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We restored a huge old house in France. Part 3.

The living room at Rochebonne had been split in to four rooms at some point between the two World Wars.   It had been designed as two large rooms, one a dining area and the other a living area, but we know from old papers that the dining area was never finished, presumably for lack of […]

Posted 12 years ago

We restored a huge old house in France. Part 2.

  The ground floor of the property, measuring 200 sq metres, has these ancient quarry tiles over two thirds of the floors.  Of course, because there was such a huge amount of restoration work, we ignored the floor for quite a long time, and I used to just mop it and mop it and then […]

Posted 12 years ago

We restored a huge old house in France: the history of Rochebonne

#France #Francophiles #gites #holidays #selfCatering #pool #beach THE HISTORY OF ROCHEBONNE                                             The first record of Rochebonne dates to 1658, when the property was owned by one Jean d’Arquesson, lawyer to Louis XIV, the […]

Posted 12 years ago

Join me in the rhino horn fight!

HORNS ARE REMOVED WITH A CHAIN SAW AND ANIMALS ARE LEFT TO BLEED TO DEATH.   In the case of females this often also involves the death of a calf, either born or unborn.   Demand in the far east for rhino horns, which are either used as ornaments or are ground down to a […]

Posted 12 years ago

You have no right to destroy somebody’s business

People who write reports and reviews have no idea what damage they can do.  A small business can be destroyed by a needless bad report.   People have no right to destroy somebody’s hard work. Why do people do it ? Why write something unkind ?  It happens all the time.  Reviews on hotels and […]

Posted 12 years ago

Etosha, Namibia (South West Africa)

  “Travels with a Biro”. Boy, did those animals stand around !   I had no trouble drawing them for they would just stand there for ages and ages, slowly making their way to the water holes and back again. It was the end of the dry season and everything was stunningly ugly.  Dry, brittle, brown, […]

Posted 12 years ago

Shopping Belize-style

“Travels with a Biro” Belize is a tiny country, not much bigger than Wales, nestling just under Mexico on the Caribbean coast.   It is essentially a third-world country, crawling its way up out of poverty and corruption.  It is nonetheless very beautiful and boasts some of the largest and most important conservation sites, both on […]

Posted 12 years ago

We restored a chateau in France. Part 1.

.  now let to holiday-makers, 8 bedrooms, private pool, website below The Domaine de Rochebonne, half way down the west coast of France, had been for sale for …. I think it was 19 years, when we bought it in 1995.  Funnily enough, when we drove past it the very first time my husband commented […]

Posted 13 years ago

Same-sex marriage: a couple in South Africa

“Travels with a Biro”. While we were in the botanical gardens in Cape Town earlier this year I saw (and discreetly watched) a couple of gay men and their baby.  It was comfortable and pleasant to watch – a young couple out on a warm Sunday, picnic tucked under the seat of the baby’s buggy, […]

Posted 13 years ago

Childhood memories of Christmas. Part 2.

One Christmas my parents hired a house on a beach somewhere north of Pointe Noire (Congo).  What possessed them to do this I have no idea because tourism wasn’t in fashion, or anywhere close to it, and it was a foregone conclusion that the accommodation would be extremely basic – even more basic than our […]

Posted 13 years ago

Books now available on Amazon:

A Call From France
French Sand
Kefani: An African Childhood
The Man With Green Fingers
Saying Nothing