Dorset Escape
It was, my wife observed, our first sleepover since lockdown began and the feeling of unfettered normality was refreshing as a burst of fresh country air….
Coronavirus – shambles and gambles
It all takes me back to those Whitehall farces of my childhood – but at least those were a harmless giggle….
Mixed luck in Champoluc
Champoluc is part of the Monterosa ski area which, though its easternmost valley is in Piedmont, lies mostly in the Aosta Valley….
Driving through France – an affair of the heart
It is small discoveries that has helped sustain a decades long love of pootling around in France by car. That love, now frustrated by the pandemic, took root nearly 50 years ago, on our honeymoon….
Running round in circles
The quarantined Frenchman who ran a marathon on his balcony and the Englishman who did the same on his lawn sparked a memory or two of improvised running routes….
Lyric or prose? A winter walk in northern France
What’s the difference between a randonnée and a balade? Among other definitions, my French dictionary translates the former as a hike, the latter as a walk. It’s sometimes hard to tell them apart. A recent day spent on the GR120, which runs for 170 kilometres along the northwest coast of France, demanded plenty of the leg muscles, but was delightful enough to be merit the less prosaic balade….
Rhythm and blues – heart block and travel insurance
Don’t assume there’s any medical issue you don’t need to declare. Even if it’s cleared up and totally unrelated to an illness or injury suffered while travelling, it could render your entire policy void….
Charleston – the fruits of pluff
The word pluff dates from the days of slavery in the marshy South Carolina Low Country. West Africans arriving with no English were understandably confused by the various pronunciations of ‘ough. Pluff was so nutrient rich that sea island cotton farmers began ploughing it into their fields and plough somehow came to be pronounced as ‘rough’….
Regensburg
Germany, when it comes to tourism, divides the British into two camps. There are those who love its many historic gems, its leafy beer gardens and, yes, its food. And there are those who harbour an impression of grey technical efficiency, humourlessness, dreary cooking and indifferent weather….
Munich – Art and Asparagus
A thunderstorm has broken over Munich but despite the lightning flashes and fierce rain we are tucking into asparagus with Wiener Schnitzel outside the lovely old Zum Dürnbräu restaurant, protected from the onslaught by a deep awning….
Chateau de Montreuil
The Chateau is at the top of the fortified hill town of Montreuil sur Mer in Pas-de-Calais. It’s a member of the Relais & Chateaux consortium and its restaurant has a Michelin star….
Maine Revisited: Part 2
Never pre-judge a walk by its length alone – and don’t take the American definition of a cottage at face value. In different ways our two days in Lubec, on the far northeast cost of Maine, proved both rules….
