Xavier H
Xavier Hornblow Joined: June 17th 2008
Logged in: January 16th 2012
Logged in: January 16th 2012
Travel Blog Posts
St. Eustache
Was I to find the archetypal Paris? The city of romance, with elegant bistros with waiters in starched white shirts, a place with a glamorous Bohemian underground of artists and socialites drinking red wine out of skulls and reading Sartre? Actually, my Autumnal three day foray in Paris showed a very different side: striking museum workers, beggars, endless queues of tourists, and bridges along the Seine lined police with body armour and rifles. Even if it wasn't quite the Paris I was expecting, I still had a great time, especially hanging out with two very good friends Tavish and Zoë (on their honeymoon from New Zealand no less) and being treated to some excellent hospitality. My first morning was spent huddled in a corner of a Montmartre hostel drinking weak coffees and watching the All Blacks ... read more
The Riviera, baby!
The Riviera is synonymous with summer, glamour and luxury, where the sky is blue and the wine is pink. The name that stands above all others as the champion of Provencal wine, and the most famous of all rosés (Mateus doesn't count)... is Domaines Ott. Thanks to a very kind supplier (Maison Marques et Domaines), my boss being in a good mood after a long lunch, and of course Ott itself, I was invited along with five other England-based wine merchants and sommeliers to visit one of their three estates for two days and one night in the glorious Southern French late summer. We visited the most picturesque of Dopmaines Ott's estates: Clos Mireille. It is close enough to the coast that the vineyards stop abruptly at a beach filled with sunbathers. Apparently two properties to ... read more
Inner Harbour, Hania
Flying all the way from London to Crete on the other side of Europe for a four day solo holiday was admittedly on odd choice, but fate dealt me that hand, and despite the late notice and strange circumstances I ended up having a great time and a very adventurous few days. I was determined not to try too hard to prepare, because when I'm travelling by myself being too organised kills my buzz. So it's fair to say I didn't deserve much of the good fortune I had. After arriving in Hania in Western Crete in a public bus a tall gentleman floated in my direction and asked if I needed a room to stay. Central, en suite bathroom, rooftop terrace and ridiculously under-priced? "Yes, thanks!" I liked it so much I stayed there the ... read more
The Distillery
For the whisky fanatic, Islay is a true Mecca: it is a relatively small Island in the Inner Hebrides directly west of Glasgow that boasts a whopping eight distilleries - and famous ones at that. Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Laphroaig... but for two windy days in early March we had the pleasure of visiting one of the prettiest-situated distilleries of them all: Bowmore. At their invitation, I and two of my colleagues: Granville (from Jeroboams Wine Merchants) who is coincidentally Scottish and Isabel (from Milroy's of Soho - www.milroys.co.uk) who is incidentally Argentinean, were given the chance to experience the distillery, its eponymously named village, and a bit of the island itself. For those who don't know we are from Jeroboams Wine Merchants and It was an effort to get to. From the time we arrived at Glasgow ... read more
Good scratch
The Gambia. Ever heard of it? Neither had I - so here is an brief low down of the place before I crack on with the blog proper. The Gambia (definite article obligatory) is a small, thin country is West Africa that follows the course of the Gambia river far inland. It is a former British Colony and is surrounded on three sides by former French colony Senegal - the fourth side is the Atlantic Ocean in the West. Apart from their former rulers being different, the people of The Gambia and Senegal are exactly the same: same tribes, same native languages. The Gambia used to be at the centre of the trade taking slaves over to the Americas; now most of the money made is in growing peanuts and through male escorts. Why The Gambia? ... read more
Autumn leaves
I was recently lucky enough to win a flying two-day trip to the Bepi Tossolini Distillery in Friuli in the extreme North-East of Italy, off the back of a work competition to see who could sell the most limoncello. The distillery itself sits on the Eastern corner of the Po Valley with a vast shelf of mountains in the near distance. We were 50 km from Austria in the north and far closer to Slovenia to the east. The houses had a slightly Germanic look to them - and I think even the locals themselves would admit to having weird accents. Bepi Tossolini's central significance in the pantheon of fine tipples is the distillation and production of Grappa. The Ancient Greeks called Italy "Vinotria" (meaning "land of wine") so it is appropriate that even the country’s ... read more
The Med
For those from the Anglo-Saxon world, if you ever want to find out the fast way whether you're capable of driving on the right-hand side of the road, try starting out on a Naples motorway on Friday night. Carnage! For my first hour and a half in Italy I had cars and motorcycles driving up to my bumper, flashing their lights and honking for their lives until I could find a way of letting them past. No surprise they’re in a rush, considering they will probably be leading quite short lives. I was riding my way through waves of terror until we got to Salerno. Our two-week car-driving adventure in Southern Italy and Sicily had begun! Our first day followed what was to become a familiar pattern: a slightly stressful period of travel and accommodation-hunting, followed ... read more
