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The first time I visited Chateau de Chaumont was in the winter of 2003 - a brief visit that lingered in my imagination for years after.  Since the castle was closed to tourists, I wandered the grounds alone in hopes I might encounter the spirits of inhabitants past.   This might seem an unusual pastime unless you pause to consider the castle's rather unusual history.  Chaumont was once the home of Catherine de Medici, queen to Henri II of France.  Catherine practiced what some called "the darker arts" at Chaumont, inviting astronomers, numerologists, and a host of shady characters.   The astrologer  Nostradamus was one of the member's of Catherine's shady squad.  He  visited her at Chaumont on several occasions.  Legend has it Catherine attended ritualistic animal sacrifices in the castle's front hall (this told to me by a groundskeeper I encountered) .   On that first visit, when the wind eerily whispered thro...

Sixteen years ago I visited Mellerstain House , an 18th Century English manor home located in the borders between England and Scotland. I was so taken with the magnificent estate that I flung my arms out and boldly declared, "It's all mine!"   Cindy , my super fun travel pal, snapped a photo of me sitting on the hood of our rented Jaguar with my arms outstretched and the rambling manor home as my backdrop.   Mellerstain House, England Little did I know striking the It's All Mine pose would become one of my travel traditions. Since then, I have posed outside mansions, manor homes, castles, and palaces around the world.   The photos document nearly twenty years of travel to three continents and eighteen countries (and my surprisingly unwavering taste for black garments).  Flipping through the collection today, I realized, though not for the first time, how truly blessed I am to have traveled to so many exotic places (I also  realiz...

One of my all-time favorite nonfiction books is Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.  (More on why this book makes my all-time top ten list in an upcoming post)  If you haven't read A Moveable Feast, I highly recommend you indulge.  The audio book version is a delicious treat for your ears.  Speaking of Hemingway, I thought this was a great little story about him. (Question for YOU after the story) "In 1956, Ernest and I were having lunch at the Ritz in Paris with Charles Ritz, the hotel’s chairman, when Charley asked if Ernest was aware that a trunk of his was in the basement storage room, left there in 1930.  Ernest did not remember storing the trunk but he did recall that in the 1920s Louis Vuitton had made a special trunk for him. Ernest had wondered what had become of it. Charley had the trunk brought up to his office, and after lunch Ernest opened it. It was filled with a ragtag collection of clothes, menus, receipts, memos, hunting and f...

You've packed your swimsuit, sandals, suntan lotion, and slinky sundress, but did you remember to pack the one thing that will make you laugh, feel sexy, and give you some serious girl power?   This summer's new Chick Lit releases are super fab, laugh out loud fun. So, don't forget to stick one or two (or more) of these novels in your beach bag or carry-on.  (I suggest starting with Working It - but that's merely a suggestion). You know how you have that favorite summer dress - the one you bought a few years ago, but still makes you feel fantastic?   You probably think you'll never find a better summer dress, right?  But one day soon, you will be walking through the mall and... WAAHHHH  (that's the heavenly chorus sound effect that plays whenever a woman finds the perfect garment)... ...There it will be!  A new summer dress that looks as fab on your body as it did on the mannequin .  A dress that is slinkier, sexier, and more sensationa...