Prince Albert, November 2024 – Top 10 reasons to visit

Prince Albert’s marvellous mayor and cultural characters; getting to Prince Albert; staying with Linda and André; the Swartberg Hotel and bobotie; charming townscape and dream houses; bin art; local produce: unrivalled EVOO, unpasteurised dairy and unmissable lamb; Striking Metal and Karoo Looms, plus samoosas to die for; you can check out any time you like…

Before I go on, the Prince Albert restaurant featured above is called The Rude Chef, and we hear that the owner can be blunt at times. But she was as sweet as pie when we had dinner there with Linda and André on our first night… and that was despite the electrical blackout that mostly came and sometimes went.

I’ve blogged about Prince Albert before: click here for my 2018 story, if you like. But here are my current Top 10 reasons to visit this Great Karoo dorp.

#1 Its Marvellous Mayor

Apart from its being so exceptionally karaktervol (full of character, or even characters), what takes Roy and me back there is that our friends Linda and André retired to the town more than 20 years ago after their long careers in the South African diplomatic corps. And now, after two decades of service to the community, Linda is the hard-working Mayor of Prince Albert.

With Linda Jaquet, long-time marvellous human being and current mayor of Prince Albert, in the front garden of Fransie Pienaar Museum, November 2018

For her sins, she might say, having fortitudinously steered the town through the vicissitudes of central governmental ineptitude in general and its woeful handling of the dreadful COVID-crisis in particular. (My words, not hers. And though as an old friend I’m naturally biased, it has to be said that she’s a bloody marvellous human being.)

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#2 Culture Vultures

Apart from serving the working farming community around it, Prince Albert is a thriving tourism magnet. Its population includes a lot of sometimes-retired “professors and experts in botany, anthropology, astronomy, gastronomy, art, film-making and photography”, according to getaway.co.za. Many of them contribute to the town’s impressive list of cultural events: apart from the annual Prince Albert Town Festival in April, there are festivals of olives, books, films and art, plus winter schools for artists, jewellers, writers and chefs. This is a busy little place!

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Cape Town Foodfest, October 2024

Culinary capital of the world: Cape Town; top ten foodie cities; four nights in Cape Town; getting there: turn left at Bloemfontein, plus some 1980s nostalgia; oysters at Mount Nellie; three great restaurants: one pan-Asian, one Italian and one uber-fancy; the bottom line – exciting food that’s still exceptionally good value

I’m itching to post the fourth and final instalment of This is the House that Roy and Verne Built – especially as we’ve finally moved in: O frabjous day, Calloo! Callay! (Here’s a link to number three.) But Roy and I had four such enjoyable weeks in South Africa a couple of months ago that it would be a pity not to get them on the record.

Cape Town, Culinary Capital of the World

Cape Town was recently crowned the best city in the world for food – can you believe it? That’s according to Condé Nast Traveller’s 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards. And the announcement was coincidentally made on 23 October, just as Roy and I were boarding a Singapore Airways flight from Perth WA to South Africa’s Mother City.

Top Ten Foodie Cities

Here’s the world’s top ten foodie cities, as voted by Condé Nast readers: (If this was one of those moronic Facebook posts, I’d have to divulge to all and sundry that Milan is the only one I haven’t yet been to.)

Cape Town, South Africa
Milan, Italy
Valencia, Spain
Tokyo, Japan
Porto, Portugal
Hong Kong, China
Bangkok, Thailand
Rome, Italy
Singapore
Sydney, Australia

Cape Town, Table Mountain — Table Mountain from Tamboerskloof on a clear day

Four Nights in Cape Town

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Historic South of France, June 2024, Part 3: Arles and Béziers

Historic South of France; day trip from Marseillan to historic Béziers and those murderous Crusaders; one night in Arles; Arles Arena, the ancient Roman amphitheatre; Hotel de L’Amphitheatre; Van Gogh exhibition; currently kaput Van Gogh Café; two Arles restaurants – Gaudina and La Gueule du Loup; downtown Arles and the Rhône riverside

A. Day Trip to Béziers

With so many day-tripping possibilities available from Marseillan (for examples, see Part 2 of this trilogy), we almost didn’t get to Béziers. I’m so glad we did!

Béziers City Centre

Parking is free at the open-air Parking du Vieux Pont. From there, you can walk over the old bridge and up the hill into the historic town centre, ascending either by several long flights of stairs, or three lifts.

Or a combination; I think we did two lifts and one set of stairs.

Béziers view: Roy with the triumphant look of a man who has climbed a lot of stairs and can now stop for coffee

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Marseillan Port Highlights, 2-29 June, Part 2 – Oysters & Noilly Prat

Marseillan port highlights: oysters and Noilly Prat; flashback to 2017… and 2023; aerial views of the Camargue; les huitres… shucking marvellous; meaning of concylicole; Le port concylicole des Mazet; les coquillages, especially Coqui Thau; cruise on L’Étang de Thau; Oyster Farming #101; Maison Noilly Prat; three more Marseillan restaurants; Father’s Day at home with Wendy

Oysters are synonymous with the Étang de Thau – a 22km-long lagoon fed by the Mediterranean Sea. You can enter it by boat from Le Canal du Rhône à Séte, which is how Roy and I got to Marseillan in July/August 2017 on our boat Karanja, while en route to the start of Le Canal du Midi. (For that story, plus scads of Boaty-McBoatface photos, click here.)

