We arrive to stay with friends in Caplongue, a tiny village near the slightly larger village of Arvieu, both in the lovely Aveyron département of France, as the heat rises. It’s in the middle of farming country, not on the large scale we saw nearer Paris, but greener with tree lined fields and animals, especially […]
Menu Du Jour
These blog posts are like buses – none for ages and then a few together! Unless you’re waiting for a bus in Wellington, that is, when you wait for ages then… nothing. Petit Dejeuner – Saint-Cirq-Lapopie Another day, another incredibly pretty narrow-streeted village clinging impossibly to a hillside. There are strict rules around what you […]
In the Dordogne
Walking in the Dordogne is not as easy as we’d thought. There are many distractions and detour options – cafes, ancient monuments, more chateaux – it is hotter than we could have imagined, and the route is not always obvious. We expected heat but France is experiencing a particularly good summer – fine if we […]
Lascaux
A place as special as this deserves its own post. When we planned our trip and decided to do some walking in le Dordogne I was sold on this itinerary because on one day we would walk past Lascaux IV, the replica of the most sophisticated prehistoric art ever found. I first read about it […]
Recueillez-vous
In 1944 on 10th June, the tiny village of Oradour-sur-Glane was destroyed by the Nazis and its inhabitants, all 642 of them, massacred. No specific reason is known. General de Gaulle decreed that the village should remain as it was at the end of that day in order to bear witness for the rest of […]
Chateau’d
We’ve been in hotels for a week, lovely but Internet has been either slow or dead slow so impossible to load up a post. We’re now back on line so a few coming your way. Our arrival in Blois, a town (or small city – I’m not sure how the French define a city) on […]
Lost In France
The words of Bonnie Tyler are ringing around my head: I’m lost in France. It was an inauspicious start – we thought Heathrow was the worst airport in the world but, arriving at Charles de Gaulle, we may have to revise our opinion. The queue for passport control stretches practically to Heathrow. Fortunately we remember […]
Singapore: Country of Contrasts
At the entrance to the Sri Srinivasa temple I hesitate. My dress covers my shoulders and reaches almost to my knees but I’m still not sure. I’m not a religious person but I absolutely respect anyone else’s choice to be so and I’d be mortified if I offended them by entering their holy placed inappropriately […]
Happy Birthday Mum
It would have been my mum’s birthday last week. It’s over a decade since she left us – sometimes it feels like she’s been gone forever, sometimes it feels painfully close. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not weeping into my tea or tearing my clothes or anything, it’s just that I often see something that […]
Timber Trail
The Timber Trail – 85km of traffic free cycle track through a mix of virgin and regenerating forest in the middle of the north island. Following old logging tramways and bulldozer haul roads through the Pureora Forest Park, it gives access to some of New Zealand’s most remote and beautiful terrain, crossing 35 bridges, eight […]
Tracy Annenberg 