I’m bashing lemongrass stalks with a wooden baton. The sound of my thwacking mingles with the laughter of children splashing in the pools of the waterfall, just beyond the kitchen where I’m learning about Lao cuisine. My teacher is showing me…

Brioche studded with rose-pink pralines, oozy, honking Saint-Félicien and Saint-Marcellin cheeses, cured pork sausages, pike quenelles in creamy crayfish sauce, macaroni gratin, paté en croute and Beaujolais wine. Lyon is heaven for a greedy girl like me…

Azure. Turquoise. Cerulean. Aquamarine. I’m struggling to find enough words to describe the different shades of blue that I encounter on my travels across the length and breadth of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides. I pass down a mountain road and there, sweeping before me, is a crystalline sea with a palette that changes hue…