France Etc

I don’t seem to be very good at keeping up with writing this at the moment…and now have far too much to write in a ten minute lunch break. Will try harder…

We spent two fantastic weeks in September/October in France, firstly in the Ardeche and secondly in a friend’s House in Marseillan.

The highlight of the first week was canoeing down the Ardeche River through it’s wonderful gorge, camping en route. After a day’s paddling in some of the best scenery in France, what better than to make a fire, cook a couple of steaks on it and wash it down with a bottle of red wine (miraculously having survived the journey) and some Talisker, smuggled into France in the hunter’s flask. We capsised fire minutes after getting into the boat the next day.

The second week involved lots of lazing about on a roof terrace reading, listening to music, eating cheese, drinking wine and playing Scrabble. This was punctuated by long walks along the beach, and blissfully lonely swims in the Med. Strange how books and music shape a holiday. Listened mainly to Joni Mitchell’s Blue and read Anthony Burgess’s Earthly Powers – both genuine masterpieces, the latter in particular shooting up my list of all time great works. Marseillan is one of the Oyster capitals of Europe and you can pick up a dozen for about 3 quid. Ate Oysters every day for a week; could I justify emigrating to the south of France based on the price of Les Huitres? No, but only because I’d miss English beer too much.

Last month I went the CAMRA beer festival in Oxford town hall. Absolutely worth going, if only to taste Hobsons Mild for the first time (CAMRA Supreme Champion Beer 2007). Wonderful flavours: quite malty and biscuity and with a nice bitterness. Haven’t seen it anywhere since. I’ve been into the Eagle and Child in Oxford quite a lot recently. It’s a pub I didn’t frequent as a student, but it’s just round the corner from where I work. Quite a good little pub (albeit with a misjudged conservatory style extension mercifully hidden at the back.) It’s where CS Lewis and Tolkien used to drink. They keep a good pint of London Pride, always seem to have Deuchars IPA (which I tend not to fancy after Summer) and I’ve recently been won over by Brakspear Bitter.

Listening:

Martin Simpson: Prodical Son  (Blew me away. Best album of the year.)

Davey Graham: Folk, Blues and Beyond (And have been since September. Why did nobody tell me about  this when I was eighteen. )

Joni Mitchell: Blue (See above)

Ralph Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending

JS Bach – Watchet Auf

Schubert – Winterreise

Reading:

Anthony Burgess: Earthly Powers (Genius. Read it.)

Iris Murdoch: The Sea, The Sea (In progress; not sold on it yet.)

Richard Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable and The Ancestors Tale

Alan Bennett: Writing Home and Untold Stories (Dipping in and out. Brilliant, obvioulsy.)

Viewing:

Mark Demsteader, Manchester artist, Oxford Inspires gallery (hit and miss, but a couple worth seeing.)

Joe’s Palace, BBC1 – The excellent Poliakoff at his best. Michael Gambon superb.

Great Langdale, Crinkle Crags, Dungeon Gyhll and a couple of decent pubs

No posts for ages, I know. We’ve been away the last two weekends, most recently to the Lake District, where we spent four days in Great Langdale. Alas, while the rest of the country basked in sunshine, we were subjected to torrential rain and gale force winds. We lost the path at the top of Crinkle Crags in what were probably the worst conditions I’ve ever experienced while hiking; visibility was down to a couple of metres, which meant that any path that wasn’t completely continuous became a real hazard. It was, ultimately, a really satisfying day, given the challenges faced, but in future I think I’ll consider what emergency equipment I’ve got in my rucksack a little more carefully – for the first time I was contemplating thoughts of having to spend the night on the fells.

 I should add that Crinkle Crags, would, on a fine day, be a great walk; I can’t wait to  try it again. 

 We were camping at the National Trust campsite in Great Langdale which I would recommend. I usually prefer a more secluded smaller campsite, but it does have very hot showers and well maintained facilities. There is a great hikers pub nearby (The Old Dungeon Ghyll) with lots of real ale (Black Sheep Bitter, Black Sheep Ale, Old Peculier, Yorkshire Terrier, Theakstons XB, Jennings Cumberland Ale) and loads of malt whiskies (I stuck to Tallisker 10 yr old, as it happens).  Down the road is another pub worth looking in at called The Sticklebarn. We walked from the The Old Dungeon Ghyll  along the bridleway past Dungeon Ghyll waterfall to get to it, and stopped for a pint of the delicious Bitter and Twisted. I’d give the next pub along, The New Dungeon Ghyll, a miss.

Easter in the Lake District – Helvellyn

We were up in the Lake District the week before Easter (photos only going up now). The weather was unbelievable for April (and on a few days, would have been unbelievable for August). We arrived on Wednesday morning, and despite my girlfriend having just arrived on a flight from Hong Kong we decided to climb Helvellyn – up Swirral Edge and down Striding Edge. Both edges are superb in their own right; Approaching Swirral with Red Tarn on your left is a great sight, especially when it’s sunny. Swirral itself is best at the point where a gap appears on your right hand side, opening up a brand new vista for the first time. Striding Edge is even more exhilarating. Most people seem to do it on the ascent, but I don’t think it really makes much difference to how much fun it is, clambering as you are over bare jagged rock, with lots of mini-summits to drag yourself up.

There’s a fairly decent pub called the Traveller’s Rest on the road that takes you down to Glenridding that we hit at the bottom. The beer was really great (Cumberland Ale), and we enjoyed a couple of evenings there over the next few days, even if the food left a little to be desired. There’s quite a lot on the menu (sadly of the chicken burger/jumbo sausage/frozen fish variety). I don’t understand why pubs like this feel the need to offer so many meals; it invariably leads to poor quality. I’d rather see four or five really simple, fresh dishes.

Anyhow, the beer probably made up for it.

I say it every time I’m there, but I believe that Glenridding is missing a really good pub. The cottage (an old miners cottage) we stayed in just outside Glenridding was great, with fantastic views of the fells, but as for Glenridding itself, I prefer villages like Threlkeld (with the superlative Horse and Farrier) , Braithwaite (with the Coledale Inn) or Sawrey (Near with the Tower Bank Arms, or Far with the wonderful Sawrey Hotel).