Great Stones

After lounging around in France for a few days I’m working off the pastis and wine by walking from Swindon to Salisbury. It’s about thirty-six miles so splits nicely into a three day hike.

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Daydream Believer

Do you look at the Property section and fantasise about buying a second home? Do you want to live the dream: lunch by the pool, sundowners on the terrace, open fires in winter (hellish hangovers in the morning)? Somewhere that has more sunshine than the UK, a beautiful location, an old building with original features.… Continue reading Daydream Believer

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Three in a Canoe

In museums I find that I’m often looking at the exhibits through a prism of my family history. There was no question of this today.

Animal Art

This morning’s entertainment was to go to a complex of limestone caves. There is an electric train which carried us a kilometre into the hillside.

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Un Déjeuner Sérieux

This week I’m a guest in an old farmhouse rented by friends. It’s in the Dordogne, favoured destination for the English since the 14th century when for a time it was under English rule. My first visit to this part of France. The country is more heavily wooded than the Gers and the contours much… Continue reading Un Déjeuner Sérieux

Train Trip

The summer solstice is a day early this Leap Year. In London today (that’s today Me Time, yesterday You Time) dawn broke with leaden skies dumping loads of rain on the city.

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News for Lycra Lovers

If you have not visited London for a while you will notice at least one change next time you come. Dedicated cycle lanes are being constructed to encourage people to cycle and to make them safer. They are painted blue. I wonder why, and if they may be re-painted in red by the new Mayor… Continue reading News for Lycra Lovers

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Travelling Back in Time

  The London tube map no longer has Heathrow Terminal 1. I was surprised as I’d forgotten that it closed last June. From 1968 – 1972 I used it at least six times a year, so remember it pretty well in its early days; it opened in 1968.

Big Bang Theory

I enjoyed sounding the gong to announce meals at Barmeath in my childhood. Under my grandmother’s instruction my technique improved from loud bashing (think Top Cat summoning the gang) to a subtler, gradually increasing crescendo, beating around the edge of the gong, culminating in a final stroke, fortissimo, to the centre.

A Marshal of France

The Gers countryside rolls attractively, when seen from a car. On foot the hills seem steeper and it took two hours to walk to Lectoure.