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The Atlas

Europe

14 Jul

Masseria San Giuliano

On the eastern coast of Sicily, between Catania and Siracusa, one face to the mountain and the other to the sea, gentled by vineyards  and rolling hills, sits the lovely Masseria San Giuliano.  A masseria is a fortified residence consisting of a main villa and large enclosed courtyard surrounded by other buildings.  San Giuliano has been in the same...

29 Jun

A Place & Time for Food

It was quite a moment when Copenhagen’s Noma snatched the pinnacle of the world’s best restaurants from El Bulli in 2010.  The 2-Michelin star, 40 seat restaurant belongs to Chef Rene Redzepi, a Dane who spent many formative years in Macedonia, and who has worked in host of temples to gastronomy throughout Europe. Noma is located in North...

19 Apr

Hotel Verhaegen

This extraordinary moment we find ourselves in — grounded for days by forces beyond our control — contains a silver lining for some.  Stranded in unfamiliar locations, travelers are  forced to explore their surroundings in greater depth and my hope is that they will find gems that will, on balance, make their time out valuable and fun. Friends...

13 Apr

Bayonne Market

  Bayonne, the capital of the northern Basque country, sits at the confluence of the Adour and Nive rivers and has been, for centuries, a port of great significance.  There are a number of quartiers but the most lively and picturesque are Le Grand Bayonne, Saint Esprit with its Romanesque church and le Petit Bayonne with its typical Bayonne houses...

11 Apr

Hegia – The Magic of Arnaud Daguin

  The renowned chef, Arnaud Daguin, is an inheritor of a name and a profession which he has made his own.  Born and raised in Gascogny, the son of Andre Daguin, he and his siblings have 7 generations of chefs in his family.  Years of working for his father and training in Paris, traveling and trying his hand at other occupations and, ultimately,...

9 Apr

france’s Provence

There is a wonderful warm feeling arriving back in Provence and a jolt that  reminds me how much I miss France’s countryside.  The warmth is rooted in a timelessness evidenced in the routines of daily life..the marketplace, the string bag with groceries, the cobbled hill streets, the strong and substantial older folks who seem so independent,...

5 Apr

Buda and Pest

The Danube runs through this architecturally stunning city, separating the 7 hills that make up Buda from the flat (formerly agricultural) plain of Pest.  Guided by Kati, a native of this city and a lover of history, I spent my first rainy afternoon here on a driving and walking tour through Pest, the commercial heart of the city and one that staggers...

2 Feb

Annemieke Broenink

It is such a thrill to come across creative souls!  Annemieke Broenink is the creator of rubber necklace, shawl, tunic jewelry that not only looks marvelous but feels so great to wear.  I am a shawl person in a very bone-deep way — there is a certain security I feel when I have a piece of cloth draped about my shoulders.  And now, with her...

11 Dec

El Bulli – Irresistible

1961. It all began with a minigolf installation… Doctor Hans Schilling, a German homeopathic doctor, and his wife Marketta, Czechoslovakian in origin but German byadoption, came to Roses at the end of the 1950s, and having fallen in love withCala Montjoi, they decided to buy a piece of land there. The setting for the building that the doctor...

3 Dec

Ski Safari

  Does Pascal smell snowcoming? No, no of course not. Then again I can’t help wondering if he mighthave some sixth sense for Alpine weather. After a quiet coffeetogether before everyone wakes, he informs me that we will not be taking thehelicopter as planned this morning. But not to worry—he has another spot inmind. Ski safaris in Europe are...

1 Dec

Meditations on Travel #5

Traveling to the great natural and cultural places on our earth transcends the notion of right season, wrong season. Indeed, there may be material considerations when visiting in the off-season, weather and price among them, but there is also another: only then do these icons show themselves for what they really are. Venice rarely sees snow in winter,...

27 Nov

Your Greek House

My friendship with Mikela Varagis goes back a number of years, a friendship based not only on professional collegiality but also on a common passion – we both love property and interior design.  Mikela is the source of some of the best in Greece and her houses, carefully chosen and edited, are gathered in her company’s collection, MV-Properties....

1 Oct

Turkish Flavours

  Selin Rozanes is the kind of Turkish Mother you would like to have grown up with…warm, smart, pragmatic — and a superb cook.  Having tired of office work a few years back, she opened her own culinary business, offering cooking lessons in her antique-filled home and then expanding out of the kitchen to offer insights in to all aspects...

29 Sep

Cornucopia: An Inspiring Magazine

My taste for magazines has waned in the recent past.  Perhaps it is that thumbing magazine pages has become the luxurious occupation of the non-working person; perhaps it is the fault of the Kindle which,though I love it, takes some of the emotional and aesthetic pleasure away from flipping through.  Or, it could be that magazines, themselves, have...

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