The Place Royale is full of men in bowler hats. A huge boulder floats above them, defying gravity and good taste. From a distance it looks unfathomable, but when you come closer you realise the boulder is a hot-air balloon and the bowler hats are plastic.

This cobbled square is full of surreal knick-knacks (white pianos, wrapped-up statues) but most people don’t take much notice. They are too busy queuing [...]

The gateway stood in the woods outside Saratoga Springs. It was still before dawn, and lanterns burned on the stanchions that marked the end of the drive, flickering out over the snow. I turned in, trudging between the pines until the ploughed road passed a frozen, moat-like lake and switchbacked up a low bluff. As I reached the crest of the escarpment, a great house appeared through the trees, a [...]

As we rounded the corner to our tree-lined row of bungalows, something feathery twitching on the grass surprised one of my companions. He took a step back before leaning in to inspect the suspicious object. “Is that a . . . real duck?” he asked. You can take 6,000 young urbanites to rural Somerset, but they won’t become ornithologists overnight.

All Tomorrow’s Parties (or ATP) is ten years old now, [...]

Right now, in pubs across the country, you will hear earnest knots of men – and maybe a few women – discussing lifers. They’re not off-duty prison officers, or the local chapter of Amnesty International. They’re birdwatchers.

It’s spring, and the birder’s heart is big with anticipation. Breeding season has begun. And, as any nightclubber can tell you, males and females of any species become more conspicuous when on the [...]

That Tuesday lunchtime I was a few pews back, assessing Jesus as Charles II, a David Niven version.

Christ was wearing a blue coat, flared from the waist, with white ribbon. Effete, I thought, uninterested, and sat opposite a pyramidal Virgin: bland, prim, pert.

I was in the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Oaxaca, a church that could be described as a unique example of Mexican [...]

Behind the humdrum high street of an unassuming market town, a new gallery has just opened, built to house one of the country’s best collections of British art. If it was anywhere else in Britain, this treasure trove would be impressive, but here in sleepy Bedford, it seems downright surreal, rather like finding a huge stash of old Masters in a drab suburban semi.

On the top floor of this [...]

Louisburgh is a typical small town in the west of Ireland.

Situated in the south-western corner of Mayo close to the Atlantic coast, it is arranged around a crossroads and has its shop, its post office, a couple of pubs, a Chinese restaurant, a Gaelic games pitch and a hotel, where on the night I arrived a big family celebration was under way – old men in their best [...]

For years, visitors to San Cristóbal de las Casas, the colonial capital of the Chiapas Highlands in southern Mexico, have been offered the same set of outings by local tour agencies: mountain gorges, gem-like lakes, the Maya communities of Chamula and Zinacantán with their colourful textiles and disconcerting mix of pre-Hispanic and Catholic traditions. Now you can find a new option: “Visit Oventic and San Andrés,” signs say, “the heart of the [...]

That night the sky was blacker than usual because of a power cut and there were thousands of stars. I tried to pick out the constellations but got no further than Orion. Living in London, where all but the brightest stars are blotted out by electric light, does not provide much opportunity for practice. Overhead, something streaked silently across the valley, trailing fiery sparks.

“Did you see that?” said Freshta. [...]

On the fourth day of our journey we stood on a large ferry that bobbed along the waves of the Channel. The peeling paint of the rails stuck to our sweaty palms as we stared at the foam below. Johnny the driver had parked the bus downstairs alongside the other vehicles stacked up in the ferry's belly and came upstairs, stretching and shaking off a mild shiver. "Welcome to England!" [...]