When we visit Mont-St-Michel, France, we prefer to stay on the island rather than the mainland because of the change in the atmosphere when the last of the day-trippers leave by about 5 p.m. It goes from a noisy, crowded, carnival atmosphere to one of magic, romance and solitude. You can walk the ramparts without running into anyone else, and looking up in the dark at the beautifully lit abbey is an unforgettable sight. We’ve made four visits to Mont-St-Michel.

The magical experience...

We experienced similar cuisine in both Morocco and Tunisia during a trip in July ’02. In both countries, we stayed in 2- or 3-star hotels which had adjoining or nearby restaurants. The evening menus uniformly offered two or three dishes, usually including one or two tajines, usually chicken, beef or lamb.

Tajines are similar to our “boiled dinner”— potatoes, vegetables and meat all together in the bottom of a large baking bowl. The funnel-shaped top is placed over the bowl and the...

(Second of two parts, jump to part 1)

In late August and early September of 2001 (yes, we were over there when it happened), we traveled in Europe for four weeks, visiting Austria, Italy, France and Germany. We went by car and spent two of the weeks in a cottage outside Gordes in Provence, the only lodging we reserved in advance.

I informed my wife that we should need only a few hundred dollars in American currency since I intended to use ATM cards and credit cards to get the...