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The best views of Paris?
It’s hard to ignore the Tour Montparnasse. This 210 metre high skyscraper dominates the skyline on the southern fringes of central Paris. Its monolithic appearance has often been criticised as incongruous or inappropriate for this proudly elegant city.
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Gallery: a street artist at work in Paris
We only occasionally get the chance to watch a street artist at work. Somehow these works of art seem to appear almost magically on our streets, created perhaps overnight while we sleep? Some of course take many hours, even days, to complete. But others are much simpler and while they may have less impact still brighten our day.
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Gallery: getting from A to B
How many different kinds of transportation can you think of? The obvious include bikes, cars, planes, trains, boats. Of course our own two feet are a means of transport. Then there are the animals pressed into service such as horses, camels and donkeys. All over the world people make different transport choices depending on local customs and resources.
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Gallery: should I stay or should I go?
One thing I learned during the pandemic was that it is possible to have a good time holidaying in my own country. With travel abroad impossible we turned to UK options and managed to have several lovely short trips in the spaces between lockdowns. And of course like everyone, we explored our immediate area more thoroughly than in the past, seeking out places we’d never previously visited or finding new surprises in old haunts.
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Gallery: an August selection
Although August has been hot, mostly sunny and very dry, I can already sense that summer is closer to its end than its beginning. The lights are going on earlier each evening. The warmth of the sun is tempered by a cooling breeze. And a few showers, and one day of steady rain, have started to re-green the weary grass in our parks.
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Postcard from Paris: le Metro
A year ago we were in Paris, on our first trip abroad since the pandemic had started. It felt strange, but good, to be travelling again after almost two years.
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Gallery: meet me on the corner
There is something about the idea of a corner. Who knows what might be around it? Whether on a city street or a quiet country lane, there is a sense of anticipation about what might be revealed.
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Gallery: pick a word (August)
Thomas Jefferson said, 'The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.' This is a maxim I would do well to follow, but I too rarely succeed in doing so.
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A stroll around Fountains Abbey
In 1132 a small group of monks left their Benedictine Monastery in York, fed up with the extravagant and rowdy lifestyle of the monks there. Seeking a more devout and simple way of life, they were granted a parcel of land by the River Skell where they built a small wooden church and applied, successfully, to join the Cistercian order.
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Radical Horizons: the Art of Burning Man at Chatsworth
Burning Man is a unique event that takes place every year in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA. But we are not in the deserts of Nevada; we are among the green hills of England’s Peak District.
