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LEISURE 37
This week’s dream: around Flanders in a 2CV
behind the bargain-booze warehouses
“Countless Left Bank philosophers spent
clustered around the port”. Flanders, like
a lifetime trying to get to the heart of the
most of rural France, is lovely. There may
French psyche,” says Rufus Purdy in The
not be any vineyards, but there are rolling
Observer. But there’s a little car with a
poppy fields – and few tourists. As you
“roll-back roof and an engine like a
putter along empty roads, from medieval
pneumatic drill” which will transport you
village to quaint town, the view is of
there in the space of a weekend. The
gently undulating countryside and “crêpeCitroen 2CV, “better known on the
flat plains criss-crossed with silvery canals
Continent as the deux chevaux because
that glint in the sunlight”. Fat bees the
of its minimal horsepower”, was the first
size of ping-pong balls bounce off the
car that people could afford, and in the
windscreen, and cows “more doe-eyed
Fifties and Sixties “everybody in France
than Brigitte Bardot” laze in the grass.
had one”. In recent years, a hankering for
Flanders is “just a waffle’s throw” from
its “sleek, curvy design” and dashboard
the Low Countries, so some road names
gearstick has turned the 2CV into a
are “straet”, instead of “rue”, and the
Gallic icon, and there’s a new company,
The Citroen 2CV: a Gallic icon
buildings – all ornate shutters and angular
Les Belles Echappées, that is dedicated to
thatch – are somewhat reminiscent of a Vermeer painting. Everykeeping it on the road, by restoring vintage models and renting
where you go, people seem to light up at the sight of the 2CV,
them out for tourists to drive around the French countryside.
smiling broad grins and waving as you pass. It gives you a warm
If your idea of rural France is the “lavender-fringed roads” of
Provence, the location of the hire company – in a “bleak corner of feeling, to be “spreading a little bit of joy”. Les Belles Echappées
(00 33 22198 1172; www.les-belles-echappees.com) charges £124
northern France”, an hour from Calais – may seem uninviting.
per day’s rent. For accommodation visit www.franceonecall.com.
But such prejudices will be “challenged as soon as you leave
Hotel of the week
Getting the flavour of…
Escobar’s dinosaurs
Vine House, Norfolk
The Vine House is “no novice
operation”, says Sally Shalam in
The Guardian. Just a short drive
from Holkham Beach, it is owned by
the same people who run the
popular Hoste Arms over the road.
The “vibe” here is more private
dwelling than boutique hotel, and
there is much “attention to comfort
and detail”, from the “tumult” of
towels in the bathroom to the kettle,
which tucks away on a sliding tray.
The décor is quite grand, with fourposter beds, roll-top baths and
“sparkly” chandeliers, although two
TVs seems “excessive”. There’s no
dining room, but guests can simply
“scoot across the road” to the
Hoste when they’re hungry.
Contact: 01328-738777; www.
vinehouseboutiquehotel.co.uk.
Doubles from £125 b&b.
For a country once dubbed “Locombia” (the
mad country), Colombia has come a long
way, says Nick Easen in Wanderlust
magazine. With kidnappings down, visitor
numbers have boomed, and former no-go
zones have become attractions for “narcotourists”. One of the most fascinating is
Hacienda Napoles, the former home of Pablo
Escobar, the “world’s most notorious drug
smuggler”. He was killed in a shoot-out in
1993, and his 20sq km, £25m estate, 100
miles east of Medellín, is now open to the
public. It gives a startling insight into the
mind of a drug baron: it has its own airstrip,
a zoo that Escobar filled with hippos, a 500seat bullring and several “life-sized” concrete
dinosaurs. The palatial mansion has been
“left to rot”, but a 2,000-inmate prison is
being built on site, so as to leave visitors in
absolutely no doubt that “crime doesn’t pay”.
Visit www.haciendanapoles.com.
Saving Ethiopia’s treasures
Ethiopia is now associated with famine and
wars, says Tom Whipple in The Times, but it
has a long and distinguished history. The
only sub-Saharan country not to have been
colonised, it follows a 13-month calendar
(“so the answer to Band Aid’s Do They
Know It’s Christmas? is no, they didn’t”),
and its Orthodox church is one of the oldest
Christian institutions in the world. On the
islands of Lake Tana, there are around 40
medieval monasteries, crumbling quietly
away, their walls adorned with remarkable
frescoes of elaborate biblical scenes, much
like the European versions, “except that the
saints, angels and Jesus all have afros”. In
one monastery, the faded works have been
“restored” – but if you get up close you see
that the figures are painted in modern dress
and “one appears to be holding a tennis
racket”. Ethiopia has more cultural sites
“than the rest of East Africa put together”.
All it really needs is more visitors, to bring in
the funds to maintain them.
Explore (0844-499 0901; www.explore.co.
uk) has 15 nights from £1,739pp.
Orkney’s St Magnus Festival
If you ask a resident of Orkney to pinpoint
their island, a typical response is: “under the
big black cloud on the BBC weather map”,
says Amanda Holloway in The Independent.
But when the sun shines – “and it does,
frequently” – Orkney is “a glorious place to
visit”. Fingers crossed, then, that there will
be dry skies for the St Magnus Festival on
20-28 June. This 31-year-old event attracts
world-class performers and features concerts,
poetry readings, film, a circus tent, and a
lively after-hours club. This year’s guests
include the poet Daljit Nagra and the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Contact:
01856-871445; www.stmagnusfestival.com.
Last-minute offers from top travel companies
Villa in southwest France
Scott Dunn (020-8682 5000;
www.scottdunn.com) has a
three-bed villa with private
pool and chef, on the Aquitaine
Coast, Moliets, from £2,430
per week. Nannies available at
extra cost. Book by 24 June.
Argyll cruise
Six nights aboard MV Glen
Massan, cruising the idyllic
coastline of Argyll, Scotland,
costs from £1,299pp (full
board). Depart 21 or 28 June.
Contact Saga: 0800-056 5880;
www.saga.co.uk/travelshop.
Corelli’s Cephalonia
Simpson Travel (020-8392
5852; www.simpson-travel.
com) has seven nights on the
Greek island of Cephalonia, in
a traditional stone one-bed
cottage overlooking the Ionian
Sea, for £785pp (incl. flights).
Horse trek in Kyrgyzstan
Spend 13 days riding in the
mountains and steppe lands of
Kyrgyzstan with Wild Frontiers
(020-7736 3968; www.wild
frontiers.co.uk). The trip costs
£2,005pp (incl. flights and full
board). Depart 30 June.
14 June 2008 THE WEEK
37 TRAVEL 37
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