The beginning of a great adventure

There’s a song in Lou Reed’s album New York called Beginning of a Great Adventure. It’s about having kids but it keeps humming through my brain as we embark on a major lifestyle change.

Tomorrow we leave the large, rambling family house in which we’ve spent the last 18 years and brought up our children to move to France. Well, only part-time - we’ll still be spending half the year in England but instead of being a quick 30 minute train journey to London we’ll be in the Mediterranean, the West Country (Bristol) or on the road. Happily the French house, which is down in the Languedoc, is one we’ve also owned for a long time - over 14 years - so it won’t seem like too much of a wrench but it’ll be a big change.

What will it mean for the site? In the short term, a decline in the number of postings. I’ve got a few good things up my sleeve but over the next couple of weeks at least it’ll operate more like a blog. (Members need not worry - I’ve got my trusty computer to hand and can still answer your food and wine matching queries.)

Longer term, I’ll be travelling about more so there will be more on-the-ground reports from different cities and countries around Europe - especially round the Med. For example we have two weeks coming up in Arles this summer where my stepson, Flyn, has an exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles, a huge photographic exhbition that takes over the town every summer. This will be a boost for the Great Places to Go section which has been neglected a bit over the last few months as I’ve been chained to the computer writing two books and attempting to dejunk 18 years’ clutter! Later this year we plan to spend a week in Paris and next spring a month in Venice

There will still be reports on what’s going on in the buzzing food and wine scene in London but they won’t always come from me. Experienced food and wine journalists such as Natasha Hughes and Kate Ennis will be reporting on wine, beer and other drink events and happenings when I’m away. And, of course, I always welcome posts and other contributions from you.

So, bear with me, please. Things will return to normal - even though it will be a new (and, I hope, more exciting) normality.

PS While we're talking family, my son Will and his business partner Huw Gott scooped two industry awards yesterday -The Drinks Business awards for Young Entrepreneur of the Year and On-Trade Personality of the Year for their bar and restaurant group Underdog which owns the American-style steakhouse Hawksmoor and the Mexican cantina Green & Red. I'm very proud of them both.