Tag: Europe

France., Uncategorized

Rediscovering Peace: Embracing Tranquility in Rural Normandy.

How will you cope??????? No tango! No coffee houses!  We are in rural Normandy.  About as rural as it gets. A handful of houses. A church. A tiny little Mairie. If someone passes the house it’s an event.  In the city, everything distracts. But in the country? Listen. Nothing. Only your heart * It’s bliss. This house sheltered us during Covid. We spent eighteen months … Continue reading Rediscovering Peace: Embracing Tranquility in Rural Normandy.

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France., Housesitting, Uncategorized

Still in a French Country Idyll.

An everyday Paradise.  We’re surrounded by fields and woods, sky and space. There is a house next door and we can put out a hand and touch their barn, but we hardly ever see them. We hear their cockerel crowing, and see their sheep grazing. But there is nothing to intrude upon our feeling of being little lords of the manor.  We are here to … Continue reading Still in a French Country Idyll.

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Europe, Food, France., Travel, Uncategorized

Cassoulet, not Cathars.

It rained for a lot of the month we stayed near Castelnaudary. It was too wet for Cathar castles, but luckily the weather never interferes with foodie plans. We were in cassoulet country. Even being mostly vegetarian couldn’t stop me. I was on a quest to find the bestest bean-and-meat-laden stew in the region of Castelnaudary – one of the towns that claim to be … Continue reading Cassoulet, not Cathars.

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England, Europe, History, Travel, walking

Perfect, Quintessential England.

‘The name’s Bond. Dennis Bond’. Mr Bond provided our rather grand lunch stop today. He constructed Grange Arch – a bizarre, Disneyfied ediface, to ‘close off the distant view’ at his country home, Creech Grange. Shame it wasn’t called Skyfall. That aside it was a perfect walk on a perfect day. We skirted around crumbling Corfe Castle, leaving it almost immediately behind and below as … Continue reading Perfect, Quintessential England.

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animals, England, Europe, History, Travel, walking

In The Footsteps of Mary Anning.

The weather forecast promised a heatwave. Blinding sunshine, blue skies and temperatures soaring beyond the twenties to the low thirties. We got mist. A white-out. And a few spots of rain. I wanted to find an ichthyosaurus, a plesiosaurus, or a scelidosaurus. We’d got bad weather under the circumstances, but what we needed was really big, bad weather. Rain coming down by the bucketful, wind, … Continue reading In The Footsteps of Mary Anning.

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Cafes, England, Europe, Food, History, Travel, walking

Dorset. Sea and Scones.

There’s a great thing about walking in the English countryside. The tea-room. All good walks should begin or end at one. At Worth Matravers, deep in Dorset, next to the duck pond on the miniscule green is the quintessential, quaint English tea-shop. Full of antiques and mismatched china, embroidered knick-knacks, sugar basins with cubed sugar and tongs, old advertising posters, – and people. We could … Continue reading Dorset. Sea and Scones.

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Europe, Food, Italy, Travel

Cosa Mangiare a Modena.

If there’s one thing that the people of Modena like more than opera music, it’s food. Enrico, our Airbnb host, left us two pieces of information – one entitled ‘cosa mangiare’ and the other a list of noteworthy restaurants. A man after my own heart. Figuring we’d diet later, we wondered through arcades and ancient streets to pretty piazzas stuffing our faces, satisfying our stomachs … Continue reading Cosa Mangiare a Modena.

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