The summer is always packed with fun and adventure. Click HERE to see 2024's trip to Europe, HERE for photos from 2023 (Sicily, Paris), .HERE for photos from 2022 (Amsterdam and Abruzzo), HERE for photos from 2021 (Scotland, Paris, Kent), HERE for photos from summer 2020 (Calabria and National Trusts), HERE for 2019 (London and Abruzzo), HERE for 2018 (Budapest, Le Marche, and Northern Ireland), HERE for 2017 (Paris and London), HERE for 2016 (festival and chaps), HERE for 2015 (reunion and wedding), and HERE for 2014 (meeting the stars).
Less than two months after celebrating my birthday in Sicily, I took a group back to the island to perform a series of concerts and visit ancient sites.
Our first concert was in Piana degli Albinese, a town that was settled by Albanians and is now the most important centre of the Arbëresh community of Sicily. The town was full of street art and photogenic doorways. We performed on stone steps just to the left of the church, with townfolk sitting on the steps and watching from their balconies.
The restaurant meal we had was amazing, with cheese and salami to start, pasta, and cannoli.
The Cretto di Burri is a landscape artwork undertaken by Alberto Burri in 1984, built on the ruins of the town of Gibellina. The layout of the artwork is based on the layout of the old city of Gibellina, which was completely destroyed in the 1968 Belice earthquake. Due to the seismic instability of the original town site, Gibellina Nuova, was built nearby. Both places influenced Movement II, New Beginnings, of my composition, Voices from the Past. .
Fellow teachers and the view of the Cretto di Burri
We had lunch at the restaurant above and explored the art, both on the town's streets, and at the contemporary art museum
Performing at the church in Gibellina Nuova was very moving for me.
It was a hot day in the Valley of the Temples, but we managed to find shade, granite, and water to dunk heads under. .
It was a challege taking these photos without other tourists in them. Cute Dad got in the way a couple of times.
Sambuca di Sicilia, where we performed our second concert, has a fascinating history. Until 1928 the town was called Sambuca Zabut, after its Arab Muslim folk tradition. In 1928, Benito Mussolini removed "Zabut" and added "di Sicilia".
Street art and ghosts can be found in the streets of Sambuca di Sicilia.
Selinunte was only eight minutes' walk from our hotel. The had the ancient temples to ourselves much of the time..
We were posing like teenagers in the photo, bottom right.
There was modern art scattered around the site, as there was last time. It was hot enough to wear one's smallest running shorts.
We took the cable car up to Erice, where we headed straight for Maria Grammatico's pastry shop.
The view from the castle was splendid. The kooky sculptures by Philip Colbert were dotted around Eric, depicting updated myths and creatures, such as the centaur.
We serenaded the workers in Segesta's theatre. Back in our town, we visited the beach and did a flash mob on the jetty.
Some of our group were too tired (or lazy) to even see the temple. I couldn't have missed it!
Our last stop was Monreale, which I knew well from 2023. We had lunch in the familiar pasticceria.
The cathedral and its mosaics never fails to impress. I think they ran out of shawls after distributing them among the under-dressed in our group.
We're planning to come back to Sicily for Christmas in 2026. Ciao for now!
We visited a new part of France, lured primarily by Invaders in Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand. With very little else planned, we settled into our countryside retreat near Montregard and Montfaucon-en-Velay and started our explorations from there.
Our local town for groceries was Dunières and we visited the beautiful town, shown above, early in our trip.
The vegetarian restaurant was fully booked, but we took inspiration from their menu. The photos on glass panels were dotted around the town, showcasing a local artist.
It was the height of apricot season, and everywhere we went, we saw people carrying crates of them, ready for jam-making. I liked the poster for a modern interpretation of Les Misérables, which produced at my school earlier in the year.
Nearby Tense had an excellent market, which we visited three times. I'd noticed before how much Jamie Oliver resembles Simone de Beauvoir.
