Europe is a wonderful place to travel for Americans because if one goes through the American school system inevitably we taught that the history of the US is tied inextricably to Europe, our roots linguistically, economically, politically,  socially and so forth are generally acknowledged to be from here notwithstanding that an enormous amount of the population comes from many other parts of the world.

We speak many languages and do not have an 'official language'. Where many countries state which languages are 'official' for them, America just doesn't acknowledge one language over another.  But you'll notice surely that we speak mostly English from England....which is nearly European, actually a little island off the coast of France. Similarly we do not acknowledge one religion, race, gender etcetera to be superior to another. We grow  up with this stuff, but until you travel extensively you don't and can't recognize just what a beautiful country we have 'in our mind'.  But that is where it begins, in the mind, and just watch some Oprah if you don't believe me.

So I am retired and traveling in Europe and want to record any tidbits that might come in handy for other travelers. I can dig into the cache of photos and show places that you might like to visit. I live in France, mostly in Dijon. So let me record what might be good to know about my French home town first. I can explain how I got here by referring you to the Wall Street Journal Article on How I Came to Live in France.