I’m finding it a challenge to adjust to being home after our Europe road trip. I miss the freedom of being on the road, and being out in the open air camping. We’re slowly finding our groove, and working out ways to incorporate some of the bits from our holiday into our everyday life at home. Some of these are lifestyle-based (less TV, more eating outside in the garden etc), but some of them are aesthetic too. The last stop on our trip was the Allier department of the Auvergne region in France, where I was seduced by the beautiful spectrum of blues…

Before we left the UK I saw a photograph of a gorgeous-looking village in Ticino, Switzerland called Gandria on Pinterest (where else?). When we looked at our driving route from Locarno to Lake Como and realised that we would drive right past Gandria, it seemed just the place to stop off for a break on our journey. We weren’t disappointed. We parked up and followed the narrow, winding pathways down to the tiny harbour where there was a perfectly-placed bench to eat our picnic and watch the ferries on the sparkling Lake Lugano go past. The village was quiet and…