One fruit seller was giddy with excitement when we asked for a kilo of greengages and he weighed out exactly that amount. I took a photo for posterity. The other photos are of a remarkable collection of 12 Flemish paintings from the 12th century dated and signed by Abel Grimer. Classified as a Historic Monument, this collection combines secular and religious themes and represents the twelve months of the year. When we went, we discovered that our host, Carly, was actually the guide, who was giving her weekly talk about the paintings to a group of tourists.
We drove to Saint-Etienne and visited its excellent Musée d'art moderne et contemporain.
The gist of the main exhibition was "Art in our collection that is too large or awkward to move" (seriously). The man on the plinth, left, reminded me of Jimmy Carr.
Many cool things to see, including artwork being restored, top centre.
The cute chef above made us pizza for llunch, before we left the town to visit Le Corbusier's Maison de la Culture de Firminy.
Concrete isn't always inspirational, but Tiny Cow loved playing on the chairs. The chapel mimicked the night sky with holes cut into the wall and fillled with thick glass.
Le Corbusier's chapel was an interesting and historic piece of history. He built affordable housing for the town's workers and revolutionised art and architecture in the 50s.
One of our greatest culinary discoveries, Fourme d'Yssingeaux is a blue cow's milk cheese with the delicious taste of the terroir. Its name is a gallicisation of the Occitan word for cheese, fourma. Also shown is our Reine Claudes (greengage) crumble and early morning photos of Lyon.
While waiting for our cooking class to start, we crossed the river to find a couple of Invaders. The streets were empty and we saw a few knock-off mosaics that were also interesting.
Chef Theirry provided us with a hit-and-miss morning of cooking and being shouted at. It was his birthday and he took several calls and received a giant flower from a friend. His atelier was full of interesting things to look at and we learned about the pink pralines that are a speciality of Lyon.
Beautiful Lyon
The goats' cheeses and girolles featured in our meal. We saw policemen eating pastries around their patrol car and the statue called "The Weight of Oneself" by artists Elmgreen & Dragset. The large marble sculpture depicts a naked man carrying an identical naked man in his arms, symbolizing the heavy burden of individual responsibility and self-reflection.
Relieved to leave Thierry's kitchen, we set out to discover the town.
The weather was lovely, locals wore shorts, and Invaders presented themselves in all sorts of places.
We stopped for refreshing margaritas before the taxing climb up the hill to find the Invader near the bakery.
That huge flight of steps - half of it isn't shown - led us down to river level, where we entered the park.
The day after our Lyon visit, we stayed closer to home and went to a village fête in Saint-Jeures one evening, leaving just before a thunderstorm hit.
There were Germanic/Alsace treats to be had, such as Flammekueche and pretzels.
It was the promise of firemen that brought us to the town. It started pouring with rain just after this. That's a greengage galette.
Le Puy-en-Velay is a town in southern France. It’s known for the green lentils grown in the area, and as a gateway to the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage trail.
The 12th-century Romanesque Notre Dame Cathedral has frescoes and a cloister. I instantly recognised the work of Jean-Marie Othoniel, who also created the Murano glass beaded metro station we love so much in Paris.
We visited the Hôtel des Lumières for a light show about Leonardo da Vinci before trying to find the exit.
An 1860 statue of the Virgin Mary looks over the town from a volcanic outcrop.
Created by A. Fresco (a pseudonym, surely) in 2012, the busy fresco highlights the Renaissance past of Le Puy-en-Velay through the city's most important event, The Roi de l'Oiseau Renaissance Festival, held on the third weekend of September since 1986.
We came across a group of locals playing boules before having one of our best restaurant meals at the Brasserie la Trifolle.
Perched on a volcanic rock, St-Michel d’Aiguilhe chapel dates from the 10th century. At night throughout the summer, various monuments in the town are illuminated with beautiful projections.
The privately owned Chateau de Montivert was right up the road from where we were staying in Montregard.
This man was one of the finalists in the pétanque competition at the village fête. Slow cooked cabbage was a local delicacy, prepared in an enormous cauldron.
