Category: Off The Beaten Track
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Hiking At The Col De La Cayolle, France
Hiking the Cayolle Pass in the South of France You may remember last week that I told you all about a quest we went on to find the source of the Var River. The day after discovering the tiny puddle that the big river stems from, we decided to go for a glorious…
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Chocolate Eating In Turin, Italy
My favourite chocolate maker in Turin When you’re in Turin, one of the things you should absolutely do after (or during) drinking coffee and wandering around the streets marveling at the architecture, is stop in at a chocolate shop to sample one or two (or MORE) of their chocolates. Turin is famous for its chocolate, and especially…
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Snow-Shoeing In The Susa Valley, Italy
Snow-shoeing, appendicitis, and roundabouts So, decadently holidaying and snowshoeing wasn’t actually where I was last week. This was a little jaunt I went on about a month ago at the same time I was watching other people ski while drinking a Bombardino or two. Last week I was actually in hospital with my eldest…
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Turin Lights Up The Night For Christmas
It’s Christmas Time! Christmas is come and gone but the lights linger on. Every year in Turin from the beginning of November to mid-January they hold the Luci d’Artista (Artist’s Lights). They’re really spectacular! Every year in Turin, Italy, they ask different artists to decorate various streets and squares in the centre of the city…
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New Zealand Life: The Farm
This post is very different from my normal ones. It’s not a recipe, and it’s not about traveling or hiking. This one is more personal. I grew up on a sheep farm in the Northern part of the North Island of New Zealand. To get there, you turn inland at a town called…
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The Mercantour: Hiking To The Refuge De Nice
In the Summer we do an annual pilgrimage to the Mercantour National Park which straddles the border between France and Italy. If you click on these links and you can read about our adventure with army jeeps and cows that blocked bridges, and about the time we went to Allos Lake high in the mountains and…
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The Drôme: Exploring The Magical Saoù Forest
Hiking In The Drôme As promised, here is Part III of the fabulous trip we took to The Drôme recently! To catch up on the previous ravings about the area, you can click on these links to read about the villages we visited and the wine festival we bumped into while we were there.…
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The Drôme: On The Clairette Trail
Discovering the bubbly beauty of Clairette wine Last week I introduced you to an incredible area of France called The Drôme. If you missed it, you can read all about it here. When we were there, we discovered a wonderfully bubbly wine called Clairette that’s produced in the region. I’d never heard of…
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Discovering The Drôme, France
Where in France is The Drome? There was yet another long weekend in France last weekend. They come thick and fast in the month of May; so much so that it seems that everyone is on holiday more often than they are at work or school. These are the times in which…
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Turin, Italy: A City Full of Surprises
A little wander around Turin I’m so lucky that my parents-in-law live in the wonderful North-West Italian city of Turin. OK, I would like them just as much if they lived in some tiny village next to a coal-mine, but it’s definitely an advantage that they come from such a beautiful place! We…
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The Cote d’Azur: Secret Ruins in The Forest
Notre Dame Du Brusc Chapel Follow a narrow, winding road, crowded at the edges with trees jostling for space, and you will discover the ruins of an ancient chapel, squatting quietly in a forest clearing near the perched village of Châteauneuf-de-Grasse. The stony hills behind the bustling Cote d’Azur hide many unexpected discoveries…
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Sauze d’Oulx, Italy: On The Road To Hell
Fresh air is the best medicine Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a break of some kind over the holiday period and that the whole food/drink excess phenomenon that often happens at this time of the year didn’t make you feel too bad. Just incase, this week there’s going to…
