The Voyages of de Villehardouin - Cruising French Waterways
The Voyages of de Villehardouin - Cruising French Waterways

Author: Valerie Helps

Publisher: Vanguard Press

Published: 2018-09-27

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9781784654542

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Not many in late middle age realise their dream of living on a canal boat and exploring the waterways of France. Even fewer anticipate the problems that might confront them on their adventure into 'the unknown'. Valerie and Geoffrey buy their boat which they christen "de Villehardouin" and set off on the Canal du Midi, drawing and writing about their journey as they meander along the two hundred year old canal. They revel in the slow pace as they enter a world of welcoming ports, canalside markets, ancient sites and chateaux, delicate wildflowers and, in the Camargue, medieval jousting and pink flamingos. The various regional cuisines introduce them to gastronomic delights and memorable wines. Tackling the mighty Rhône River with its awesome deep locks in their small boat presents a challenge. Valerie and Geoffrey accept this with their usual humour. Once the Rhône is conquered, they find time to enjoy the ever-changing scenery of the canals as the dream unfolds.

The Silent Towers Speak
The Silent Towers Speak

Author: Valerie Helps

Publisher: Vanguard Press

Published: 2021-07

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 9781784659776

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THE SILENT TOWERS SPEAK - Secrets of the Deep Mani ARTWORK VALERIE HELPS AND GEOFFREY BULL The Silent Towers Speak is Valerie's third illustrated book. It tells of her exciting life exploring a remote region of the southern Peloponnese with her partner, Geoffrey. This book, based on her journals, was written before she left Greece for France to cruise the French waterways on their canal boat; their story, The Voyages of de Villehardouin, was published in 2018. This was followed by A Third of a Pond published in 2020, describing their idyllic life in rural France and the restoration of a two-hundred-year-old farmhouse with its neglected garden. Join Valerie in the remote and barren region of the Deep Mani - a land of savage history where fleeing Spartans in the eighteenth century built their fortified villages and soaring feudal towers in the southernmost part of the Peloponnese. Valerie and Geoffrey find the harbour in Homer's mythological Odyssey where Ulysses loses twelve of his fleet to the cannibalistic Laestrygonian giants, locate crumbling Frankish castles and Nestor's Palace, enjoy an evening at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, swim in the Messenian Gulf and live life to the full.

A Third of a Pond
A Third of a Pond

Author: VALERIE. HELPS

Publisher: Vanguard Press

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 9781784656812

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After years of cruising along the French waterways in their canal boat, de Villehardouin, Valerie Helps and her husband Geoffrey, decide to put down roots on terra firma. In the Loiret region of central France they discover a pond, a dilapidated farmhouse and a neglected garden which tick all their boxes. What follows is a great deal of backbreaking work and commitment, but the love the two have for each other, for the country and for the friends they make deep in the French countryside make it all worthwhile. Beautifully illustrated and written, this book is filled with vivid descriptions as Valerie's generous and loving eye for nature and all its seasons adds another rich layer to this lush tale, while the antics of the inhabitants of the pond and the creatures from the forest dance through the pages.

The Cambridge History of Travel Writing
The Cambridge History of Travel Writing

Author: Nandini Das

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-01-24

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 110861681X

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Bringing together original contributions from scholars across the world, this volume traces the history of travel writing from antiquity to the Internet age. It examines travel texts of several national or linguistic traditions, introducing readers to the global contexts of the genre. From wilderness to the urban, from Nigeria to the polar regions, from mountains to rivers and the desert, this book explores some of the key places and physical features represented in travel writing. Chapters also consider the employment in travel writing of the diary, the letter, visual images, maps and poetry, as well as the relationship of travel writing to fiction, science, translation and tourism. Gender-based and ecocritical approaches are among those surveyed. Together, the thirty-seven chapters here underline the richness and complexity of this genre.

British Flags
British Flags

Author: William Gordon Perrin

Publisher: DigiCat

Published: 2022-09-05

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13:

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DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "British Flags" (Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea. With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device) by William Gordon Perrin. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The Practice of Diplomacy
The Practice of Diplomacy

Author: Keith Hamilton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-05-13

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781134847310

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In the unstable international conditions of the post Cold War world, the role of diplomacy has taken on increasing importance with the greater complexity of relationships between international power centres. The Practice of Diplomacy tracks the historical development of diplomatic relations and methods from the earliest period up to their current transformations in the late twentieth century, showing how they have changed to encompass new technological advances and the needs of modern international environments. This coherent and accessible text brings the history of diplomacy fully up to date, exploring altered perspectives and newly emerging practices resulting from United Nations diplomacy and recent political developments in Eastern and central Europe, including the former Yugoslavia.

Born in Blood
Born in Blood

Author: John J. Robinson

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 1590771486

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Its mysterious symbols and rituals had been used in secret for centuries before Freemasonry revealed itself in 1717. But where had this powerful organization come from and why had Freemasonry been attacked by the Roman Catholic Church? Robinson answers those questions and more.