Treats from the fête and a morning return to Dunières to visit their ancient church with 1970s-looking stained glass
Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid is a real foodie town, with its own Michelin-starred restaurant, complete with helicopter pad. This cheese shop introduced us to the fabulous blue Fourme d'Yssingeaux. We attended a flute recital given by Guy Angelloz. He was very accomplished, but I realise how much I appreciate live accompaniment, as opposed to pre-recorded backing.
Back for another market day in Tence
Seeing the cows cross over the river via a tiny, narrow bridge was magical.
The reason we booked our holiday in this region was because friend Juliet recommended the Art Nouveau splendours of Vichy, with is spas and opera house.
The spa water was as expected. Saint-Blaise church was full of interesting mosaics, stained glass, and frescoes.
The candy mints are the town's specialty, which even showed up in our crème brûlée. The ornamental thistle is a symbol of the town.
We ventured out to Vichy's covered market for lunch and then walked back past some Art Nouveau houses.
The historic Art Nouveau opera house was breathtaking. Whose job is it to keep all that yellow velvet clean?
Les Dômes seemed no longer to be a spa but rather an exhibition space.
We sat by the river for a drink and discovered that friend Juliet was actually in Vichy that evening, so we made plans to meet up for dinner.
Dinner with Juliet, where we had minty crème brûlée and spoke French to the servers who spoke English back to us. Up early the next morning to find Invaders in Riom!
On Halloween night in 2023, Invader installed several spooky artworks in the town of Riom. The theme is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and these are the ones we found in roughly the right locations.
Invader art and Halloween: two of my favourite things combined.
We bought some cherry schnapps on the way out of town, which I planned to use for baking. We ended up drinking it all, but it did last through October.
The final two Invaders were quite remote. We didn't think we'd actually be able to locate them, but we did.
Clermont-Ferrand was a pleasant surprise in many ways. It was a lovely, historic town full of arty things, interesting architecture, and lots of Invaders. Our visit coincided with the conclusion of the women's Tour de France.
It was a tiring day, but we found all there were. My favourites are the film strip, the Invader with luggage welcoming visitors at the train station, the pizza slice, the Volvic mountain, and of course Serge Gainsbourg, which was HUGE!
Lots of the stone in Clermont-Ferrand is dark volcanic rock. The Invader film strip is above.
An organist was practising when we went inside the cathedral.
Gooseberry gallette, blue cheese soufflé, and another village fête.
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon's Saturday market was sprawling and colourful. We bought some Chinese spring rolls for lunch.
We learned a lot about the heroic people of Le Chambon during our stay. Protestant André Trocmé saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis during World War II, for which he and his wife, Magda Trocmé, were named "Righteous among the Nations" by the Holocaust remembrance center Yad Vashem.
From top left: Inside the Protestant church, a school where the evacuated children were taught, the train station where many refugees first arrived, a home that housed them, and falsified identification papers.
We attended a piano recital at the local Château Lambert. The virtuoso (and impossibly young) pianist Gabriel Durliat played Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt. While waiting for the concert to start, we concocted an entire murder mystery story involving the posh residents of the chateau, who were – there is no better word, here – swanning around the grounds, commanding attention. Madame, coiffured and beaded, air-kissed the privileged few, while the baseball capped Black Sheep of the family skulked and smouldered on the periphery, wine glass in one hand, Dachshund in the other. In the film, he would be played by young Jude Law. There was even the shadowy figure of an old man who wavered, silhouetted in the upstairs window through much of the performance.
The inside of the Eglise de Boussoulet looks like it was hewn by elves and dwarfs, complete with stone altar. Kiwi the Dog was the endearing companion of our host. We bought Kiwi a new squeaky toy when she chewed the noise maker out of her old one. She hurt her leg while we were there and limped for a while. She will be fully recovered soon.
Our host recommended a series of mountain villages for us to visit, including this one. The village of Saint-Julien-Chapteuil developed around a priory founded in the 11th century. The Romanesque Church of St. Julian, built on basalt rock, is a listed historic monument.
