Verona’s Castelvecchio
Verona’s Castlevecchio, captivates you as soon as you enter the city. It was originally a castle ~ Castle of San Martino ~ and is now an incredible museum. It is home to a stunning collection of Christian art work dating …
Letters to Guilietta, in Verona, Italy
When you wake up in one of the most romantic cities in the world, despite a sky full of ‘tears’ you heart can only over flow when you look at a view like this from your bedroom window. Heartened by …
‘A Good Year’ near Bonnieux, Provence
There are some films that you just watch over and over. Almost every visitor that stays with us wants to visit Château La Canorgue, the organic father and daughter winery, just up the ‘hill’, tucked within the shadows of the …
Returning to my beautiful Uzès
Uzès, the charming town where I was fortunate enough to spend 4 treasured months in 2012. This vibrant, Duché d’Uzès, the oldest remaining Duchy in France, dating from 1572, steeped in a rich history, was as special as I had remembered it. …
Early springtime by the Mediterranean in Bandol
The quaint fishing town of Bandol, nestled within the embrace of a sweeping Mediterranean bay, a mere 80 minutes drive from Lourmarin and yet a world away for my sleepy little spot in the Luberon. Bustling on a market day …
Streets of Lourmarin in February
February, still winter, but under a brilliant, clear blue Provencal sky one is easily fooled into believing that the promise of spring is closer than perhaps it is. As I meandered Lourmarin’s tall, narrow streets, looking up at that deep cornflower …
Snow in Provence
When one thinks of Provence, the images that come to mind are those of summer. Sunflowers, lavender, olive trees, markets with brightly coloured table cloths blowing in the breeze, cobbled streets, shutters and vineyards. Whilst many of these things are …
Shutters of Provence
There was a reason that I called my ramblings ‘Shutters and Sunflowers’. On a morning amble around the Saturday market in nearby Apt, that reason resonated from every building in sight. It seemed that the architecture everywhere was adorned with …
San Francisco, the City by the Bay
Is it really surprising that, San Francisco, this beautiful, much loved, much visited, much photographed city is a world destination? Its stunning Bayside location, The Golden Gate Bridge, The Palace of Fine Arts, Alcatraz, Lombard Street and the cable cars …
‘Provence’ in California
‘Provence’ in California? After a ten hour plane journey how can it seem like you had never left, shouldn’t you be somewhere vastly different? Although there are obvious immense variances between Provence, where I had departed from and northern California, my destination, …