Travel
Colours of Saint-Raphaël on the Côte d’Azur, just along the coast from Cannes, Antibes and Nice. These French Riviera towns were the original Mediterranean resorts, set up by the PLM railway company in the nineteenth century. The French Riviera became popular with people high and low. The towns have modernised and continue to set out an enticing resort bathed in natural light and colours which are as alluring as ever.
We knew it was coming but it’s still a shock to see the price of fuel at more than two €uros a litre, even just outside the refinery gates here inear Marseille-Provence airport. I’m told that you can easily pay far more inland.
Postcard of photos from a couple of days touring Sussex, not that far from home.
Paper postcards having become a rarity, here’s my own, featuring the beach at Bognor Regis, the park at Petworth House created by Capability Brown, Arundel Castle and the memorial at Selsey Bill to the astronomer Sir Patrick Moore.
Lambley Viaduct in Northumberland was opened in 1852 as part of the Alston line, a single track from Haltwhistle. Trains last ran across Lambley Viaduct in the 1970’s, serving the lead mines at Alston. Walkers on the Pennine Way pass nearby but don’t cross the river. The elegant arches span the River South Tyne flowing down from Alston, making it the only major river in Cumbria which flows to the North Sea.
One of the most dramatic French nineteenth century buildings, the Palais Longchamps is Marseille’s temple to water. Fresh water from the Alps first arrived by canal on the 8th July 1847 and saved Marseille from repeated droughts and disease. The Palais Longchamps was built at the main distribution point, a sort of header tank for the city. Its sculptures and architecture look particularly good with the low angle of the winter sunlight and the sky blown clear by a violent, glacial, Mistral wind.