Bigorre's streets were empty, but its roofs were prettily thatched.
We found interesting sights such as the ancient communal bake house and the small basalt cliff. Afterwards, we drove to a lake where people weren't allowed to swim. We ate our picnic food by the water and left for the next town.
Moudeyres (top and bottom left) was another town with traditional thatched roofs. The reflective arch is back in Tense.
The boys in shorts may well have been photographed in Lapte, which Trip Advisor tells us holds a one-star discotheque. The other photos are from Yssingeaux, home of the fabulous blue cheese.
Dating from the 17th century, the Notre-Dame des Pénitents Chapel has Romanesque barrel vaults and very old tiling including a 12-metre cross drawn on the pavement. This cross is said to be one of the oldest remains dating from the first construction and could date from the founding of the refuge for pilgrims who went to Le Puy in the 12th century. A statue of the Virgin, placed on the altar of the chapel, has for several years been wearing a splendid coat, made by the Carmelites of Puy-en-Velay. Bottom left is Chateau Lavoute Polignac.
Watermill, the Vieux Pont, and our lunchtime restaurant in Polignac.
It was scorchingly hot in Polignac, so we cut our tourist circuit short after a few stops. Lunch and the frescoes were both great.
The Ligne de Partage des Eaux is a geographical boundary that divides hydrographically into watersheds. On one side of this line, rainwater flows towards the Atlantic, and in the other, towards the Mediterranean. Artists have created works in response to this feature, and we tracked some of them down.
With The Water Tower, artist Gilles Clément imagined that Mont Gerbier-de-Jonc would function in part as a "water tower": a water trap principle based on the condensation of water vapor from clouds in desert regions. The work is built from phonolites, the volcanic rock found at Gerbier. Its shape evokes a lighthouse with a hollow column at its heart. The water condensing on its outer walls is directed into the hollow of the tower, collected in a basin, and then directed towards the Loire on one side and the Rhône on the other. When we arrived, there was a camera club made up of very old, very loud French women, determined to photograph everything but the tower itself. They are probably still there, focusing on bugs and grass.
On the Other Side by Stéphane Thidet uses the facade of the former Chartreuse de Bonnefoy abbey in the curves of the Ardèche Mountains. Where a door and windows once stood, seven large mirrors have been inserted. Slightly inclined, they reflect the landscape, playing on an effect of transparency as well as the reflection of the passage of time, the seasons, and Tiny Cow.
Our host recommended this authentic spot in Tense for lunch. By far the best bit was the anticipation of the cheese and dessert trolleys, or 'chariots'.
We returned to Le Puy-en-Velay to visit the excellent Musée Crozatier, which was full of inspirational art, and historical displays. The gold frame holds a borrowed painting by Delacroix.
Some of my favourite pieces, including a sheep that looks like Duolingo's deadpan Lily. I thought the1892 portrait by Charles Maurin (bottom right) looked distinctly modern.
We spotted some plates from places we know in Italy - Deruta, Urbino - and a self-portrait of Charles Maurin, whose work I admired. I liked the varied expressions of the Roman soldiers in the canvas, bottom left, and of course the reclining sleeper in the centre.
There was quite a high-powered Japanese exhibition on while we were there. Also shown is a vase borrowed from The Louvre, an enamel portrait of a blue-eyed man, and a marble statue of a man with a dashing Victorian era moustache.
Dentelle is the word for the local lace. The statue is of a pilgrim on her way to Compostella. We bought a bag of marked down pastries, which we brought back to the UK withus. These are the final photos of our 2025 trip to the Auvergne.
Tomatoes from our garden, lemon tarts for my garden bake sale, and a reunion for the chaperones of my school trip to Sicily, complete with homemade Sicilian cassatine.
Photos from the Sicily meal, maple bacon cupcakes for the garden sale, a pristine jar of Marmite, and our archaeologist friend Guido, from Abruzzo.
