Over the hills, under the moon - and off the beaten path

  Can an entire cathedral be a secret? The Cathedrale de Jean Linard sits hidden in the rolling Berry countryside, near a village so small - Neuvy-Deux-Clochers - that most people drive straight past it without knowing either exists. Jean Linard was a potter. Then he became a sculptor, an engraver, a painter.  When he bought an old flint quarry in 1961, he did what any reasonable person would do: he started building a cathedral in his back garden, ad he kept building it for nearly fifty years, until he died in 2010 He'd been inspired by the Facteur Cheval, a postman in the Drôme who spent thirty-three years constructing a fantastical palace because he tripped over a stone one day and liked its shape. And by Gaudí, who started the Sagrada Família in 1882 and whose church - as you may have noticed - still isn't quite finished. What connected these three men - Linard, Cheval, Gaudi - was simple: they had an idea, and they didn't stop. The stubbornness became the point. Af...

   We live, we are frequently told, in an age of unprecedented connectivity. Platforms connect us. Networks connect us. A man in Copenhagen can, in a matter of a splitsecond, reach a man in Sao Paulo even though he might not have anything particular urgent to say. This is considered progress and a part of modernity. But Rita and I had yesterday the occasion in the Burgundian village Rogny-les-Sept-Ecluses to stand next to a staircase of stone and water which showed that we moderns have of course not invented the idea of connecting stuff. Someone back in the 17th century dreamt of connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel by making a passageway from the Loire river to the Seine. And here on this hill in Burgundy, at the watershed between the two mighty rivers, is the result of that thought.   By building seven locks pressed together in a staircase up a hillside in Rogny, the boats could ascend the twenty-four metres up from the Loire valley.   Twelv...

  The plan was to escape. This is important context! Nordic winters are long and grey and self-serious, and by the end of February Rita and I had reached the point where the darkness stops feeling atmospheric and starts feeling personal. France, we reasoned, would be different. France in early March would be spring. There would be light. There would be warmth. There would be outdoor tables and wine and the specific looseness that comes from sitting in the sun in a country that takes lunch seriously. And then we rented a small house in the town of Sancerre Sancerre sits on a hill in the Loire Valley and is known, globally, for one thing: its white wine. Sauvignon blanc of considerable reputation. Writers have praised it. Sommeliers have wept over it. Restaurants in Copenhagen, London and New York charge serious money for a glass of it. We looked forward to be living at the source.  Now we are, and all is grey. It is cold. It rains every day. Not the dramatic Nordic cold that...

Selling a house should be regarded as just a transaction.  That, at least, is what one of our more unsentimental friends told us. Yet, as we packed up our now-sold townhouse in the mountain village of Antraigues-Sur-Volane in Southern France, we found that the cardboard boxes stacked in our living room represented more than mere containers for transporting objects. They were, in fact, inadequate vessels for what we were truly attempting to pack: Almost twenty years of lived experience. The real estate listing described our house as a "charming two-bedroom property with traditional features," but it failed to capture what this place actually represents.  This has not just been our vacation house. During the last many years it became truly our home away from home as the seasonal rhythms of our visits created a peculiar form of belonging.  Though we were never full-time residents, the village baker would greet us warmly upon our arrival each year, and the neighbors woul...

Yesterday, I crawled through muddy, dark Roman-era tunnels below Lisbon. They are normally completely filled with groundwater, and only a few visitors get access each year. The tunnels were carved during the reign of Emperor Augustus. For centuries, they directed underground rainwater while empires above rose and fell. Eventually, they were sealed off and forgotten. People rediscovered them completely by chance during the rebuilding after the 1755 earthquake, which turned most of Lisbon into rubble. Today, the crypts are pumped dry on just a couple of days each year. The only entry to the below is through a narrow shaft in the middle of the busy Rua da Conceição, right between the rails of the 28 tram line. The stairs leading down are steep and risky, and when you finally reach the galleries, a few temporary lights illuminate the void that stood in total darkness for more than a Millenium. Some passages are so low that you must crawl on your knees. It is wet and claustrophobic....

Yesterday we walked along Lisbon's shores. It was a trip of big contrasts, from direct decay to real delight.  We started the day out by walking past the crumbling warehouses and empty factories at Cais do Ginjal. By the evening, we were eating golden sardines and moist monkfish at Ponto Finale. Lisbon really gives you these weird mixtures.  Cais do Ginjal is the waterfront just across the river. It used to be thrumming with life and workers, but now it stands totally empty. It is a relic from Portugal’s industrial days, slowly succumbing to rust and weather.  Wandering past locked warehouses with peeling paint and cracked glass, you can almost hear the ghosts of ships being loaded many years ago. It makes you think. Wildflowers sprouted straight out of the bricks that have been worn down by salt air. There was graffiti everywhere across the bad walls, like someone was trying to claim back these forgotten buildings. In one warehouse, a whole wall had collapsed righ...