SPAIN
Cádiz
MEXICO
Acapulco
CURAÇAO
Willemstad
AUSTRALIA
Port Arthur, TAS
FRANCE
Richerenches
PROVENCE IS home to the black truffle, one of the most expensive things you can eat. The price for a kilo of black truffles can be close to €1,000. The 1st edition of Moon Provence has tips on where to find, taste and learn more about them.
• Richerenches. “Thanks to a combination of soil and climate, the small village of Richerenches in the northern Vaucluse is the center of Provençal truffle production.” A truffle festival in November marks the start of truffle-picking season (December to February), with “all sorts of delicious truffle-based delicacies to try.” Every Saturday from mid-November to the end of March a truffles market brings restaurants buyers from across France. www.richerenches.fr
• Menerbes. The Luberon town Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence made famous is home to the Maison de la Truffe, “part shop, part restaurant, part activity center,” with truffle-hunting demonstrations and truffle-themed cooking classes. “The shop is replete with gifts for gourmands, such as olive oil infused with truffles.” www.vin-truffle-luberon.com
• Aups. The Maison de la Truffe “lifts the veil on [the secret world of truffles], explaining where and how truffles grow, and examining the lives of the truffle hunters who spent their winters poking around in the forests of Var. The various exhibits are informative and multisensory.” www.maisondelatruffe-verdon.fr
• Rognes. The Sunday before Christmas the Truffle Market in Rognes, 30 minutes north of Aix, offers a variety of culinary treats, but the truffle is the star. “The traders are always ready with cooking instructions,” and stands sell scrambled eggs seasoned with truffle shavings: “absolutely delicious.” www.festivites-rognes.fr
GREECE
Kamariotissa
UNITED STATES
Charlottesville, VA
AUSTRIA
Vienna
LUDWIG VAN Beethoven was supposed to have quite the 250th birthday party in 2020. Internationally, major events were scheduled as far from his hometown as Japan. Marin Alsop, music director of the symphony orchestras in Baltimore and Sao Paulo, had intended to conduct his Ninth Symphony in New Zealand, the United States, Brazil, England, Austria, Australia and South Africa. In Bonn, Germany, where Beethoven was born (baptized 17 December 1770), a year-long programme of 300 concerts, exhibitions, dance and theatre performances was planned. Vienna, where the composer spent most of his career, had a similarly impressive calendar set, including three staged versions of his opera Fidelio and special shows at the National Library, Leopold Museum and House of Music.
PERU
Cusco
MACHU PICCHU, Peru’s most popular tourist destination, reopened 1 November 2020 after an eight-month shutdown due to covid-19. Used to receiving 1.5 million visitors a year, it has had its capacity reduced by 70 per cent to accommodate physical-distancing rules, limiting the number of daily sightseers to just 675, and no groups larger than eight. Everyone must have their temperature taken before entering and wear a mask throughout their visit.
SWITZERLAND
Montreux
FROM THE END of November 2020 the Swiss will open the defences carved into the rock opposite the 12th-century Château de Chillon during the Second World War. The tunnels and caverns were part of the “national redoubt,” a series of fortifications begun in the 1880s to defend Switzerland by denying an invader access to the country by controlling its mountain passes. The Fort de Chillon works were constructed in 1941-2, when the country was surrounded by Axis powers, as the system’s western gateway. It had a garrison of more than 100 soldiers.
ENGLAND
London
THE FIRST MAJOR exhibition at London’s National Gallery since covid-19 struck in March 2020 has opened to five-star reviews from the Telegraph, the Times, the Guardian, the Evening Standard and the BBC.
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