Search Results for: travel writing

With passion and wit, Bernard Levin describes his travels on foot through the beautiful countryside of south-eastern France. He follows in the mighty footsteps of the great Carthaginian enemy of Rome, Hannibal, who made the expedition with an army and elephants nearly two millennia before.

From the Camargue via the Rhône Valley, across the Alps and into Italy during August snowstorms, he comments on the social and historical importance of the landscapes he passes through, taking detours to the table of chef Jacques Pic at Valence and the Arles region immortalised by Van Gogh. The journey would not have been complete without enjoying the hospitality of the Moussets – the fifth generation of their family to produce wine at Châteauneuf-du-Pape, before turning eastwards, to face the greater challenge of the Alps.

Hugo Soskin, son of best-selling author on Rennes-le-Chateau Henry Lincoln, has no time for the French Pyrenean village and its mysteries. He is fed up with the whole subject of how a nineteenth-century priest came to be a millionaire overnight and why he built so many bizarre clues into his church and his home. But when he and his wife decide to drive an old camper van to Spain to start a new life, they can’t resist a tiny peek en route at the village that enthralls and captivates so many. After agreeing to work on a nearby campsite for a season, Soskin starts to absorb the culture and rhythms of life in south-west France, where working in the shadow of Rennes-le-Chateau exposes him to loony treasure hunters and conspiracy theorists, all of whom assume he has inside knowledge that could help them crack the mystery and find the hidden gold. If this isn’t bad enough, Soskin’s father arrives accompanied by a group of fanatical ‘Rennies’, including the punk rocker ‘Rat Scabies’, needing his assistance in touring places of interest and wanting to know Soskin’s own theory about the mysteries of Rennes-le-Chateau: surely he knows more than he is telling? Will he reveal all?

There is a moment every morning when the countryside takes a pause. The birds stop singing, the dogs choke back their barks, and cats pause mid-stride. Everything waits. It’s in this vacuum that a man working alone has the best chance of finding truffles. The plot of land was perfect, just what they’d been looking for, offering expansive views across the valley and within walking distance of the local village. There was only one small problem, there was no house. And yet the land was affordable and came, the agent promised, with a possible income from a copse of truffle oaks. Just after the birth of their first daughter, after leaving the London rat race behind, here was a chance for Jamie and his wife to finally realise their dream of owning a property. With one final salivating glance at the oak trees the decision was made. All they needed now was a dog. And their quest to find and train a truffle dog turns out to be as full of hidden discoveries as a truffle hunt itself.

With delicious humour and superb storytelling, Ten Trees and a Truffle Dog is sure to delight anyone who loves dogs, food and rural France.

‘Brussels and all those Eurocrats on the gravy train? It’s just so boring. Why, you can’t even name ten famous Belgians!’

Until 1993, Alec had never been to Belgium, so it came as some surprise when in August that year he found himself at the altar of a small church in Flanders, reciting wedding vows in Flemish. It was the start, for better or for worse, of a long relationship with this unassuming and much maligned little country.

As he ordered yet another pint of Stella, it dawned on him that perhaps it was time to immerse himself in Belgian culture, especially when there were over a hundred locally produced beers on the menu. He vowed to put worldwide opinion to the test: just how boring can Belgium be?

It would have been churlish to have refused his invitation to accompany him on
a trip to ‘forage for hidden treasures’. If the truth be known, I secretly couldn’t resist the novelty of passing time with a bloke called Serge Bastarde.

When John decamps to France to start up as an antiques dealer, he doesn’t count on meeting Serge Bastarde. The lovable rogue and brocanteur offers to teach John the tricks of the trade in return for help in a series of unscrupulous schemes. As the pair trawl through markets and farmhouses, they con hearty lunches from old peasants and get into scrapes with priceless collectibles. Filled with eccentric characters and unlikely adventures, this is a hilarious romp through the real rural France.

‘It had been so amazingly hot that I felt myself about to dissolve into a kind of crème brûlée on the road, so I bought some super-power Number 8 suncream. This had the word ‘Bronzante’ on it, and must have contained some dye or other chemical because my knees stayed brown until February.’
Fed up with questions about what he was going to do when he retired, Edward decided to get on his bicycle and ride from Le Havre to the Mediterranean. Armed with a tent and a smattering of French, he struggled in Normandy to get directions from old men tipsy on Calvados by 9 a.m., and hit his stride on the towpath of the Burgundy canal. He explored the mystery of what an ouvrier eats for lunch, and was barred from a swimming pool because his trunks were too decent.
Through the Rhône and down to Provence and the Camargue, Enfield is witty and informative as always.
Edward Enfield lives in Sussex with his wife and writes regularly for The Oldie magazine.

When Samantha Brick’s life started to unravel – her company in liquidation, homeless, penniless and friendless, and on max-strength anti-depressants – it seemed that everything was going wrong. But a chance week away in France led to the most unexpected of all turn-arounds: a whirlwind romance with gun-toting, stubborn and ever-so-macho Pascal. It wasn’t until she moved in to his cottage in the beautiful Lot region in south-west France that she realised how shamefully ill-equipped she was for the country life.

Like Cinderella in reverse, Samantha had to learn to cook, clean, chop wood and keep house, as well as discovering how to be a step-mum to Pascal’s know-it-all ten-year-old son, finding love and happiness along the way.