Flashback to August 2017…

Crossing LÉtang de Thau from Séte to Marseillan on Karanja, on a hazy day.

… and to mid-2023

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Marseillan Port, 2-29 June 2024, Part 1

A month in Marseillan port, a gorgeous spot in the South of France; avoiding confusion; cassoulet at Marseillan Plage; Here Come the Campbells… the Baragwanaths and Wendy; out and about in Marseillan; running around L’Étang de Thau; two fêtes worse than death (not really); Marseillan Cheat Sheet; our favourite restaurants; best day-trips from Marseillan

A full year ago, Roy booked us a two-bedroom apartment in Résidence Farenc in the port town of Marseillan, right on the water, for almost the entire month of June. Four weeks might sound like a long time to be in the same place. But when the time came to leave, I felt I could have stayed another month. Roy said he felt the same way.

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Two Weeks in England, 15-30 May 2024, Part 3 – East Sussex and London

Two weeks in England: Detour to Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex; beating the bank holiday traffic; De La Warr Pavilion; Laetitia Yhap art exhibition; Relais Cooden Beach; via Lewes to London; Docklands and Canary Wharf; shopping disappointment; two London shows; Blackheath pub grub; Gatwick Sofitel and EasyJet to Montpellier

It’s over 300 miles (480km) from Liverpool to the Sussex east coast, where I’d managed to convince Roy to take us to spend the night at the Relais Cooden Beach, at Bexhill-on-Sea. (As mentioned before, I do freelance writing and editing work for the Relais Group, which also took us to The Relais Henley the previous week: see Part 1 of Two Weeks in England, here). On the other hand, it would be just a two-hour drive the next day from Bexhill-on-Sea to London, the last stop before France.

We expected a good 5.5 hour drive from Liverpool, plus the frequent pit-stops that this flesh of mine is hostage to; so leaving early was a good idea. Like most Brits, Roy vehemently dislikes being wrested untimely from his bed; but we were surprisingly up, out, and on the road by 7.15am… and that was how we beat the Monday bank holiday traffic.

Bexhill-on-Sea

Relais Cooden Beach is located in the southern part of Bexhill-on-Sea.

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Two Weeks in England, 15-30 May 2024, Part 2 – Merseyside

Two weeks in England: Merseyside is not Liverpool: Crosby and The Wirral; three nights in Wallasey; family matters; Roy and 100 other iron men at Crosby; topless in Liverpool

So, from the birthplace of the Bard to the birthplace of Roy. Well, not actually Liverpool – he was born in Crosby, north of Liverpool. The Wirral, a wide peninsula on the other side of the Mersey River, where several family members live, is similarly not Liverpool.

There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.

John Lennon

New Brighton Promenade, on The Wirral – Crosby Beach is on the other side of the water

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Two Weeks in England, 15-30 May 2024, Part 1

Two weeks in England: The Plan; Singapore stopover; nothing to wear; cream tea at The Relais Henley; not visiting Blenheim Palace, Woodstock; not visiting Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford Upon Avon; Roy’s family birthday

It wasn’t easy for Roy to leave the house we’re having built in Perth WA, especially at rather a critical point – our cursed builder went into liquidation, remember? – but this trip had been booked a year earlier. Two weeks in England, then the full month of June in the South of France – bookended by three days in Singapore.

He had planned this first post-COVID trip to England mainly with extended family in mind. It felt well due. His sister Lyndsay and John live near Stratford Upon Avon, so it made sense to kick off with a week there. Then, not having seen Aunty Marjorie, cousin Richard and cousin Kate for far too many years, we would head up to the Wirrall and Liverpool for a few days. Finally, we’d spend four nights in London.

Getting there

We took an SIA flight from Perth to Singapore, arriving on the evening of Sunday 12 May for three days with the ever-hospitable Paul and Salinah. Thanks, guys!

Singapore, all about food and friends… and foodie friends

They do not love that do not show their love.”

Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona

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The House that Roy and Verne Built, Part 3 – Bye-bye, builder

The House that Roy and Verne Built; blast from the past – Parts 1 and 2; our builder went bust, and we heard it through the grapevine; up the creek without a paddle; so dry your tears, woman; counting our blessings; up on the roof, or some pricey scaffolding; Bob the (Un)-builder; ceilings, windows, doors, floors and more; Roy’s stairway to heaven; be of good cheer!

It seems almost inconceivable how long this house-building lark has been dragging on for: three full years since the slab went down in May 2021. So disjointed has the progress been, and so dispiriting the experience, that I haven’t even felt like blogging about it for the past two-and-a-half years.

For Parts 1 & 2 of This is the House that Roy and Verne Built, you can look back at the archives. Or simply click on the links below.

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Tiong Bahru Revisited, February 2024

Tiong Bahru history; Gong Xi Fa Cai!; Tiong Bahru, historic Art Deco Singapore neighbourhood; Geraldene Lowe, national treasure; black-and-white houses, Emerald Hill, Little India and Katong; Tiong Bahru architecture and heritage trail; Lynn & Kim’s gorgeous flat; history of 78 Moh Guan Terrace; eclectic shopping; Tiong Bahru Market; foodies or greedies?; the price of eggs; the price of molestation!

Happy Year of the Dragon!

It’s always good to be back in Singapore. First of all, Gong Xi Fa Cai and Happy Chinese New Year at the start of this auspicious Year of the Wood Dragon. Here’s a photo I took in Upper Cross Street, Chinatown.

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