We had a little apartment for our wonderful week in Toulouse in the Saint Cyprien district on the gauche side of the Garonne river, which according to the apartment owner used to be a very poor area and is now known as ‘bo-bo’ (bourgeois-bohemium) and a ‘champagne-socialist’ area – I like the connotations of this last phrase and I would be happy to embrace a champagne-socialist society if it means […]

We fulfilled a bucket list dream that started back in 1994 when we were freshly engaged and exploring Europe in an old Mitsubishi L300 carpenters van. We were en route to take the Hurtigruten down Norway’s fjords when our van broke down and had to get towed back to London. We’ve always had a yearning to finish off that planned voyage and what better time than to celebrate our 30th […]

We spent seven days in late April house/dog sitting in a little town called Chapelle des Pots just ten minutes from the city of Saintes and loved how richly packed the Charente-Maritime region in Nouvelle-Aquitaine area is with so many historical, pretty little towns. Here are some of the highlights. The Charente-Maritime area Saintes sits in the north of the Nouvelle Aquitane region (the largest region in France) about 90 minutes […]