I heart Eurostar

Can there be any better way of getting to Paris? We leave home at 8.30 am to be in the heart of St Germain in perfect time for lunch.

A 35 minute drive from home gets us to the wonderfully refurbished St Pancras - a thing of beauty with Victorian façade, vaulted glass ceilings, polished hardwood floors and colonnades with fab shops and cafes. 

Oh and how’s this for capturing the old-fashioned romance of train travel ...

(Paul Day’s bronze statue, The Meeting Place, under the station clock)

 A coffee stop at Le Pain Quotidien gets us in the mood for France ...

And then we’re on board and set to go

Curl up for a read and a very decent brunch and, before you know it, two hours 15 minutes has disappeared in a silent high speed flash across countryside and the tunnel, and you are tipped out with a bienvenue and a bientot … and oh dear, if only they would give the seedy Gare du Nord a badly needed makeover the picture would be perfect ... 
but never mind, because at the end of a quick taxi ride you see this picture instead ...

(the tiny but perfectly and exotically furnished hotel Bellechasse)

... and across the road a large place filled with many more beautiful pictures

 (Musee d'Orsay)



and your weekend in Paris has just begun.

Andalucia

Andalucia is red

yellow

blue

white-wash

and some stone, to calm the senses.

This is what it sounds like ...

(with apologies for my frightful camera-work there)

Summer eating in Spain

Spain is no place for a vegetarian.

Or a teetotaller.

The day starts agreeably late, with chocolate con churros: freshly made, lightly fried doughnutty strips, to be dunked in dense, dark drinking chocolate the consistency of swamp mud - the latter in espresso-sized coffee cups, presumably to reduce the chances of keeling over and dying of a combined caffeine, sugar and fat overdose ... the perfect breakfast. (Note: un hombre churro = a hottie!)

Summer lunches are leisurely, at outdoor cafes under the shade of umbrellas

or under trees in a leafy square with a fountain.

Shall we go sophisticated ...

or simple and rustic?

Solo is fine ...

or even while reading books companionably.

Sometimes we stayed home where Nich worked on perfecting the ultimate gazpacho (recipe to follow), in the shaded inner courtyard (absolutely my top favourite design feature of the Spanish house), with chilled sangria and white wine.

Siesta time is a serious business. Shops close from 2.00 to 6 or 7.00 pm; the streets empty. By 8.00pm-ish, with the edge off the heat, the bars and restaurants are just starting to prepare for dinner...

... crisp white cloths and menus ready...

... maybe a spectacular view thrown in for free ...

What's on the menu?

We could tapear (yes, that is an actual verb, to eat tapas) with garlic and tomato soup

gambas a la plancha ( grilled prawns)

crisp-fried aubergines in sweet balsamic glaze

pimientos asados (roasted sweet peppers).

Specialities of the region in Andalucia would be: rabo de toro (ox-tail)

sea bass

or a hearty seafood paella.

And walking home around 11 or 12.00 pm on any night of the week, the restaurants and bars are crowded still with families and their small children - drinking, eating, talking or doing the paseo, the evening stroll.

At Restaurante Pedro Romero in Ronda, Plaza de Toros, with our friend Amanda from London.

Magic of the Alhambra

Our day started before dawn yesterday, with a two and a half hour drive to Granada. On a hilltop under the Sierra Nevada (incredibly, snow-capped despite 40 degree heat in the city below), and hidden in a forest of elms, are the palace, fortress, mosque and gardens of the Alhambra...

 

... built in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Sultans of the ruling Nasrid dynasty. Their aim - to create a physical realisation of the descriptions of Paradise in Islamic poetry ...

(Gardens of the Generalife, planted by the Moors with roses, oranges and myrtle)

They knew a thing or two about designing with space, light, water and nature, those Moors ...

"Only Allah is victorious" reads the inscription above. I guess this meant nothing to the illiterate Christian reconquistadores who were already advancing as the Alhambra was being built, about to start on a brutal repression of both Muslims and Jews and their cultures.

View of old Granada from Alhambra Palace.