Letter from France: June 2013 part 1

Château de ChantillyOnly June 22: Musical Night at the Château de Chantilly
Next Saturday from 6pm to midnight, the gardens of the magnificent Chantilly Castle will host a musical night of about fifty short classical music concerts that will be played in a dozen stages throughout the park. Thousands of candles on the ground will create [...]

In the footsteps of Jean Cocteau

One of the appeals of Menton on the French Riviera is the largest museum dedicated to the works of Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), a famous French artist who died fifty years ago. Frederic exolores the museum and the three towns forever linked with his work.

Identity and Passport Service

From the website:

“The Identity and Passport Service is responsible for issuing UK passports and identity cards and for the registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales. It is an executive agency of the Home Office.”

Yellowstone or bust! Iconic National Park to open as scheduled, thanks to local community efforts

America’s first National Park, Yellowstone, will open as scheduled in early May after local communities in the state of Wyoming spearheaded efforts to overcome a US$1.8 million federal funding cut

Five fab reasons to head to the American west this autumn

Post summer travel boasts big benefits: smaller crowds, cooler temperatures, and off-season hotel specials, just to name a few. Check out these five reasons to pack your bags and head west…

The End of Homecoming Year

Over the weekend over 40 events really saw the end of Scotland’s Homecoming Year. As you will remember this was a year long celebration of things Scottish and a determined effort to draw people back to their roots. It was almost an attempt to woo people back much as the Irish have successfully done. The timing, though this couldn’t have been planned, gave Scotland a strong tourism appeal whilst other countries laboured to attract visitors. With St Andrew’s Day today heralding the official end, it is probably too early to say how successful it was although that hasn’t stopped people from hailing it as a runaway success.

Where the experts holiday: Kip Brook, travel writer and director of Word of Mouth Media

Travel writer and director of Word of Mouth Media NZ (a national media company in New Zealand), Kip Brook, talks travel