Spectacular. That really is the only way to describe the Museé de Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerannée in Marseille – or MuCEM for short. A rectangular building on the water’s edge, MuCEM is the stunningly bold vision of architect Rudy Ricciotti, who studied architecture in Marseille in his twenties. Covered in intricately-cast concrete that’s designed to look like a lace veil, Riccioti’s creation not only looks beautiful but ...keep reading
When our children were little we took the plunge and uprooted to the French city of Orléans, on the banks of the Loire. My husband was offered a job working for a dynamic (and scary) Australian tycoon who’d snapped up a French business, so we crossed the channel, rented an old house covered in vines and enrolled our daughter at the local école maternelle. Ten months later the scary tycoon ...keep reading
The arrival of Alastair Sawday’s newsletter in my inbox always brings a wry smile to my face. The founder of Sawday’s Special Places to Stay will be completely oblivious to this fact but reading one of his guidebooks completely changed my life. I’m not joking. Nine years ago, desperate to book a last-minute summer holiday, I bought a copy of his guide to self-catering properties in my local WH Smith’s ...keep reading