Paris, like any major European city, never fails to surprise and delight. On a recent trip to the Musée Marmottan (which has the largest collection in the World of paintings by Claude Monet – including the painting that gave rise to the term Impressionism), I all but stumbled upon a dis-used railway line that is [...]
Brittany’s coasts with towns such as the medieval Vannes are – justifiably – extremely popular with tourists. Yet Brittany also boasts an interesting interior, replete with Brittany attractions such as beautiful churches and castles, charming towns and landscapes and locations from Arthurian legend; nevertheless, most tourists never make it here to sample some authentic Breton [...]
One of the (many) reasons I like living in Rome is the wonderful year-round climate. Still, come winter time, I do miss seeing snow – if not actually shovelling it – so I am happy to be close enough to the mountains to enjoy nice weekends skiing in Italy. One of my top Europe travel [...]
Until my family and I visited Provence’s Gorges du Verdon (Verdon Canyons), we had no idea that these were the largest gorges in Europe. We associated Provence with idyllic hilltowns, rolling landscapes and beautiful coastlines, some of the very reasons why it is renowned as one of the best places to visit in Europe. However [...]
The Montenegrins tell a story about the creation of their country. They say that after God created the Earth, he looked down in his bag which had once contained all the birds, fish, animals, plants, water and the first humans who now populated his new planet. He noticed that in the bag there were still [...]
Bob Baird is a retired police officer turned all-type-of-water paddler extraordinaire. He teaches, instructs and tests all levels of fresh or sea water canoeists and kayakers of all ages. When he has some rare free time he even goes paddling for the fun of it! Borders canoe club (BCC) is extremely fortunate to have Bob [...]
Nearly 300 km north of Stockholm you’ll run into Järvsö. Home to Järvzoo (website in Swedish). A zoo in Järvsö. See what they did there? Very creative. Despite the creative name, heading up that far north is no day trip. And if you do find yourself at the Järvzoo entrance (beautiful as it may be) [...]
The salmon net fishing season is in full swing at the estuary of the River Tweed in Berwick upon Tweed. The same process of sweep netting has been used for generations. The net is spread by the boat, called a coble. Then the fishermen on dry land pull in the net by hand. This process [...]
If you’re on a driving trip near Vienna or around the Czech and Slovak borders, I’ve got a great detour to recommend: the WWF Stork Sanctuary at Marchegg, Austria, about half an hour north-west of Bratislava. I stopped there on the advice of a friend a few years ago, without realising it’s a World Wide [...]
Turtles are a big deal on the Greek island of Zakynthos where I visit my sister every year. Zakynthos is home to the loggerhead turtle, Caretta Caretta and their nesting sites on the beaches in the bay of Laganas are protected. But there’s controversy too, in turtle-paradise and the building and development of land nearby [...]
