Keswick’s resident monster, King Kong, lives outside one of the climbing shops. Nobody takes much notice of him these days now his fur has all fallen away. But you never know when he may stir. His friends in Muncaster Castle have been active this past week, scaring visitors in the maze and on Fright Nights. You have been warned.
Comparing two lightweight adventure bikes for maybe riding a bit more in Corsica next year. KTM 390 Adventure and Honda NX500 are both light weight and offer more than enough power for local roads. Either way it’s a step up in comfort from a sportsbike, so maybe less tiring to ride but with a loss of precision and sense of the road surface. So I’m looking for light weight, low rider fatigue and manoeuvrability more than power.
More: Comparing two lightweight adventure bikes - NX500 & KTM390
Fitz Park, Keswick looking fantastic in the autumn sunshine; the fells beyond are swathed in low cloud.
My view of Sheffield Park this fine Sunday just past. A couple of sights which caught my eye plus the classic views of the wonderful autumn display of this garden laid out by Capability Brown, Arthur Soames and their gardeners.
Great weather so a day out riding the roads of the Camargue, the delta of the Rhône between Marseille and Nîmes. Long straight roads then 90° corners, quite different fun to the mountain cols. Coffee in a traditional bar in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in the Alpilles meeting with Jonathan from one of the biker groups online.
My picnic lunch at a drive-in artisan boulangerie at Aigues Mortes was something rather different: Roquefort quiche then a pain-aux-raisons with pistache and raspberry jam filling.
One of my best days of riding this year, topped off with watching the thrilling MotoGP from Phillip Island, Australia.
The week’s storms have passed and the wind has turned to a fierce Tramontane from the West, hence the super-clear blue sky. Good to get out on my Marin Palisades Lite to the beach park at Borély and pedal the Corniche Kennedy: the cycle lane improvements have been completed with the separate cycle lane extended.
Picturesque artisan boulangerie in Marseille 6th arrondissement. Wonderful these places thrive here, their fresh bread, patisseries and Viennoiseries are still some of the great pleasures of life in France. But astonished to see someone reading a book with his petit déj. These are mostly small family businesses, many have been going for generations in the same location. The boulanger here rides a fine bike - a Royal Enfield Himalayan.
An afternoon’s ride-out to the Col de l’Espigoulier (723 m.) to enjoy the hazy sunshine and air at 27°. By no means the only bike out for a session on this fun road just outside Marseille. Photo-bombed as well as out-run on the road while I was working on lines and apexes. Also, keeping the speed well down and being very careful as this was the afternoon following a dawn flight from Heathrow. The usual battle with the Marseille traffic was worthwhile!
Margaux has always been one of the more distinctive Bordeaux villages and finding this branded bottle in a Marseille supermarket has been a discovery. Dry, classic dark cherry taste with a persuasive and persistent nose; the dry wine was a fine complement to Magret de canard with a semi-sweet fig sauce, chef Terry’s final presentation for us here at home in Marseille. Maybe a wine that is peaking too early to be in the top class but cost-effective and worthy of the Margaux appellation. A product of Maison Bouey of Ambarès F3340.
The other bottle on our table, the 51, has filtered table water from the Alps.
Derwent Water seen from Surprise View
Riding my Rockhopper up to Watendlath Tarn (265 m.). A straight climb up to Ashness Bridge, much photographed. A bit further up there’s Surprise View lookout over Derwent Water towards Bassenthwaite Lake and Skiddaw. Once out of the Lodore Woods there’s the enjoyable high valley fed by the beck from Watendlath Tarn. The bridge at the end of the tarn is another stone bridge, also heavily photographed. Picnic on a windy bank above Watendlath Farm. There are routes onwards to either Thirlmere or Rosthwaite but not for me today.
Da Vinci Piano Trio at Keswick Music Society
The new season of Keswick Music Society started with a fine concert of piano trio music. The Da Vinci Trio played four pieces showing the spread of music in this genre: Beethoven innovating by treating each instrument as an individual, Mendelssohn filling the hall with cascades of notes and contrasting the drawn strings with the percussive piano. The student Dimitri Shostakovich exploring various styles which came to feature highly in his later works and the Estonian Arvo Pӓrt treating the trio almost orchestrally.
Nous croyens en l’Europe (We believe in Europe) are illustrations for a tract published by Cocteau in 1961. I see this image as Liberty riding a goat, a reference to Freemasonry and maybe to Cassius Coolidge’s images of Dogs Playing Poker (1894).
Jean Cocteau at Hôtel Napoléon, Menton-Garavan
Permanent display in one of the hotels in Menton-Garavan of works of writer, film director and artist Jean Cocteau (1889-1963); he is maybe best known in England for the title of his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929). Cocteau developed his own visual style at the height of the Art Deco period, worked with Pablo Picasso, was supported by Henri Matisse, is believed to have worked with Jean Genet on the silent film Un chant d’amour (1950) as film editor (the film was banned by the censors on account of its homosexual content), wrote a hit one act drama/monologue for his unlikely friend Edith Piaf and enjoyed a scandalous life as a homosexual whilst this was illegal in France. He was Chair of the jury of the Cannes Film Festivals of 1953 and 1954. Jean Cocteau wrote and directed his last film Le Testament d’Orphée (1960) with financial support from François Truffaut.
Read more: Nous croyens en l’Europe - Jean Cocteau at Hôtel Napoléon, Menton-Garavan
Hike from the Rifugio Albergo Pian del Re (2040 m.) under the North-east face of Monviso (3841 m.) to see the Sources of the River Po, Italy’s longest river that flows from here in the Cottian Alps to the Adriatic across the whole of the north of the country. Close by is the mountain in France, Le Pain de Sucre (3208 m.), another of the very few summits over 3000 m. to which I've hiked.