The Best Place In The World...

This place came as an absolutely beautiful surprise as the second to last stop on our summer travels. Ellie (travel bud) and I arrived in Nice one early morning in August. Nice was errrm Nice but we were not there to stay, but merely to wait 8 hours until we could catch one of only two coaches a day to the beautiful mountainous national park Mercantour. After a long day of waisting time Ellie and I finally jumped on the coach costing only €2 from Nice station. We had booked to stay with a lovely French couple on AirBnb a few months before leaving to go travelling, so apart from an address we had overlooked what kind of place we were to be staying at. We honestly assumed that we were going to be staying just outside of Nice, however the directions we were given by email a few days before arriving in Nice told us to stay on the coach for almost two hours (thank god we bought snacks). The coach slowly edged its way out of the city through the traffic and then went past the airport and through the rather industrial looking suburb area of the city. Ahead of us we could see mountains approaching and to our relief the coach kept going through a passage way that took us deeper and deeper into the valley. After a slightly treacherous coach journey edging along a crumbling cliff side road we were dropped off at a small bus stop next to a river which was sandwiched between mountains. One of our hosts was waiting for us with a van (probably the only occasion when getting into a stranger's van is acceptable). It was another 15 minute drive until we were up the mountain. From here we had to walk 10 minutes to get to where we were staying. It. Was. Heaven. Nestled 9,000ft up in the mountains were two idillic converted shepherd's barns. There was also a sauna, small pool and amazing garden all overlooking the rolling mountains on the other side of the valley.

We were staying in the area during their "festival" season; meaning that every weekend one of the surrounding villages would host some sort of party or gathering. Lucky for us we arrived on party day, so accompanied by our amazing host (and adoptive French mother) we got to experience community at it's finest. The party was in a small village on the opposite mountain to ours and for one night only they were hosting a disco. Everybody knew everybody and being two young British girls we were quite the hub of attention. Everyone was so friendly even though we spoke no French and they could speak little English.

As you can imagine, our days were spent hiking and enjoying the beautiful sunshine and scenery and in the evenings we would be savouring the fantastic homemade homegrown meals from our hosts. They even made their own wine and liqueurs. 

Whilst we were staying in Mercantour; several people had mentioned that there was a shepherd who lived another 5000ft or so up the mountain that we "just had to meet"! Taking this great advice we climbed further up the mountain on our final day to go and meet this famous shepherd. After walking for an hour we spotted his house, he was however nowhere to be seen. We decided to take a break and have some lunch (that our new French mother had packed us). As we ate our lunch we began to hear the sound of a flute or whistle. Like something from a movie we turned around and saw the shepherd sitting 100 meters behind us with his whistle and his two dogs. We immediately stood up and walked up to him. He was Awesome! We had both pictured a somewhat more rugged shepherd wearing a flannel shirt, however the guy standing in front of us was the complete opposite. Ripped jeans, Doc Martens, long brown hair shaved on one side, sharks tooth earring, no shirt, tan, abs...! ... (honestly i'm going to stop drooling over this guy, he was HOT but he lives up a mountain in France...literal heart break). We tried to get a selfie with him but as we couldn't say selfie in French and if it's at all possible he spoke less English than we do French we had to just settle for the brain sort of memories. He invited us to join him again that evening for coffee after he was done being a hot shepherd for the day but sadly we had to decline as we had to catch the bus back to Nice that evening in time for the train to our next stop.

I was reluctant to share this post at all as Mercantour really was heaven and it would be sad for it to ever get touristy. So just keep it on the dl.

H x

Paris through a pretend fish eye lens

Self explanatory really.

Paris is really great if you want to get away for a weekend, be fancy, switch your brain off and soak in the culture of designer shops, architecture and classic art. Paris; as I found out, also has a pretty spectacular and unusual nightlife. I was on this particular trip to Paris with Uni to go to the fashion trade fair Premier Vision (which we never ended up going to). On the last evening before leaving to get the Eurostar back to London, my Uni friends and I decided to have a rather larrrge night out, guided by someone we knew who lives in Paris. We went for pre-drinks at her house and then left to go to a bar and then Paris Social Club. However plans don't always go to errr...plan. In the end just two of us made it to the Social Club (the rest of the group went back to the hotel slightly damaged after too much €2 wine.) So myself and my friend powered on. Half way through our night we got split up and I ended up have a good old natter with the DJ (as usual). Little did my drunken self know, that I was actually talking to Laidback Luke and his wife Gina Turner. They were DJing under their joint DJ alias Nouveau Yorican, which is why I hadn't realised they'd both be there. Life tip: talk to everyone because you never know who you could end up talking to.

H x 

A drive from England to Italy-and back.

In August of 2011, my family and I decided to embark on a trip from Hampshire, England to the island of Elba in Italy. This journey took place in our rather unsightly (sorry mum) people-carrier-esq bright red vehicle. My sister and I in the back, Mum and Dad in the front. I am able to remember this trip so vividly not only because of the 4000 photos I took, but also because of my musical companion (iPod). Sitting in a car for 3 days straight means you have a lot of time on your hands to think and listen to music.

So the trip in all its entirety went something like this:

Get in car, drive to Dover, hop on ferry to Calais, drive down through France, enter the Mont Blanc tunnel on the French side, exit the other side of the mountain into main land Italy, hop on another ferry with the car and finally reach the destination of Elba. Then 2 weeks later we did it all again in reverse but decided to add a few little de-tours here and there, so ended up driving through northern Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium and northern France. (Just a few de-tours.)

For someone who had never seen mountains before this was all pretty exciting and as we got stuck in a 2 hour long queue to enter the Mont Blanc tunnel, I had plenty of time to pretend I was a professional landscape photographer. So bear with the mountain photos, I was 16 when I took them.

This photo reminds me of a scene from Super Mario Kart ^_^

Playing around with the zooom! Nature can be really intricate at times.

Driving through the tunnel I used the long exposure setting to capture the tunnel lights rushing by. I never expected this to happen. It looks like a spine. Life is full of surprises. 

The ferry journey over to Elba was pretty spectacular, especially as it was well timed with sun down.

I am a sucker for sunsets...

At this beach I was stung by a jellyfish, which hurt like hell, but still doesn't detract from the beauty of this place.

I am a massive foodie and obviously going to Italy for the first time was pretty incredible for my taste buds. Nothing will beat this simple dish of Gnocchi, tomatoes, cheese and herbs. This was eaten in a small village on the top of a hill on the island. Even though the island is only 224sq KM it houses plenty of tiny villages nestled away in the hills and mountains. Great for the avid hiker. (Or people like me who can be persuaded up mountains with food.)

I don't have any decent photos of the day we actually did hike up the tallest mountain on the island, got lost and had to start rationing our water and food. It was clearly too thrilling of a day to remember to take photos.

A view of Lake Como on the drive back to England. We stopped off for a couple hours just to soak in the beautiful views and food. All I have is four words for that little pitstop: Melon and Parma Ham!

As the journey home was longer than the journey to Elba, we had to split the trip up and stay a couple nights here and there. In Germany we stumbled across this tiny wine-making village. Tiny cute shops, great food and hospitality and great wine (duh!). I had never been to Germany either, so this was a great first place to visit.

At the beginning of this post I briefly told you about the great music that accompanied me on this trip. Great for me, probably not that great for other people. My music library that summer consisted of the Creamfields festival 2011 album and 6 or 7 different Tiesto Club Life podcasts. 

These songs still to the day take me back to that summer whenever I listen to them.

H x