July 2026
Walthamstow
I came across this mural on my way to a kid’s birthday party in Walthamstow, London. It was designed to reflect the St James Street area’s social history and multicultural identity. It honours workers who arrived at the station from Ireland, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and many other parts of the world to build the railway and contribute to the local brewery and textile industries. It fit perfectly with our wander through the area and that very London feeling of visiting ten countries at once
The work was created by a great local artist Angry Dan (who I only realised later was also at the birthday party!).
Terrace
I spent a day in Paris for the first time in a little while. I was reassured (and slightly nostalgic) to see the terrace culture in full swing and very much alive. Think sun, putting the world to rights (‘refaire le monde’), and some very slow sipping. All this with just enough spectacle unfolding: a discreet argument between the three waiters (two were caught talking about the other one while he was serving a table), a couple of characterful regulars sitting at the bar, the ebbs and flows of the tables, and a road junction that comes with its share of gentle animation.
A way of being with time and of soaking in the theatre of life that I haven’t found anywhere else. This was in Le Marais, at one of my old favourites, Le Pick Clops.
Paris-Roubaix
The Paris-Roubaix is a cycling race that starts in Paris and finishes in the north of France. It is infamous for its cobble sections and has been called the “Hell of the North” because when the race returned after the First World War, the organisers driving the route were horrified by the hellish landscape.
I grew up on the route. The area has been Roman, Spanish, occupied in both world wars, and very close to Flanders throughout its history. It built a solid industrial identity in the 20th century, which then collapsed, and is now in another phase of redefinition. It’s a place of unique warmth and community-led, hard-working grit.
The picture is of my Franco-English daughter flying the Flemish flag. I’ve always been fascinated by places shaped by movement, overlaps, and reinvention. Their soul is always there in the open, quite raw. They’re not the most glamorous, but if you listen carefully, they often have the most to say and express.
Jack in the Green
I went to the Jack in the Green festival in Hastings for the first time. Four days of drumming, dance, theatre, and towering handmade giants moving through the town. The line between crowd and performers disappears as the days unfold, and the whole thing feels joyful, gentle, and proud.
Since moving down south, I’ve loved spending time in Hastings and St Leonards, and the way they consistently show up as fiercely creative spaces, with an unbeatable sense of community. In today’s world, that mindset matters more than we may realise. It comes through particularly strongly in local celebrations like this, where pride in place expresses itself in the most idiosyncratic ways, and where the character of a town feels like something to be shaped and looked after together.