Tag: lifestyle
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Sur Le Pont D’Avignon
I’ve wanted to go to the Palais des Papes in Avignon since I read Charles Dickens’ travelogue about visiting it on a cold winter’s day, with his wife and children, before repacking them all into carriage and horses to continue to Genoa. We tried once ages ago, our teenage children with us, in blistering August…
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We go open-cast mining in Rio Marina, Elba
There are over 250 minerals in Elba’s mountains. The island has been mined from the Etruscans to the Tuscans and we’re heading to the mineral park in Rio Marina to learn about the practicalities of extracting them. But this must wait as we wind our way around the main road, because we’ve just got to…
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Elba – A Jewel Venus Scattered into the Tyrrhenian Sea
As the ferry sails towards Elba, I cannot detach Seán from his App that tells him the names of the romantic, volcanic islands. Excited as a boy, he points out what he thinks is Pianosa, which we later discover is called the island of silence; then Capraia, island of goats; Montecristo, setting of Dumas’ tale…
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Dieppe to Elba – Proof that the journey is sometimes as good as the destination
I don’t expect our journey to Elba to be anything special, apart from the visit to my old school pal, Pina, in the Aosta Valley, which is always wonderful, as we’re setting off on 1st October’s low season. But our very first stop at Camping Châlons-en-Champagne is a musical surprise. We spend a little time…
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Brittany and Decompressing in Damgan, Stepping into the Past in St. Malo
Brittany extends a relaxed welcome to us as we appear in Damgan, positioned in the Gulf of Morbihan natural park. Camping Célimène squeezes us in for three days, even though we have to move pitch each day, one bijoux pitch next to the recycling and one on top of the children’s playground. But so many…
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Gascony’s Aire-sur-L’Adour to Charente Maritime’s Fouras-les-Bains
Weaving down through the Pyrenees from the Somport Tunnel is stunning, under cliffs and through gorges, vultures swooping above and the rushing River Gave d’Aspe. When the mountains give way to rolling hills and fertile fields, the vineyards appear. We stop in Aire-sur-L’Adour’s Camping Les Ombrage de L’Adour, beside the lazy, green river, the ancient…
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Villeneuve-lès-Béziers – Cycling the Canal du Midi to the Mediterranean and an Ornithologist’s Dream
We arrive at Camping Les Berges du Canal, and it does just what its name says, the canal with its green waters, barges and rampant wildflowers runs right outside it. The banks are lined with plane trees. Béziers lies 5 kilometres along the cycle track, and its cathedral comes highly recommended so why do I…
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Dorset – Abbotsbury’s Swannery, South West Coastal Path and Sub-tropical Gardens
I scoot across to Portesham’s farm shop and café from the campsite. It serves good bread, British cheeses, vegetables without a piece of plastic in sight, along with the kind of incongruous nick-nacks that are endemic in all farm shops – cow mugs, primrose and poppy tea towels. After stocking up, we’re off on the…
Campervan Therapy 