Food & Wine

After a tour of Greece in late June ’05, my wife, Dorothy, and I stopped in Brittany, France, to visit our daughter who resides in the small city of Douarnenez, which at one time was the sardine capital of Europe. We had the opportunity to try a few restaurants there.

• On the waterfront at the end of rue Anatole France, which leads into the marketplace, is the Bord Eaux Restaurant. From the deck there is an excellent view of the small boat harbor, and from inside there is a limited view from most tables.

We had a 2-week stay in Provence, Oct. 5-19, ’05, with Idyll, Ltd. (Box 405, Media, PA 19063; phone 888/868-6871 or visit www.untours.com). We stayed in Velorgues, France, in the Oasis 2 apartment, a luxurious 2-bedroom rental with dishwasher, washing machine, patio and lots of privacy. The cost was $2,169 for apartment, car rental and airfare from Philadelphia.

Idyll provides a local “host” for orientation and support plus a wealth of pre-trip information. They have rentals throughout continental Europe.

My friend Edith Ann Pazmino and I took an adventure that included three unusual islands between Asia and Australia, July 6-25, ’05. Our 20-day trip took us from San Francisco to Hong Kong, Hainan Island (in the South China Sea), Singapore, Perth and, in the Indian Ocean, Christmas and Cocos islands.

The trip would not have happened without the excellent help of Helen Svensen and Arthur Waine of Greenbelt Travel Services (5510 Cherrywood Ln., Greenbelt, MD 20770; phone 800/695-0317 or 301/474-1300, fax 301/345-3666 or visit www.greenbelttravel.com).

Eldertreks (597 Markham St., Toronto, ON M6G 2L7, Canada; phone 800/741-7956 or visit www.eldertreks.com) hosted my 20-day trip to BORNEO, Malaysia. It cost $2,195, not including international air; my total airfare from Denver was $1,461.

Here are two lovely B&Bs from our April ’05 trip to NEW ZEALAND.

On our month-long trip to INDIA in November-December ’04, we found the Clarks Shiraz (54, Taj Road, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA; phone +91 05622 222 6121 or visit www.hotelclarksshiraz.com) to be a fine and efficient hotel, far better equipped to accommodate travelers than several of the other hotels we stayed in. But somehow it gave us one of the least-satisfying experiences.

by Roger Canfield, Contributing Editor

Holland America Line’s ms Maasdam does an annual summer round trip from Boston to Rotterdam: “Voyage of the Vikings.” While it is possible to take only half the cruise, most passengers go for the full 35 nights. My wife and I took the 2005 cruise, July 16-Aug. 20, at a cost of approximately $8,000 per person for an outside cabin.

by Jim Sajo, Polcenigo, Italy

Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. There are no restrictions on length. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean.) The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.

This month’s winner is KEN LEVINE of Chicago, Illinois:

In November 2005 I went to the Bo Tung Xeo restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I ordered some type of marinated beef.