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Aberystwyth: An Unexpected Pleasure.

Nov 18, 2018 by scribbling4bread

Off to Aberystwyth to visit a relative, not seen for some time. Not fans of seaside towns, if we expected anything at all, we expected it to be dull, miserable, grey and wet. Instead it’s charming, uplifting, pretty, a lovely place to live. How wonderful when you find that your expectations were too low.

Montrichard: Val de Loire

Nov 10, 2018 by scribbling4bread

Looming over the town of MonTrichard (the T is sounded) is the impressive donjon which has dominated the countryside for miles around for the last thousand years. We assumed ‘donjon’ meant dungeon, a prison down in the bowels of the earth but no, the French use dungeon too. Donjon means the exact opposite, architecturally speaking. It’s what we call a Keep, a large tower built in fortified residences, a place of last resort should the rest of the castle fall.

Romorantin

Oct 6, 2018 by scribbling4bread

The best part of writing a book is the research. It takes you on a journey of discovery to places you would never have heard of and therefore would never have seen. A good case in point is Romorantin in France. Researching for Leonardo da Vinci: The Amboise Connection I found out that once […]

CHÂTEAU LANGEAIS

Aug 18, 2018 by scribbling4bread

Every Château in the Loire Valley has its own unique attraction – or – in the case of Langeais – attractions. Visitors go, in the main, to see where a secret marriage took place between Charles, the twenty-one year old King of France and Anne, the fourteen year old Duchess of Brittany. Like so many […]

Prestal: HISTORY BELOW OUR FEET.

Jun 24, 2018 by scribbling4bread

Just down the road from Amboise Station, next door to Aldi, is a fine old factory with fine old gates. In the forecourt are fine old machines which, when built, were things of engineering beauty, with age are works of art.

Beauval Zoo (3-3) Mme Françoise Delord

Sep 14, 2017 by scribbling4bread

Something very remarkable has happened since our last visit. On the 4th August 2017 Huan Huan became the proud mother of the first panda born in France. Bald, blind and very pink, he weighed in at just four ounces. His parents, who have been happily munching bamboo in Beauval for the last seven years, are […]

Beauval Zoo (2-3) Why We Must Not Shut The Zoo Gates.

Jul 16, 2017 by scribbling4bread

In March 2017, the journalist Ian Birrell wrote a piece for the ‘i’ newspaper: Why We Must Shut the Zoo Gates. It’s his view, he’s entitled, but one he might change if he went to Beauval Zoo in France, a beautiful seventy acre park for animals which humans are allowed to share. Mr Birrell asked […]

Gare de Tours France

Jul 5, 2017 by scribbling4bread

The Gare de Tours is quite simply wonderful. It was built between 1896 and 1898 during what is now known nostalgically as La Belle Époque, a time of peace and prosperity when France was the cultural centre of the world.

Loches.

May 6, 2017 by scribbling4bread

The Loire Valley has many common or garden châteaux but Loches is a Royal Château which means it was owned and lived in by French Royalty. One of the most important, historically speaking, in France, it still has the feel of what it was, a mighty fortress.

French Gems at The British Museum

Feb 1, 2017 by scribbling4bread

Fans of all things French (well, maybe not all) we trotted off to the British Museum to see the Exhibition French Portrait Drawings from Clouet to Courbet. The publicity promised it would be full of gems from the Museum’s collection and did not disappoint (France must be gnashing its teeth). Added Bonus: Because the Museum owns copyright we were allowed to take photographs. A rare treat.