A bon voyage round Britain
ILOVE France. Ever since studying at the Sorbonne in the 1960s, I’ve been smitten. And despite an accent that promised more than my grammar delivered, I’ve enjoyed the culture, customs, people and food of our nearest European neighbour – but not their dull guided tours. A cruise round southern Britain and Ireland with the French company Ponant changed that.
You could not wish for a more spectacular departure point. L’Austral left from a mooring close to Tower Bridge. I half expected to be waved off by a troop of yeoman warders from the nearby Tower of London.
The bridge lifted and we sailed under; past Butler’s Wharf, Globe Wharf, past waving crowds and across open seas to Belgium.
On a day as clear as a colour transparency we visited Ghent, a lively canal city, packed with students and bicycles. In St Bavo’s Cathedral we marvelled at the Adoration Of The Mystic Lamb, a luminous altarpiece painted by the Van Eyck brothers, Jan and Hubert, in about 1432. You can almost hear the angels in the heavenly choir.
We headed south-west to the Isle of Wight and Queen Victoria’s country home, Osborne House, described by her as a ‘quiet place of our own’. Her husband Prince Albert seems to have taken charge of childcare. Osborne’s huge playhouse, called Swiss Cottage, was a gift to his children. It reminded him of his childhood in Germany and would comfortably accommodate an entire family. In the garden, the Royal children had their own vegetable plots and would sometimes prepare lunch or tea for their parents.
Lying at the entrance to the English Channel, the Isles of Scilly are famed for the difficult navigation in the surrounding seas.
Even experts have been caught out here. The Scilly naval disaster of 1707 saw the loss of four Royal Navy warships in a storm – and the deaths of more than 1,500 sailors.
From the Scillies we made for Galway on the west coast of Ireland, a thriving port city of pubs and festivals, and after visiting Dunguaire Castle, on a promontory in Galway Bay, where the poet W.B. Yeats and his patron Lady Gregory met and established the Irish Literary movement, we stopped off at Rathbaun Farm for the best scones I’ve ever had.
The Connelly family have been farming sheep there for more than 150 years, from the famine time to the prosperity of today.
The final call on our trip was Belfast and the exhibition Titanic Belfast, which recreates the sounds and stories of the Belfast-built liner’s ill-fated maiden voyage in April 1912.
There was a mix of nationalities on L’Austral but they were predominantly French – which meant that the food was very good. It was interesting, over dinner, to hear the views of a couple from Nice on the Titanic disaster.
The Entente Cordiale is alive and well – at least on board L’Austral.