BLOG: A Conscious Way to Travel
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The hammam & other stories, ISTANBUL: Oct 2024
It seems crazy to take a four-hour flight for a good scrub in a hammam. But that is what I plan to do in 2025. For Zeyrek Çinili Hamam, the so-called ‘tiled’ hammam, is no ordinary Turkish bath. The hammam, in the Zeyrek neighbourhood of Istanbul, was built in… -
The babel of BELLEVILLE, Paris
The Parisian neighbourhood of Belleville is a frenzied melting-pot of cultures. An oriental patisserie across the street from a synagogue, next to a halal butcher and round the corner from a typical French café terrace. That’s Belleville. Belleville is in hip, eastern Paris, in the 20th district. To stay here… -
Awesome ARLES: Jul 2024
I have the sensation of running with the stars when I attend the Rencontres d’Arles festival, the annual art photography pilgrimage that takes place each July in the Provençal city of Arles. That is stars in the sky – not those on the red carpet. I recall the words of … -
Sailing through MARSEILLE: Jul 2024
I feel at home on the streets of Marseille. Maybe because I’m an exile (by choice). “Marseille is, and always has been, the port of exiles .… whoever disembarks in the port is inevitably at home,” wrote Marseille author Jean-Claude Izzo. In 2024, I made my sixth visit… -
A chirpy weekend in BERLIN
Flying east from London, for a weekend in Berlin, the solacing chirping of sparrows in the leafy trees outside my room woke me each morning from my slumbers. By contrast, at home in London, I wake to the squawking of parakeets. Bird song – not squawking – soothes the nerves,… -
A ‘simple place’ in BOLOGNA
I’m a hunter of experiences … of patterns and of meaning. On my third visit to Bologna, I finally found a restaurant that linked with my heart: Ahimè, or ‘alas’, recorded in the Italian dictionary as an expression of ‘physical or spiritual pain, discomfort or dismay’ I found… -
CHAMPAGNE time, France: Dec 2023
With the clock ticking down to a new year, it’s time to get out the champagne, and for me to recheck my tips and recap on my journeys to the Champagne region in France. I visited the region in 2016 and 2017, to photograph at the domaines of 17… -
LES COLS near Girona: Nov 2023/2018
I had a dream … to visit Les Cols, in the outskirts of Olot, a town in the foothills of the Girona Pyrenees. Les Cols is a two Michelin star restaurant in a 15th century masia, or country house, refreshed with an architecturally striking modern touch, and set among… -
The SEPTIME family, Paris: Nov 2023
A cluster of great places to eat and drink have sprung up around the one Michelin-starred Septime restaurant since it opened in 2011 in the backstreets of Paris’ 11th district, east of Bastille. I have yet to eat at Septime. It’s one of those places hard to find a table.… -
CANAL SAINT-MARTIN, Paris
Two years had gone by since my last visit to Early June, a friendly buvette, or little restaurant, a few steps away from the Canal Saint-Martin, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. I had legged it across town, driven by the fear that Early June’s no-booking policy…