Our Little French Life: Copenhagen. A better choice than Tel Aviv

It feels wrong to say we were getting a bit bored in France, but the cold and wet weather in the Dordogne, coupled with the winter closures, convinced us to get online and find a somewhere close, hot, with nice beaches and a bit of culture. Tel Aviv was the standout until we decided to finally catch up on current affairs and realised that was probably not our wisest move in the current political climate. Thanks Trump! So let's just forget the warm weather and go to Copenhagen instead.... it made perfect sense over a few glasses of wine.

Copenhagen would have to be the most expensive city we have travelled to, $10 for a takeaway hot chocolate and $20 for a sandwich. It was definitely the coldest - most days were around 0 degrees. But it's always been on my bucket list, and it did not disappoint. It's one of those places I could see myself going back to time and again.

Nyhaven, with its colourful houses and wooden boats is probably the most recognisable spot in Copenhagen, picture perfect and famous for Hans Christian Anderson's abode, and the port of call for our canal cruise which was a great way to see the city from the water and myriad of canals ... and stay out of the cold.

Elliot loved the Zoo with it's fabulous 'Arctic Circle' housing polar bears, puffins, wolves, reindeer and all manor of cold weather creatures.

I loved the shopping (albeit rather expensive), especially Illums Bolighus department store, with floors and floors of all things Danish, from clothing to homewares and everything in between.

The Danes sure know a thing or two about design, and we loved the Design Museum of Denmark and their chair exhibition ... "Show me your chair and i'll tell you who you are". A fabulous display of the icons of danish furniture design. I'll have one of each please!

Even with Mary and Fred visiting Australia at the moment, we still thought it only polite to take a stroll past their place. Amalienborg Palace, with its four identical buildings house different members of the Royal family and unlike Buckingham Palace, there is no fence, you can walk right up the buildings.... no touching though!

And in the evening, a visit to Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world (built around 1840) was a winter wonderland. Snow covered trees, ice sculptures, gardens and pergolas dressed for Christmas, the smell of roasting chestnuts and mulled wine and old fashioned rides and amusement games. Christmas heaven right there.

We bypassed NOMA and the 60,000 person wait list and indulged in the local eateries. The scandi cuisine was awesome after eating so much heavy French fare and we enjoyed plenty of open-faced smørrebrød sandwiches (delicious!), seafood, lots of salads and amazing steaks. The beer wasn't too bad either!