Ian is an award winning travel writer and blogger. His travels took him all around the world but his passion lies in Africa. His blog Encircle Africa tells how he traveled the continent Solo and by public transport. With over 30 countries visited he can truly be considered an expert on all things travel and meeting other cultures.
His writing can be found on websites and magazines including Adventure Travel, Southeast Asia Backpacker, Sidetracked, Environment Journal, The Crazy Tourist and The Island Review. He is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers and Travel Writers UK.
“Venice of the North” sounds like an nickname that would be hard to live up to. But Amiens, with its floating gardens and pretty canal district, does a fantastic job. You could catch a barge and cruise through the Hortillonnages, historic farmland reclaimed in the middle ages from former marshes, or stop at a canal-side …
Ancient Nemausus was a city on the Via Domitia, the first Roman road built in Gaul. Now, many hundreds of years after the fall of Rome the monuments constructed here in the 1st century are as good as new. The extraordinary amphitheatre is still used as a stadium for festivals, while the Maison Carrée is …
“Le Mans” means racing: The venerated 24 Hour of Le Mans is still going strong almost a century after the first race. Motorsport lovers can pay homage at the track, and even drive parts of it as the course uses public roads. Then see the veritable treasury of racing heritage at the circuit’s museum. Yet …
If you want to get the most out of Le Havre you have to come ready to experience somewhere that differs from a normal, picturesque French city. Le Havre looked to the future and hired the modernist Auguste Perret, a mentor of Le Corbusier, to rebuild the centre following the destruction of the Second World …
Louis XIV may have had the biggest hand in Montpellier’s history, when he appointed it capital of Bas Languedoc in the 17th century. This put the city in the service of the king and attracted the gentry who built themselves neighbourhood brimming with cultured homes. So there are many mansions to be seen around the …
An urbane city noted for its elegance and high-culture, Aix has been settled by some of France’s preeminent minds and artists. Most notable of all is Paul Cézanne who immortalised the limestone peak of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, which rises to the east of the city. Provence is famously scorching in summer, but the streets of …
Like many port around the world, Marseille long had a reputation for seediness and crime. And there’s still a scruffiness about the city today, which is no bad thing. It lends Marseille a rakish character and gives it an intoxicating dynamism and colour. You can see it all in neighbourhoods like Le Panier, Noailles and …
Nice’s unofficial anthem is Nissa La Bella, and you can’t help but agree with this sentiment when you visit the French Riviera’s largest city. Nice’s beauty comes from the 19th-century mansions on its promenades and boulevards, from the city’s Italianate old quarter and the rugged natural terrain that provides countless wondrous vantage points. Artists have …
Just the name of this glorious city is eponymous with viticulture, and if you’re an aficionado you’re almost duty-bound to come to the home of wine. You don’t need to be told that there’s a world of prestigious châteaux and smaller wineries to locate and visit. But you might not be aware of the brand …
The capital of the northern Hauts-de-France region, Lille has a reputation as a hard-working industrial city, and has a fabulous historical centre. Until it was invaded by Louis XIV in 1667 Lille was actually Flemish, and this heritage is clear in the city’s architecture. Old Lille has an abundance of baroque buildings, with delicately gabled …