City Breaks

Our Marseille Anthology includes some travel writing, plus a range of fiction pieces set in the city.  Extracts include Simone de Beauvoir hiking in the surrounding countryside and Jean-Claude Izzo's description of the Italian immigrant community in Le Panier in the 1930s.  The Count of Monte Cristo's daring escape from the Château d'If is here, as are a meal of boullabaisse in a waterside restaur...

The author and film-maker Marcel Pagnol is inextricably linked with Marseille – where he lived, set some of his early works and is buried – and with the Provencal countryside around the city.  The area's garrigue landscape provides the backdrop to his popular autobiographical works, La Gloire de Mon Père (My Father's Glory) and Le Château de Ma Mère (My Mother's Castle) and is also the setting for...

This post introduces you to two great pleasures in this Provencal city: Marseille food and Marseille shopping, beginning with the signature dishes and key ingredients of the city's cuisine, plus a few ideas on where to look for restaurants. Then, we outline key items to buy as souvenirs of Marseille, followed by a rundown of the city's main shopping areas and what you can expect to find in each on...

Marseille boat trips – those words belong together.  But beaches and the Château d’If are also great ideas for trips out from Marseille and so this episode covers all three. Then there are suggestions for other little excursions, to l’Estaque and Cassis, which both mix boating and arty vibes, plus a trip on a coastal train with  views a-plenty and ideas for stopping off to explore. To finish, ther...

This episode covers two main Marseille art galleries, the Musée des Beaux Arts and Regards de Provence, and focuses particularly on work on local themes - Marseille itself, and the provençal hinterland.  Then there are pointers to 4 more galleries in the city, featuring ethnic, modern and decorative arts, plus a little coverage of some of the most famous artists associated with Marseille: Pierre P...

This post takes you around La Joliette, the new port area in Marseille and looks at what there is to do there. That includes the city’s two newest must-see museums – one gives you a tour of Mediterranean culture, the other takes you on a virtual exploration of the incredible caves discovered nearby, where the artwork dates back 30,000 years. We also find time for plenty of shopping, eating and cul...

This post focuses on the Le Panier district of Marseille, the oldest and most atmospheric part of the city: think hills, narrow roads, colourful houses, flowers, little restaurants in pretty squares, artisan shops and plenty of street art.  Plus two of the city’s big sights, La Charité, the former poorhouse, now a museum centre and the stunning 'Major' Cathedral.  As the author Jean -Claude Izzo w...

This episode centres on Marseille’s most popular sights, the Old Port, the hilltop church of Notre Dame de la Garde, and the Canebière, the wide avenue leading back from the port into the heart of the city. After a few snippets of history, we tour such sights as the fish market, the iconic canopy built to mark Marseille's year as a City of European Culture in 2013, an ancient tower and a surprisin...

There are 26 centuries of history in Marseille, which is the oldest city in France!  This episode runs through 10 places where you can find traces of key moments in the city's past.  They range from the plaque commemorating the founding of Marseille in about 600 BC to the site where you can still see bullet holes from the fight to liberate the city from German occupation in 1944.  They’re listed i...

Bienvenue à Marseille. Welcome to Marseille, the lively southern French city whose name rhymes with 'soleil'.   There's beauty in the Old Port and the stunning coastline, there's history and culture a-plenty in the museums, there's a Provencal feel - boules and bouillabaisse - overlaid with a vibrant multi-ethnic mix.  There's a little grit too, for this is the home of Marseille Noir crime fiction...

Our introduction to literary Bordeaux begins with the 3 most famous Bordeaux authors, the ‘3 Ms’, that is the philosophers Montaigne and Montesquieu and the novelist François Mauriac.  There are statues of them all in the city.   There are mini biographies and pointers to their works.  Then we follow up with more books set in and around Bordeaux - historical fiction, two very different detective s...

This post gives ideas for day trips from Bordeaux, focussing first on nearby St Émilion, attractive both for its history and its world-renowned wine industry.  To wander its cobbled streets is to find photo opportunities on every corner, both architectural gems and splendid scenery.  Then we cover ways to explore the countryside around Bordeaux and also the beaches and resorts along the nearby Atl...

