Blog

Snippets of French history: Paul Gauguin: the artist in a nutshell.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was born to a young French journalist and a part-Peruvian lady from an influencial family.  The family, along with Gauguin’s older sister, moved to Peru when Gauguin was a baby, but his father died en route, leaving the young family destitute till they were taken in by an uncle in Lima.  They […]

When you should and when you should not write or read reviews.

When you should and when you should not read or write reviews. The reviews system evolved during the 1970s and 80s when hordes of British tourists flocked to the south of Spain for cheap package holidays.  Some of the deals were too good to be true – and that was precisely the problem: they were […]

Today’s sketches. Wildlife.

Part 12. Caravan trip in to Greece.

Greece appeared suddenly. Lord knows, the broken road over the Albanian mountains had gone on and on hour after hour, and taken (as is always the case) longer than expected.  The car was thick with stone dust, as indeed was the caravan, and I felt that all my teeth had been rattled out of my […]

Part 11: caravan trip through Albania to Greece.

Progress through the mountains was slow.  The tortuous bends kept us alert and the breathtakingly lovely views kept us mesmerized.  The disgusting quantities of litter we had seen in the north of the country were not in evidence here, mostly because of lack of people I expect.  At the start of the uphill climb we […]

Louis XIV, the Sun King. Snippets of French history.

  The Dauphin, Louis, as a small child.  The French word “dauphin” translates more-or-less as “heir presumptive” Louis XIV of France (1638 – 1715) is such an interesting character and there is such a lot of clear documentation on him, it is difficult to condense it all in to a nutshell in my usual way. […]

Part 9: Caravan trip to Montenegro and Albania

lake near Vrangina, Montenegro From Dubrovnik we followed the coastal road (the E80) down to a place called Igalo, where we crossed the border in to Montenegro.  The sun, ever loyal, came too, blasting through the windscreen and telling us it was high time we gave the car a good wash.  To our right the […]

The Nazi Bunker in La Rochelle, France

The U-boat bunkers in La Rochelle – (and all along the coast line here) have been known about since the WWII, but a “domestic” bunker has recently been found underneath an hotel in the centre of La Rochelle, close to the market.  It was discovered while the owners of the building started excavations with a […]

Part 8. The English in France: Mostar and Sarajevo.

  Another of several attempts to draw George.  He was getting really old and thin and his eye-lids drooped.  All he wanted in life was to sit at Bruce’s feet, have his ears tickled and sometimes a bit of food.  He liked raw minced beef and cooked chicken breast, but it became difficult to persuade […]

Part 7. The English in France. Getting to know Dubrovnik.

The glorious weather that had followed us faithfully for two months now broke, and it started to rain.  In those first sleepy wakeful moments, listening to the rain pattering on the caravan roof, I felt it was a bad omen.  I looked at where Bruce usually lay and felt desolate. A taxi, somewhat unwillingly, had […]