Last Sunday Liz and I went to church. This, as God will testify, is a rare event, but it was for a good cause. Basically we were there to pray for a good vintage for 2014, and well, heaven knows we all like a good vintage. So, unusually for us we were up and ready for the off by 9am, at which time we met up with Jim and Sandra who had offered to drive us to the nearby town of Jonquieres Saint-Vincent on this fine Sunday morning, to take part in an annual wine fe...

Vincent Van Gogh has something in common with Liz and me; the three of us quite liked the old Langlois bridge over the canal at Arles. When Van Gogh was there, he was struck by the geometric pleasantness of the bridge, and the tranquility of the scene, and so captured it forever in oils, watercolours and sketches. Unfortunately, as we arrived at the famous bridge we discovered we'd just missed him by 126 years. Frustrating. Still, it was worth the detour. Liz ...

I bought a new hat. Okay, that's hardly going to make the headlines, but it's a major in my life, as I have probably bought no more than maybe four bits of headgear in all my mumbledy-years. I can now hold my head up high in Beaucaire society, or at least keep my thinning locks hidden. Headgear is commonplace here in le sud de France, and varied. The favoured hat for young French men is, sadly, the ubiquitous beanie, usually black and wooly. Not exactly haute f...

I know, I know... we haven't blogged anything for a long time. Sorry, but. Happy New Year anyway, and all that. See, like yourselves, we've taken some time out over the past few weeks to relax, visit friends and family, drink and eat too much, and generally dispose of all of last year's resolutions in bulk. We also haven't been sailing in the boat anywhwhere, and so haven't had the ammunition or felt the impulse to blog. That's not to say we haven't been doing ...

One of the things that endears me to my birthplace of Liverpool is love. Not just in the sense that I love the place, but in the north of England - and the north-west in particular - the word "love" is widespereadly used as a term of endearment. And it doesn't matter whether you're a stranger or a member of the family; you will be called "love." In shops, in service stations, in the market, in the pub, everywhere. I was reminded of this in bulk the other mornin...