Apologies to everyone who already knows me as a Jean de Florette bore, but it’s true to say that I’ve been prattling on about wanting to Go Walking in the Provence Hills since the tender age of 16, ever since I saw the heart-wrenching Pagnol tale at the cinema circa 1987. OK, so I think […]
I was adamant. She knew this because my adamant face is entirely different to my habitual amenable face. She had successfully dodged my bucket-list holiday for years, but as the brochure on the coffee table was slid into her peripheral vision, she began to smell – figuratively speaking – a rat. I had found the […]
The last time I was met by The Rep on holiday, an 18-year-old with a bun and a blazer force-fed me sangria hopeful that the volume consumed would be proportionate to the number of excursions I succumbed to. Happily, this time I’m not on the Costas and I’m with Headwater – clearly an ethos with […]
In the various houses in which my parents have lived in my lifetime, one particular picture, alongside another framed favourite, has always been given pole position in their most convivial room. Renoir’s La Balançoire, a humble exhibition print, was purchased as a souvenir back in ’82, on our first family holiday to France. Something about […]
