FRANCE 24 (June 23, 2023) – Bordering the French Riviera, Marseille is a one-of-a-kind place in France with a soul of its own. The colourful metropolis is famous for being the sunniest city in the country and a fascinating destination with a rich history.
The southern port city has been at the crossroads of trade and immigration since it was first founded in 600 BC. All this has made Marseille into a Mediterranean melting pot with a diverse cultural and gastronomic heritage.
The Globalist Podcast, Wednesday, June 21, 2023: Ukraine’s counteroffensive and the challenges facing NGOs, the latest from the Paris Air Show and illegal Chinese “police stations” in South Korea.
The Globalist Podcast, Monday, June 19, 2023: The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, visits Beijing in a bid to ease relations between the US and China.
Plus: the latest on the conflict in Ukraine, a roundup of the day’s papers and a profile of Miami’s mayor, Francis Suarez, who is now a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Times and The Sunday Times (June 15, 2023) – The most popular way to access all this from the UK is via the ports of Dieppe (ferries from Newhaven; dfds.com), Le Havre, Caen and Cherbourg (from Portsmouth and Poole; brittany-ferries.co.uk).
Le Tribunal, Mortagne-au-Perche
Hotel in the Perche region’s main hub Southern Normandy’s Perche region is a succession of gentle hills clad in beech and oak. Much of it is designated a natural park. There is great diversity here, in landscape and architecture, which come in a palette of colours thanks to different building materials. Its main hub is Mortagne-au-Perche, a market town of cobbled streets, antique shops, magnificent mansions and its famed black pudding.
Domaine de la Cour au Grip, Repentigny
Rustic retreat in cider country The Pays d’Auge, to the east of Caen, is an unhurried, painterly landscape, mixing oak and hazel woodland with cattle-filled orchards where morning mists lie low in the valleys and the autumn colours are magnificent. This is cider country, and there are still 20-odd cider makers on the 25-mile Cider Route. The former farm of Domaine de la Cour au Grip is on that route in the village of Repentigny, not far from Beuvron-en-Auge, one of the prettiest villages in France.
Le Landemer, Urville-Nacqueville
Restaurant with rooms west of Cherbourg Not every ferry traveller wants to hurry home. Le Landemer, barely ten miles along the coast from the ferry port of Cherbourg, is for those who like to linger. This designer conversion of a coastal house is as much an eating as a sleeping place, with five traditional rooms in the main house, and four yacht-style rooms — more modern with big picture windows — smuggled away in an adjacent building.
Château La Coste is a unique mix of contemporary art, architecture, and wine culture. A succulent cocktail for the eyes and the tastebuds.
Across 200 hectares (130 of which are full of grape vines), vineyards, chestnut forests, and olive tree fields spread as far as the eye can see into the Provençal horizon. It’s an invitation to take a walk for a veritable symphony of the senses, magnificent enough to have its own name – the Promande Art & Architecture.
The path – about a two-hour walk – will take you through a series of artworks and installations from contemporary artists invited to work on site. Just off the path, sitting atop a vast lake, admire the immense spider created by Franco-American artist Louise Bourgeois. Sitting at the top of the hill, next to the chapel created by Tadao Ando, raise your eyes and take in the great red Murano glass cross, imagined by Jean Michel Othonel.
The jaw-dropping surprises will lead you to the center of a forest, where you’ll find yourself face-to-face with foxes – but don’t worry! The creatures are cast in bronze, borne of the talent of American artist Michael Stipe.
Sotheby’s (June 12, 2023) – Hélène Leloup is one of the art world’s true pioneers, bringing together a spirit of adventure, a detailed anthropological approach and deep knowledge to become one of the foremost specialists in African and Oceanic art in Paris and New York.
Now aged 96, Hélène is regarded as France’s most important and passionate dealer of sub-Saharan and Oceanic art, an adventurer and explorer, ground-breaking gallerist and collector, and eminent specialist in Mbembe and Dogon art, ever since her first foray to Dakar in 1952.
Tourist Channel (June 9, 2023) – Since 1981 Moustiers Sainte-Marie has been listed as one of the most beautiful village of France. The church, the old village walls, the chapels, the aqueduct, the fountains represent an alliance of water and stone.
It lies at the western entrance to the Verdon Gorge (Gorges du Verdon). The village has been a centre of the pottery trade, especially faïence, for centuries. A spring flows out of the cliff and creates a waterfall in town, providing water power.
Times Literary Supplement (June 9, 2023): Requiem for a dream – Aung San Suu Kyi’s fall from grace; Vindicating Mary Wollstonecraft; France on Trial; In search of Yeats, and more…
This short biography explains why the West misunderstood the Myanmar leader. Review by Richard Lloyd Parry
In humanity’s long history of toppled heroes, shattered reputations and honour besmirched, it is difficult to think of a more extreme case than that of Aung San Suu Kyi. A decade ago, the Myanmar leader was among the most adored and respected figures in the world — winner of the Nobel peace prize, long-term political prisoner, an emblem of peaceful, uncompromising democratic struggle. Her ascension to the national leadership felt like the vindication of precious hopes and principles; today, “the Lady”, as she used to be known, is face down in the mud.
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