Brussels to Paris. Local trains are very casual. There is a train every half hour from Amsterdam to Maastricht and you just walk into the station, buy a ticket and catch the next one. The high speed trains like Thalys, Eurostar, ICE and TGV all require reservations and seat assignments just like the...
TEFAF Tales- Julie Manet and the Cicada
First let me tell you about Julie Manet and that’s Julie with a long sweet “J” like Jacque not Jack. I wish you could hear Noemie from Eric Gillis gallery in Brussels say it “en Francais”. She introduced me to Julie last year and when I wanted to follow up, I had misplaced Noemi’s card. When you see something you like at an art or antique show and you hesitate, you often miss out. You come back and that spot on the wall or...
Arriving in Maastricht 2017
Maastricht is considered to be the oldest town in the Netherlands. If you look at a map of the Netherlands you will see a little bubble sticking off of the southeast corner of the country and that is primarily the province Limburg and that is where you will find its capital Maastricht on the Maas river about a 2 ½ hour train ride south of Amsterdam. Limburg is bordered on the south and west by Belgium, which is only a couple of miles...
The “Golden Age” and the Art of the Dutch
I have long been fascinated with the Dutch Golden Age. It spanned the 17th Century. The first half was dominated by the 80-year war with Spain, which ended in 1648 and continued in peacetime until around 1700. It has been estimated that between 5 and 10 million works of art were produced during this century although only about 1% survived. The wealth generated by the world trade by the Dutch ships dominated by the Dutch East India...
Tot ziens Amstelredam – Good bye for Now Amsterdam
I questioned a few locals as to why a city named after a dam on the Amstel River was called Amsterdam and not Amsteldam and no one seemed to know? I finally got an answer in the Amsterdam History Museum after seeing an old map labeled “Amstelredam”. That is the old way to spell and say Amsteldam and when it was spoken in Dutch others heard the “R” sound and not so much the “L” so the L disappeared and eventually the Dutch gave in and...
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Beautiful Brussels Jun 22, 2022 -
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