It’s a beautiful stretch of calm, inky-blue sea, peppered with great hunks of land that hide coves under their fringes.
Our favourite yet was four days hiking (or tramping in Kiwi) through the striking terrain of the Queen Charlotte Sound. So whenever I do make it back to New Zealand I’ll carve out time for a dedicated mum-and-me trip. It’s tricky to get home very often when home is a 28-hour flight away.
Hike the Queen Charlotte Track in New Zealand My mother and I left with sun-kissed skin, salty, unbrushed hair and seafood in our bellies. We climbed hundreds of stairs in the whitewashed hilltop town of Ostuni, jumped toes-first through the silky aquamarine water of Polignano a Mare, and sipped bittersweet Negronis at Area 8 bar (a retro favourite of Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola) in the cliffside city of Matera. We had watched le donne of the streets of Bari spin pieces of orecchiette from their spoons and then toss it to us to nibble on our slippery walks around the waxy city. This time around, we were determined to see what Puglia was all about. A few years before this holiday, we had made the mistake of booking round-trip flights to Bari and never actually making it out of the airport. We went back and forth between cities we knew or venturing deep into the heel of the Italian boot. It was a celebratory trip for me but, in reality, it was a present for her, too. My mother and I spent 12 days dashing around Puglia during my first summer as a university graduate. Katharine Sohn, PA to the editor-in-chief On our last trip, we walked off our Pavyllon cheese souffles at Le Petit Palais museum’s permanent collection, drooled over Saint Laurent belts and Celine coats at preloved store La Boutique de Cara in Le Marais, and drank late-night hot chocolates in one of Cour des Vosges’s contemporary rooms overlooking the capital’s oldest square. While we both see the city through the prism of our youth, its cobbled streets and squares doused in nostalgia, unsavoury aspects even pardoned through sentiment, discovering streets, shops, hotels, galleries and restaurants in this limestone labyrinth on the same footing is truly special. As is our mutual abhorrence for routine, a quirk the city caters to exceptionally well: from tucking into Le Tambour’s foie gras and steak frites just before midnight and ambling through the Tuileries Palace as they’re shutting the heavy gates to hopping on the Réseau Express Régional to off-radar markets.Ĭertain pockets of Paris unlock memories spent here during our formative years – parties that would spill out of medieval-style doorways in Saint-Germain or tourist-free coffee pit stops en route to classes at the Sorbonne. Admittedly, her French is a little better than mine, despite living in Paris for a shorter time, but our hunger for the latest exhibitions, lesser-known Le Marais boutiques and fresh croissants in Montmartre is on par. As a well-seasoned traveller, art enthusiast and French speaker, my mum is the ultimate companion for Parisian jaunts (usually meeting in a mad rush of blonde and bulging bags at London St Pancras after work). Spending time with my mother is a real novelty in our large family. A stroll through the city’s bright, lively streets as we people-watch and catch up on the past year apart will be the perfect way to end our break. No trip is complete without discovering a great new cocktail bar, and while my mum tends to stick to the classics, I’m partial to something a little more experimental, so Caribbean Club, with its delicious Mojitos and creative concoctions, ticks all boxes. Of course, the usual attractions will be on the cards – battling crowds on La Rambla (remember crowds?), marvelling at the Gothic architecture and hopefully visiting some of the best restaurants in Barcelona – but we also intend to get lost in the many brilliant vintage stores around Riera Baixa and carrer dels Tallers, since shopping is what we’ve always done best. Like many others, we had a booking that was cancelled early on in the pandemic, and over the past year we’ve been planning how we’ll spend our time in Barcelona once we get the opportunity to rebook.
Characters in Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love.
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