Blue Sky Living

Hidden Places - Vallon des Auffes Marseille

Famous but difficult to find Vallon des Auffes is the small port where boullabaise, the golden (so named for cost rather than colour reasons) fish soup was first created. Why hidden? The entrance is a small alleyway between two non-descript buildings. Given Marseille’s far from salubrious reputation, it’s the type of dark dingy street you can easily imagine getting mugged in, but brave the first fifteen yards and follow the steep crumbling steps in a precipitous downward curve and you arrive in a hidden land. Small boats bobbing in the clear sea, fishermen mending nets and small cottages painted in Mediterranean bright colours. It’s more reminiscent of a Corsican cove than the sea front in France’s second biggest city. There are two places to eat Chez Fonfon (04.91.52.14.38)

 an upmarket fish restaurant and a busy bustling pizzeria - Chez Jeanott (

04 91 52 11 28)

How to get there - Follow the coastal road around the old port heading west. Keep hugging the coast for approx 5km until you see the pictured war memorial on your right. Park, cross the road, and look for a ridiculously narrow entrance which you can’t possibly believe will lead anywhere.

Credit Crunch hits France

I've written before about how the French have historically been much more prudent than us English and Americans. Credit cards have to be paid off at the end of each month and 100% mortgages are unheard off. But like everywhere else prices are rising and today La Provence warned that families are going to have to cut back on their fruit consumption. A wet spring and the price of petrol has led to rocketing prices - cherries up 30% and apricots up 40%. The figures are yet to be published for melons, but a fat juicy one from our local farm is now over €3. Ironic then that I have just written an article for the Sunday Express (download the pdf at the end of this post) telling the English public that French children are so much healthier because they eat more fruit...not this summer. Download expresspdf.pdf

Berry Brothers and Rudd

As a former lawyer who fell in to a job writing books about rosé by chance I have always been rather worried about my taste buds. At wine tastings other journalists wax lyrical about the aroma of mown summer grass while I gaze forlornly into my glass trying to summon the appropriate adjectives.

Somehow they never come. As I've noted in my books I often prefer supposedly inferior and cheaper wines. Now either this makes me one of the few people who write honestly about wine, uninfluenced by the massive PR machines of the best Chateaus or, and probably more likely, somebody who has had his sense of taste stunned into submission by too many student curries. I bet Robert Parker never had a chilli chicken bomb every Friday night...

Rose overtakes white as drink of choice for the French

Its finally happened rose has become more popular than white wine. Whether its in the dappled shade of a plane tree, glinting in the sunshine by the pool, or people watching in a cafe, the French are switching to pink in their droves. And as anyone who lives in Provence will testify its not just in the summer months, a peppery Tavel is the perfect accompaniment to the bitter clear winter skies. As a result rose has now supplanted white wine in volume sales in France, an event which would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

La Tuilerie

We've just returned to England for a christening and a wedding, but before we left Tanya and I had an interesting conversation with the builder working on our house. The area the house is in is called La Tuilerie, apparently Provencal women used to use their legs as casts for the roof tiles that you see on most of the houses in the area. So far so good - a nice romantic image from the past....

Editor's blog - A Jeremy Clarkson moment

When I first got a publishing deal, a nice lady at the publishers sat me down and said how wonderful it would be if I’d do some signings. “But don’t expect anyone to come,” she said with a wry smile and then told me about the time they’d published Clarkson (it may have been Wogan - I can’t remember). Anyway there was a massive publicity blitz behind the book, posters across town and a high profile signing in Waterstones on Oxford Street...

Aix en Provence - Open air cinema

For the fifth year in a row, Aix is hosting an open air cinema season from 20 July to August 17. Highlights include Hair (Theatre du Verdure 20 Juy, 9.30pm) and West Side Story (3 Aug 9.30pm Bastide du Jas de Bouffan), so go on take the hood of the convertible and head into town for a great evening. Programme available from the following venues: Theatre de Verdure, Musee Granet, La Bastide du Jas de Bouffan, Pavaillon Vendome and the Parc Jordan. Admittance is free.

Events July

From Melon festivals to bull running July is a busy month...just read the extended version of this post for all July's events