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 […]

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 […]

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 […]