The woman was one of those irritating expat types who felt she owed it to the world to impart on her all her superior knowledge of life in France. I realised that if I didn’t stop her now, she’d be bending my ear all the way to Bergerac.

‘Actually,’ I said, leaning in toward the woman, ‘I’m planning to integrate my way into the boxers of the first good-looking Frenchman I see. Can’t think of any better way to learn the language myself. You wouldn’t happen to know the French for “fancy a shag?” would you? Voulez-vous coucher avec moi just seems a bit nineteen-seventies these days.’

After one particularly bad day at work, advertising executive and confirmed city girl Melanie Jones decides to give up her old life in search of something new and simpler in South West France. With little knowledge of the country, even less of the language and just the memory of a disastrous school French exchange and a few day trips to Calais, she embarks on her adventure with a suitcase full of optimism and not a little bit of naivety. After all, how different can life in France be?

After a series of adventures with skirt-ripping tractors, handsome twin farmers, celebrity not-quite-beens, unusual toilets and a bonkers ex-pat community, all topped up, of course, with lashings of rosé, Melanie begins to discover that her new life in France isn’t quite what she’d thought it would be.

After six years in the idyllic Loire Valley, comedian Ian Moore, his family and his ever-expanding menagerie are beginning to feel like they’re on the cusp of the peace and tranquillity they hoped for when they moved from dreary Crawley to la belle France. Their grand project, a writing school called Les Champs Créatifs, is finally complete – only,
nobody’s signed up.

Natalie and the boys must contend with the ever-colourful locals, including a Sicilian faith healer, threatening hunters and the ‘Christmas Pudding Man’, and Ian must test his mod mettle against two new additions to the animal family – a pair of disappearing goats. With stresses, strains and animal poo mounting up la famille Moore have their work cut out – but they’re determined to give it their best shot!

How much land is there altogether?’ I asked. ‘About thirteen acres,’ said the estate agent. ‘Whatever would you do with that much land? It’s an awful lot to upkeep.’ I grinned. No problem! ‘I’d keep llamas and fly balloons!’

A dilapidated, rat-infested stone barn might not be many people’s vision of a potential dream home. But for Richard and Al, the cavernous, oak-beamed building in a sleepy hamlet in the Limousin region of France is perfect.

Tussles with French bureaucracy and fierce storms do little to dampen their resolve as they immerse themselves in this quiet corner of France. Told by a well-intentioned if often hapless do-it-yourselfer, Richard’s hilarious and heartwarming tale of a new life in France resounds to the Gallic refrain, ‘Bon courage!’

When Elizabeth Bard followed a handsome Frenchman up the spiral staircase to a love nest in the heart of Paris, they thought they had found their perfect home.
But life had other ideas. Falling in love with a quirky house full of history on a last romantic jaunt before the birth of their first child, Elizabeth and Gwendal decide to move – lock, stock and Le Creuset – to the French countryside; a land of blue skies, lavender fields and peaches that taste like sunshine.
Part memoir, part chocolate-smudged family cookbook, Picnic in Provence is about everything that happens after the happily ever after, and reminds us that life, in and out of the kitchen, is a rendezvous with the unexpected.

Has a meal ever changed your life? Part love story, part wine-splattered cookbook, Lunch in Paris is a deliciously tart, forthright and funny story of falling in love with a Frenchman and moving to the world’s most romantic city – not the Hollywood version, but the real Paris, a heady mix of blood sausage, pains aux chocolats and irregular verbs. From gutting her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen) to discovering the French version of Death by Chocolate, Elizabeth Bard finds that learning to cook and building a new life have a lot in common. Peppered with recipes, this mouth-watering love story is the perfect treat for anyone who has ever suspected that lunch in Paris could change their life.

Follow the hilarious misadventures of Ian Moore and his family as their search for serenity in rural France leads them on a journey of chaos, commotion and comedy

Comedian, mod and professional grump Ian Moore has had enough. Tired of being unable to park anywhere near his cramped house in a noisy town he doesn’t like, he hatches a plan to move his wife and young son to a remote corner of the Loire Valley in search of serenity and space.

Several years later, Ian finds himself up to his neck in bilingual offspring, feral cats, promiscuous horses, dysfunctional spaniels and needy hens; he’s wrestling with electric fences, a foreign language, a mountain of animal waste and a wife who collects livestock like there’s a biblical flood on the horizon, all while trying not to dirty his pristine loafers.

But despite the ups, downs and increasing demands of Ian’s showbiz career, the Moore family persevere in true Brit style to create a unique, colourful and ultimately rewarding life in their new home – à la campagne!

Sam and Bud were ordinary first-time homebuyers in their early thirties. Their intention, in moving to France, was to create a simple life in a place where they could spend time with their children. The home they actually bought was a 17th century chateau in the Loire valley with over thirty rooms.

Chateau Du Bonchamps had been the seat of noble families as far back as 1507. With only modest savings, Sam and Bud launched the exciting project of restoring this extraordinary building to its former glory. Over several years they renovated 10,000 square feet of house, installed countless bathrooms, painted 156 windows, put the 40-acre park and gardens into some semblance of order and started a bed and breakfast against resistance from the locals. Their hard work prevailed; their chateau quadrupled in value.

The things we dream do not always fit nicely with the realities of everyday life. This is an insightful glimpse of what it truly means to leave everything behind to pursue a dream.