Legendary towns have legendary streets and quarters. I have never lived in New York City, but I know what everybody knows: that Madison Avenue is a by-word for the country’s (and the world’s) advertising industry, that Broadway is the home of live entertainment and that Wall Street is the place from where the gangsters operate…
Of all the combat actions and hostile encounters that together make up the Battle of the Bulge, the struggle for Bastogne in eastern Belgium is the one you are most likely to have heard about. One reason for the fame of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge is the undoubtedly great psychological importance that…
Remember the Festival des Jardins on the French Riviera and our posts about the ten contestants from Grasse to Menton? If you do, you may also remember our promise to tell you who won as soon as the standings were published. Well, today’s the day. French Riviera Garden Festival 2017 Winners! First of all, our…
The Liberation Route Europe (which follows the movement of the Allied advance through northern Europe in the latter stages of WWII) is complemented by a wide range of shorter memorial trails around towns and villages, which are often laid out as circular walks to commemorate local events. One of the most famous and interesting of…
Over the years, we have introduced you to a large variety of hiking trails: trails in the mountains, trails by the sea, trails through wild forests, trails through parkland and so on. This time, however, we are going to tell you about a trail that is still very much in the making. Liberation and Remembrance…
One of the most reliably surprising experiences of any trip to the Riviera usually happens right at the start, even before you have fully arrived. When you come by plane from northern Europe, you will be flying over the snow-capped peaks of the High Alps one moment, then you blink, and the next time you…
No long-winded openings today: there is no time to lose. Six more contestants in the French Riviera’s inaugural Festival des Jardins are waiting for our visit! (The first four are here!) First, we are going to Antibes, or – to be more precise – to Antibes’s beach resort suburb of Juan-les-Pins, where – at Pinède Plage,…
Gardens are a part of the Riviera scenery like yachts, open-top sports cars and deposed government officials from corrupt cleptocracies. Unlike the mountains and the sea, they have not always been there but have become so much part of the cultural landscape that nobody remembers or can even imagine a time when they were not….
Hikers can explore the Sussex Coastal Culture Trail from Eastbourne to Hastings – all 29 km of it – comfortably in two or, better still, in three stages. Such a longer trip ensures a better balance as otherwise, there is a risk that your Sussex Coastal Culture Trail experience will be all trail and no…
For many years, traditional seaside resorts have been in a state of crisis, but there are signs that they are springing back into recovery. There is life in the old dog yet. The glory days of old-style seaside resorts – in Italy and France but particularly in the UK – was a time when nearly…