Giant Panda - Fiat Grande Panda LaPrima Turbo 1200 ch
My thoughts on driving a hired Fiat Grande Panda LaPrima Turbo 1200 ch for a week in the Alps and the South of France
The Grande Panda LaPrima is the SUV version of the ubiquitous Fiat Panda, the resemblance stops with the name, the shape is SUV not the blocky half-van seen on rural school runs and farms. There’s no way this is a “Panda on steroids”. It’s high, the profile is SUV and looks big, so is competitive in the arms race of road presence. Visually striking, the Grande Panda LaPrima turns heads. The style is blocky, like a Lego car. It looks like it might go off-road but it’s very much a suburban SUV.
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Chamonix balcony hike - GR Tour du Mont Blanc
Hiking the balcony route north above the Chamonix valley, facing Mont Blanc. The route varies between about 1950 m. and 2050 m. with noticeable changes in elevation along the way. Starting from the rock desolation of the ski routes around the upper terminal of the Planpraz télécabine, which goes on up to the rocky bergerie of le Brévent (2525 m.). Hiking first on 4WD service roads but then crossing rocky middle mountain terrain. It’s a section of the GR Tour du Mont Blanc but lacks the usual GR trail markers.
le Brévent (2525 m.)
Climber making progress on a granite face, high up on Le Brévent (2525 m.), across the valley from Mont Blanc (4808 m.) and more than a kilometre vertically above Chamonix. Views from the cable-car of le Brévent télépherique, itself a major engineering marvel.
Club Piaggio Savoie rally
Scooter life. Fun! Colourful scooters and motorbikes of the Savoie group of Club Piaggio out on a rally run. Old, classic and new, some four-stroke but many still leaving the nostalgic smell and smoke of two-stroke oil. We saw them setting off after lunch at Faverges, not far from Annecy.
Carro
A small beach on the Mediterranean on the Côte Bleue, west of Marseille. Multi-coloured box beach flats, wild birds and a sandy beach.
Water in Wasdale - Lake District National Park
Pictures of Wast Water and Nether Beck waterfalls in Wasdale in the Western Lake District.
Solway Coast sunshine
Riding the North Cumbria coast; warm summer sunshine on a route that I often enjoy riding my Ninja Z250SL in the winter when the coast is warmer than around the Cumbrian Fells. Clear views of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland over the Solway Firth.
Yew hedge - Keswick
Cumbrian Mist
Now the weather is back to the Cumbrian Cloud Forest climate and the heatwave is a distant nightmare, I set about tackling a Yew hedge that must be at least as old as the house. A previous gardener trained the young tree to be a hedge, like laying a thorn hedge around a field. Subsequent gardeners have let it sprawl, almost to the point of collapse.
Bassenthwaite Lake tour - Lake District National Park
Ouse Bridge, River Derwent
Underskiddaw
Riding a circuit of Bassenthwaite Lake on my Rockhopper mountain bike: Underskiddaw, Dodd Wood, Ouse Bridge, Wythop Wood, Thornthwaite and Braithwaite. No big climbs, mostly quiet roads, bit of gravel path but unfortunately a couple of stretches with fast traffic. Good use of the wide spread of gears on the Expert version of the Rockhopper hardtail bike.
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Going to the Galibier (2642 m.)
Dawn as I gear up to ride north from Marseille
The great pleasure of riding to the Alps of Upper Provence for a few days on my CBR600RR and meeting with my riding mate from Annecy, riding his GSX750. We rode together many of the Alpine cols around and up to the great Col du Galibier (2642 m.) between Savoie and Provence.
Quatuor pour la fin du Temp - Festival Messiaen
Quatuor pour la fin du Temp, Olivier Messiaen - Église de La Grave, Festival Messiaen 2026
An extraordinary concert, marked by the extreme commitment of both the musicians and the audience, resulting in an exceptional partnership for the performance. La Grave isn’t easy to get to so everyone had made effort to be at the concert.
A sunny day in Borrowdale - Lake District National Park
Stonethwaite
Taking advantage of a rare sunny day in Borrowdale and Langstrath for a hike up and down the valley, following the Langstrath Beck. The Cumbria Way long distance path was busy with day and overnight hikers. Blackmoss Pot was busy too with people enjoying the cool water plunge.
My watch thermometer indicated 30.5°C in the shade around 2pm. Borrowdale and in particular Seatoller are known for the high annual rainfall so a sunny day in Borrowdale is a precious thing to be enjoyed.
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Cilaos crater hike, Forêt du Grand Matarum GR R1 - Parc national de La Réunion
Piton des Neiges (3070 m.), view from Cilaos (1150 m.)
View of Cilaos village from GR R1. Indian Ocean horizon beyond the crater.
Hiking up the inside of the volcanic crater from the town of Cilaos on the GR R1 long-distance hiking route. This, the Forêt du Grand Matarum, is primal tropical forest, never harvested. But all the species have arrived from somewhere since the volcano went quiet so there’s a hotchpotch of trees and plants we know from Europe plus many from elsewhere.
More photos: Cilaos crater hike, Forêt du Grand Matarum GR R1 - Parc national de La Réunion
