Travel
Snow on the upper slopes of le Garlaban (714 m.), the limestone giant between Marseille and Aubagne, which dominates the settings of the novels of Marcel Pagnol
Read more: Snow and tartiflette in Marseille - le Garlaban (714 m.)
Now in Marseille after another take off at dawn from Heathrow.
The border policeman at the airport checked my passport (heavily stamped) and replied to my « Bonjour » with « Bienvenu à Marseille Monsieur John », we then had a few words of banter, all of which I thought was unusually warm.
The window of the piano shop in Cours Julien has a striking display featuring a Pleyel instrument with a wonderful case. There’s a note commending its warm tone. And the nearest supermarket has plenty of salad, unlike the UK.
Weather a bit sad grey and stormy but a good few degrees higher than London.
Colourful sunset as the plane before us takes off on its way to Istanbul. We were next on runway 31R at Marseille-Provence airport, headed for London-Heathrow.
Marseille Cours Julien, 6ième arrondissment. Travel isn’t always straightforward but once I’ve arrived, it’s always a rush of pleasure to come back to the South.
Ice on the River South Tyne at Ridley Bridge between Hexham and Haltwhistle, one of the visual highlights of my journey from Heathrow to Keswick. Rail travel being problematic at the moment, I chose a dawn flight to Newcastle and then hired a car to cross the country to Cumbria, ears ringing with Lindisfarne’s song “Fog in the Tyne” (1971). Keswick seemed as lovely as ever, even after a particularly cold night (-9°C) with hoar frost and ice on the rivers.
Dawn over East Anglia
