Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 5
We are on our way to France as a family group. We are travelling first class and the serotonin is high. I’m a ‘look out of the window’ kind of person and, as we [more…]
Paris
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 4
We are a family group en route to the near continent travelling by first class train to London. It’s November and the English countryside is touched by frost and gentle mist. As we head south, [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 3
After a gap of many decades I’m setting off by train to visit the near continent. Some of my family are coming with me and as a special surprise treat I’ve booked first class seats [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 2
First Class Previously I regularly visited the continent travelling by train, ferry and hovercraft. Subsequently I went via the channel tunnel but before the high speed rail link to St Pancras had been completed. After [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, Part 1
In the prologue we recalled a fond age of travelling to the near continent via rail, ferry and hovercraft. This landscape changed with the opening of the Channel Tunnel. At the beginning of Eurotunnel [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Lille, prologue
Previously, underused first class carriages formed an overnight , £5 a seat, train between Glasgow and London. It was called the Nightrider. In those days Scotsman would travel with ghettoblasters and a cardboard tray of [more…]
Uncategorized
Paris: in search of a different kind of migrant
Some 25 years ago I was sitting in a café/restaurant on the Avenue Trudaine in Paris, eating a starter of ‘des carrots’, the only thing I understood on the handwritten menu. It was a small [more…]
Uncategorized
Holidays, High Days, Birthdays and the Rape of a Continent
For many people certain years are marked in their memories by the events of the time, whether they are personal or historic. “Milestone” years, birthdays that end in a zero, silver wedding etc. are often [more…]