French Riviera Garden Festival: And the Winner Is …
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French Riviera Garden Festival: And the Winner Is …

Yes, all will be revealed today, but first, we must complete our tour around the Festival’s host towns and take a close look at the remaining six competition entries. For the first batch of the gardens, see last week’s post where you can also find some more details about this year’s French Riviera Garden Festival….

Back to Hiking – and the Red Rocks of the Riviera
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Back to Hiking – and the Red Rocks of the Riviera

Doing something again for the first time after a long and painful break tastes sweet, nearly as sweet as the first kiss that you are receiving from That Special Person In Your Life after a long period of separation. It is therefore only right and proper to treat such sweet returns to the habits and…

Back to Lockdown in Europe

Back to Lockdown in Europe

So it’s back to lockdown in Europe again, or to “reconfinement” as the French say with their cruel sense of precision and aversion to euphemisms. Not all countries have – like France – already gone back to a full regime of curfews and isolation, but most look sure to follow. We are currently in Sicily,…

Ubac Foran: Far From the Mediterranean’s Madding Crowds
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Ubac Foran: Far From the Mediterranean’s Madding Crowds

Travelling, in some ways, is a lot like learning. Done properly, they are lifelong preoccupations. You cannot acquire all the experiences that can be made out there any more than you can find out everything there is to know. And what is more: the mere attempt is a fool’s errand. Much better to paraphrase Socrates:…

Grenoble: Surviving in the Land of Ice and Snow
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Grenoble: Surviving in the Land of Ice and Snow

Grenoble is the great survivor among French cities. Founded 2000 years ago as a small Gallic settlement around a bridge across the river Isére and relatively difficult to access to this very day (being surrounded by mountains on three sides), it learned to prosper and grow in size and importance by betting on the right…

Grenoble: The Alps for Beginners
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Grenoble: The Alps for Beginners

The High Alps are the best the European countryside has to offer. They are one of Europe’s last genuine wildernesses, bearing only the lightest touch of human hands, majestic and of a sublime beauty. But as always with great beauty, there is a catch. The Alps are not just playing hard to get, they actually are. Hikes on…