Lessons from the curriculum of life
There's nothing like a holiday for a little learning. I don't mean by enrolling children on one of the many formal courses that schools, universities and learning centres offer through the summer, however good they may be. I mean a real holiday.
Many of us are lucky enough to have the means to travel with our families, even if not that often, and when we do this is the time for learning to come to life - without realising it is happening.
A couple of years ago France was on our itinerary. In just 10 days we covered much of what would be on an ideal curriculum, not to mention putting to use the language we struggled to learn at school.
The journey started in Provence, camping in the Gorges du Verdon - the biggest gorge in Europe. Lesson one took in geology and geography, as we marvelled at the cliffs while rafting down the river that had chiseled them or abseiling across the divide.
Then there was the history of art course, Provence's light, land and seascapes having attracted so many of the biggest names: Cezanne, Van Gough, Matisse and Picasso. We couldn't visit all their haunts, but the Musee Picasso, housed in a 12th century castle on the Mediterranean shore in Antibes, which the artist briefly used as a studio, whetted the appetite.
There was also the lesson in capitalist economics, noting from the luxurious pleasure craft at rest in the marina just how vast the gulf is between haves and have nots, and wondering where all the money came from.
History was to be soaked up everywhere. In Avignon there was the papal palace, headquarters of the Catholic Church from 1309 to 1377. We visited at the time of the Avignon festival, a match for the Edinburgh Fringe, so arts entertainment was thrown in.
Next stop was Cluny, which boasts an abbey that was once the largest in Christendom and centre of a religious order stretching from Portugal to Poland. Today, the highlight of the medieval town is France's national stud, housed in the abbey's remnants, where the country not only stables great thoroughbred stallions for posterity, but ancient breeds of workhorse.
There was adult education in the area too - viticulture in the chateaux of Burgundy.
The journey ended in Paris, another obvious history and art lesson with so many famous museums and churches.
But the most poignant place was a lesser-known square behind Notre Dame, where visitors descend to a memorial, with 200,000 fragments of illuminated glass for the number of French who died in the holocaust. This was the place for a long reflection about history's darkest chapter.
Just one country - any country - has far too many lessons for one holiday. So France beckons again.
Enjoy your 'learning' too, wherever it may be.
