Author Archives: JJS

🇬🇧 The long goodbye (and a few oysters in between) All good things must come to an end — and apparently, so must good holidays. By 10 a.m., all twelve of us were packed, polished, and pointed in twelve different … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Of flowers, châteaux and a battle of wits (with whisky as fuel) Exploring the Loire one glass and one proverb at a time. Another cool and sunny day — perfect weather for exploration, or at least for pretending we’re … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Loches and loaded The art of sauntering with style and sore backs A good night’s sleep — I blame it entirely on the whisky. It seems to have excellent restorative powers, at least in moderation (or close enough). After … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Of pasta, highways and lost rucksacks They say pasta dinners are comforting. Well, they didn’t tell me about the 3am hyperglycaemia wake-up call package deal. Despite a midnight insulin injection, my glucose levels seemed to think they were training … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Vierzon, why not? After three days of early starts, we finally allowed ourselves the luxury of breakfast at the decadent hour of 9am. No rushing, no alarms—just coffee and croissants without a stopwatch ticking in the background. The drive … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Goats, caves & curious cuisine I must have slept reasonably well last night — only a faint brush with a nightmare, which I’ll generously classify as “training” for today’s winding roads. By 8:30, I was once again face-to-face with … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Market, wine and multi-tasking conversations All six of us managed the impossible: sitting down at breakfast at the same time. 8:30 sharp, no stragglers, no excuses. Fueled by coffee and croissants, we then scattered like pigeons on a town … Continue reading →

🇬🇧 Chapter II (Now featuring Uzès) Day 1 Barely 24 hours after waving goodbye to our last visitors — with just enough time to reclaim the sofa and the fridge — we were back on the road again. Destination: festive … Continue reading →