Gastronomy

Venezia all’Inverno (Venice in winter)

Destination Venice, for a week of painting at Julian Hyzler's art retreat. The first day of Summer in Melbourne (December 1) started as...

Food and wine in Nice, Alba and Modena

It would have been nice, arriving in Nice, if my lease car had been what I’d ordered, but Renault Europe knew better and ‘upgraded’ me to...

The Black Swan & Tommy Banks

It’s an hour’s drive from Everingham to Oldstead in Yorkshire, and Jerry, having spent his whole life in various spots along the way,...

Views from the Vaucluse

I first visited the Vaucluse (department #84) in 1984, when my Parisian friends, Patrick and Edmee, had purchased a former Ashram,...

A weekend in Paris (April 2009)

Well, Etihad, despite any misgivings about Middle Eastern airlines after Ruth had her arm slashed by Emirates several years, ago, the...

Tippling around the world (vicariously) in lockdown!

My first task in lockdown (March 23, but who's counting) was to clean out the bar. And, given that my May and September travel plans were...

The French Laundry

The French Laundry is on most foodies’ A-list of destinations, Rich had managed to get us a reservation for Sunday lunch, and we worked...

Barcelona!

The next stage of Bill's holiday was a high-end rail/river tour of the highlights of Northern Spain and Portugal, so he was booked into...

41 Degrees Experience

‘To call 41’ Experience a restaurant is to call Frank Gehry a draughtsman. The Adria creation is superlative sensory theatre, with every...

Christmas in Vienna

Having left Melbourne at 6am, Emirates dropped us into Vienna at 8pm, and Lidia was on hand for our first walking tour - of our...

Sicily Won

It’s a quick flight from Naples to Palermo – 30 minutes, just time to have some blood orange juice – before disembarking into the heat...