A unique and historic part of the world-famous cycle race in rural Gascony that remains something of a secret, even to many people in France.
Category: France
Tears in a Vacant Country
A concert in a dusty village, in the middle of the vacant countryside, by one World Music’s most renowned singers. You don’t need to understand the words. You just listen with your heart.
Grand Garden Châteaux
When it comes to architecture, both indoors and out, the French seem to have perfected “grand”. And nowhere is this more evident than in French châteaux. They’re thick on the ground in the Loire Valley, and once came with plenty of serfs. But these days if you want to pay the bills, you need to carve out your market niche.
The Triumph of Fountains
The palace and formal gardens are the glorious hors d’oeuvre. What follows down the hill are a series of forest squares surrounded by clipped beech hedges that conceal a whole host of magical wonders. Because more than anything else, Versailles is the triumph of fountains.
In Praise of the Jésuite
Nothing quite says France like the boulangerie, a great tradition that continues because of the peculiarities of the indispensable daily baguette. And as sweet tooths with attest, every boulangerie also contains its own array of what the French call viennoiserie, including if you’re very lucky the always elusive Jésuite.
The Silence of Travel & the Prodigious House
Believe it or not, I really enjoy visiting places where English isn’t used. It gives me a serenity that I almost never have back home, where even the most casual conservation can’t help but catch the ear. We say we tune out that sort of thing out, but for me it’s only when I’m in a foreign-language country that it truly disappears. The feeling is sublime, and is one of the reasons I love travel so much.