Experience

Festivals, country shows, guided tours, markets, crossings and the days that do not fit neatly anywhere else. Things with a date attached.

Written as they happened, with the practical detail attached: when to arrive, what it costs, how busy it was, what we would do differently.

Published here

Moreton Show, Batsford Estate
Moreton Show — Where the Heavy Horses Still Matter
Twenty thousand people, three hundred and fifty exhibitors, one day, and a line-up where the headline acts are Shires.
Edit No. 30
Torre Tavira, Cádiz
Torre Tavira — The City That Watched the Ships Come In
An 18th-century watchtower, a live optical projection and the clearest explanation of why Cádiz looks the way it does.
Edit No. 29
Salina Santa Teresa, Chiclana
Salina Santa Teresa — The Salt Marsh Brought Back to Life
For 25 years, Salina Santa Teresa produced no salt. Today the pans are working again, and the marsh around them with them.
Edit No. 29
Maison des Paludiers, Guérande
Maison des Paludiers — Learning to Read the Salt Marshes
A 1.2-kilometre walk from an old salt-working village into the private marshes beyond it. Ninety minutes later, a landscape that initially looks almost empty begins to make sense.
Edit No. 27
Fêtes de Bayonne
Fêtes de Bayonne — Five Days in Red and White
A rugby club, a trip to Pamplona and an idea that got slightly out of hand. Ninety-four years later, an entire city still changes clothes for it.
Edit No. 27

From the archive

Earlier experience pieces, from Edits 01–26. These were published on Vitae and still live there.