The Europe trip this year is already receding into history. Which is why I write the blogs. The blogs don’t cover everything. They can’t. They catch the places, the moments, the things we thought worth writing down at the time. But step back from the detail, and something else starts to emerge, the impressions that…
On the 25th April every year Australians and New Zealanders take the time to remember the men, women, and animals who have served in the wars in which Australia was a participant. On that day in 1915 the Anzacs (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) took part in the attack on the Dardanelles in…
In a way, the effects of the current tensions with Iran and the ensuing oil crisis should be an object lesson for those who insist our economy can simply run on renewable energy. To those down the back, it won’t work. Not yet. Our entire Western economy still runs on the assumption that fossil fuels…
Choir at the chapel After a full day sailing, we stepped off the boat in Lyon and into something completely unexpected, a concert in a chapel that no longer serves a religious purpose. It’s still very much a chapel, though. The moment you walk in, you feel it. High domed ceiling, stone and marble everywhere,…
From Avignon we cruised down to the Provençal port of Arles. It’s famous for two things, its Roman past, which is still very much on display, and Vincent van Gogh. Being Dutch, I can pronounce his name properly, which is more than can be said for most people on the tour. Roman times Arles began…
Peter and I had been to the lovely little town of Viviers before, back in the Days of Covid. We were on a river trip that went up the Seine to Normandy and back to Paris, where we caught a train to Lyon for a cruise on the Rhône . We’re fairly sure we picked…
We visited the Pont du Gard on a clear, bright afternoon that the Mistral turned absolutely freezing. The sun looked inviting, but the wind had other ideas, driving hard and cold down the valley carved by the Gard River. It’s an astonishing sight. Three tiers of arches stacked one on top of the other, span…
Avignon is one of the many cities along the Rhône that began life as a Roman settlement. The Romans knew a good spot when they saw one, and the river was a major highway through Gaul. But Avignon’s real claim to fame came much later, in the Middle Ages, when things in the Church went…
Chateau Neuf du Pape would have to be one of the famous vineyard areas in France – and we were off the ship at Avignon for a visit and tasting. The young man who conducted the tour dazzled us with data about terroir (soil, climate, human interference) and things called Cru. Me, I’m a philistine….
We visited Tournon back in the days of covid, where we conducted our own tour of the town. That time we parked on the Tain-l’Hermitage side of the river. It was a lot warmer that day than today. Tournon itself has been important for centuries. It grew up as a fortified town on the right…