On honeymoon... next to a car park
CONTINUING our series featuring the holiday memories of famous people, this week actress ZOE WANAMAKER, 68,
recalls her life of adventures… The first holiday I can remember: When I was eight my parents rented a house on Hayling Island on the South Coast. It had an apple tree and I got horribly sick from bingeing on all of the fruit. First time abroad: We went to the South of France when I was ten and stayed in a tiny house at the top of a hill between Nice and Cannes. I learnt to speak some French, along with mastering how to swim butterfly. We also stayed nearby with some friends of my parents and slept outside in tents. I can remember the smell of pine cones. They were a huge family and were into butterfly-catching, which I thought was terribly cruel. Top school trip: I remember a holiday where a group of young people from across the country went away with a few adults. We visited Florence and a little island off Naples, where I drank vodka and orange and got drunk for the very first time.
My honeymoon: My husband Gawn was working on a play in Wales at the time but had a day off, so we married in London and then caught the train back to the Majestic Hotel, where he was staying. On the train we had breakfast in a relatively plush cabin and when we got to the hotel we were given a bottle of champagne. They’d put out balloons, too. But our room was right by the car park. It was far from majestic.
Best break: Gawn and I stayed at a hotel in the Atlas mountains. It was beautiful but the real excitement was that John Profumo and his wife Valerie Hobson were staying there. She wore a turban and false eyelashes – I thought she looked really exotic.
My nightmare: Before I met Gawn, I went to Venice with my then boyfriend. He had been working in Edinburgh and on the trip I discovered that he had been unfaithful. Luckily, it was only a long weekend but it was still tough and painful. It was over after that.