Exploring the world, one place at a time
One of my favourite places to visit in Wales is the small market town of Hay-on-Wye. Straddling the Welsh-English border, and flanked by the River Wye and the Black Mountains, the town is best known for its many bookshops and annual literary festival, which has attracted the likes of Salman Rushdie, Jimmy Carter and Bill... Continue Reading →
The elegant capital of Béarn is the former home of the kings and queens of Navarre, and as such, boasts a rather impressive château. Needless to say, castle-lover that I am, I wasn't about to miss out on an opportunity to visit Pau during our week in Béarn. Our first port of call on arriving... Continue Reading →
With its ancient churches, numerous bookstores and fantastic shops, Poitiers is one of my favourite French cities. Its medieval centre is a delight to wander around, a maze of winding streets featuring charming timber-clad buildings and distractingly tempting food shops and cafés. When we arrived in the city, we decided to take a self-guided walking... Continue Reading →
After visiting the Winnie the Pooh exhibition at the V&A, my friends and I headed east, stopping for lunch at Madame D, a Nepalese restaurant on Commercial Street. The restaurant's menu features a series of sharing plates so we each chose one and shared them between the four of us: Naga chilli beef puffs, hakka... Continue Reading →
Despite doing a lot of research before my trip to Milan, there were a few things I learned while I was there that I wish I'd known sooner. So I've put together some of my top tips for anyone planning a trip to the Lombard capital. Getting there Milan has three airports – Malpensa, Linate and... Continue Reading →
As regular readers to my blog may have guessed, I'm a sucker for a castle and when I found out Milan has its very own castle, it ended up somewhere near the top of my must-visit list. Having spent the morning exploring every last inch of the city's Duomo, I made my way to the... Continue Reading →
To the north of the Dordogne lies the pretty town of Sarlat-la-Canéda (or Sarlat as it's commonly called). Home to an abundance of picturesque medieval and Renaissance buildings, the town is so renowned for its attractive architecture, it's one of the most popular tourist spots in the region. On arriving in Sarlat, we headed straight... Continue Reading →
One of les plus beaux villages en France, the utterly delightful bastide town of Monpazier, south of the Dordogne, more than lives up to its billing as one of the country's most beautiful villages. I adored it. So much so that if I were ever to move to France, this is where I'd want to... Continue Reading →
Just before lunch we headed to the Reunification Palace in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City. Home to the president of South Vietnam in 1975 when the North's tanks came rolling in, it's stood in a virtual time warp ever since. To get to the palace, we walked through the large pale grey gates surrounding it and past an immaculate... Continue Reading →
The ancient trading port of Hoi An is utterly charming and its old town embodies traditional Vietnamese culture, as for the most part, it's remained unchanged for centuries. In 1999, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the pretty port is the perfect place to spend a few days mooching around – which is exactly what I did. Sights... Continue Reading →
Little Old World 