Food and Shopping: two of the major reasons for visiting Bordeaux! This episode lists some of top-notch products from Bordeaux’s Atlantic coastline and the rich agricultural land surrounding it and highlights the areas of the city and some of the restaurants where you can enjoy them. Then we do the same for shopping, listing specialities and highlighting the shopping streets and markets you should...

This post introduces 3 Bordeaux art galleries, the long-standing Museum des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts), the always surprising Musée des Arts Contemporains (Museum of Modern Art) and the Bassin des Lumières, France’s largest digital art gallery where parts of the World War II submarine base have been re-purposed to provide a new way of  enjoying art in an unexpected setting.  And finally, a l...

Bordeaux wine – could two words be more inextricably linked?  No, said the author Henry James: ‘Bordeaux is dedicated to the worship of Bacchus’.  This post gives a little background, then focuses on where in the city to find out all about this most important product, whether than is learning about it, buying it, drinking it.  We finish with 5 quirky reading ideas, everything from a great wine sca...

Strolling through Bordeaux today, you can be largely unaware of the fascinating story of the city under German Occupation between 1940 and 1944.  This episode recounts a little of the history and highlights three places to visit in the city today to find out more. Prepare for tales of hardship, persecution, courage, betrayal, resistance and, eventually, liberation.       Reading Suggestions Life i...

This post is all about Bordeaux's riverside heritage.  We’ll be looking at a number of museums which explore the links between Bordeaux, the River Garonne and its trading prosperity, including the dark stain of slavery and how that is remembered in the city today.  We end with ideas for the many ways to enjoy the riverside in Bordeaux, plus ideas for exploring the Gironde Estuary and its unique hi...

This episode 'visits' the Bordeaux of two important past eras: the Roman and the medieval.  A little history, plus lots of ideas for places to visit today: the remains of a Roman amphitheatre, turretted towers and the churches which became stopping points on the pilgrims' route to Santiago de Compostela.  Plus, of course, the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Reading Suggestions Eleanor of Aquitaine...

This episode takes you on a stroll through central Bordeaux, introducing the highlights and giving a little background history.  Key moments from the past include a 12th century royal wedding and the demise of revolutionary heroes who died for Republican values.  The architectural highlights include medieval turrets, 18th century mansions and a quayside 21st century stunner.        Reading Suggest...

Bienvenue à Bordeaux. Welcome to Bordeaux. This relaxed, elegant city is famous for its wine, for its delightful riverside quays and for its layers of history from Roman remains and medieval towers to 21st century stunners like the Miroir d’Eau and the Cité du Vin. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a centre of gastronomy and culture. This introductory episode will help you get your bearings an...

Eight inspirational ideas for novels set in Berlin, all of which bring their own distinctive view of the city. Read them to inform an upcoming trip, to reminisce about the Berlin you have visited or simply to see the city from lots of different perspectives. Useful Links The 8 featured novels Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite by Beatrice Collin Goodbye to Berlin by...

We open with some quotes on Berlin from the likes of David Bowie ('the greatest cultural extravaganza anyone could imagine') and Nikita Khrushchev ('the testicle of the west'), then follows the main content: reviews of 4 non-fiction books which tell the story of Berlin and its residents from different angles. They include a family history, the history of a house, an escape story and an investigati...

Ideas for a day trip from Berlin to Lake Wannsee, where Berliners love to swim and enjoy the lakeside beach and surrounding forest.  Plus what to visit nearby - an exotic island, a couple of royal castles, an artist's hideaway, a villa steeped in WW2 history and the real  Bridge of Spies.  Maybe you need longer than a day to visit, but you can get all the info here in under half an hour!   Useful...

A visit to Charlottenburg, once the summer palace of the Hohenzollerns who ruled Prussia for 5 centuries. Tips on what to look out for, plus stories of those connected with it: Sophie Charlotte, for whom the original palace was built, Frederick the Great who built a fancy new wing, and the popular Queen Luisa, around whom court life revolved in the early 19th century.   Reading suggestion Frederic...

Jewish culture in Berlin goes back hundreds of years and we visit the places where you can discover it. The New Synagogue, also known as the Centrum Judaicum, and the Jewish Museum are the two main centres of Jewish heritage in the city today, but there are others too, plus Jewish cemeteries and memorials and two ideas for guided walking tours.  Reading suggestions  The Wandering Jews by Joseph Ro...