Inspiring Travel Writing from Maxine Jones
Born and raised in England, Maxine Jones moved to Dublin, Ireland on a whim in 1990, leaving her job on a London newspaper. She was a columnist and feature writer for several Irish newspapers, set up her own magazine for a while and now does what she likes best, travelling and writing about it. Her articles have appeared in the Irish Times, the Irish Mail on Sunday, the Sunday Tribune, the Independent and the Observer. Her memoir Why are you here?: An Englishwoman in Ireland was published in 2009.
Articles by Maxine Jones
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Abruzzo
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Maxine Jones
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Italy
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Abruzzo
If you’re applying for work as a chef in Italy and you say you’re from Abruzzo, the job is as good as yours. Italians recognise this region’s supremacy when it comes to food and cooking. Every village will boast about its local...
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Sardinia
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Maxine Jones
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Italy
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Sardinia
Immersing myself in the clear turquoise Sardinian sea became a daily fix. The purest, cleanest part of the Mediterranean sea laps the island’s shores. ‘I’ve never seen such a beautiful coastline, such long, empty beaches,’...
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Barbados
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Maxine Jones
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Barbados
I landed in Barbados, stepping from the plane into convector-heated air on the first day of its month-long independence celebrations. The lights were to be switched on that night in Bridgetown's National Heroes Square, renamed earlier this year from...
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Canal du Midi, Languedoc
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Maxine Jones
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France
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Languedoc/ South West
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Beziers
With more and more visitors every year heading off in search of the ‘real’ France, the chances of finding it are becoming more remote. One of the areas where you are least likely to meet with congested cities and over-discovered villages is...
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Irish Cycling Safaris
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Maxine Jones
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Ireland
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East Coast Ireland
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Dublin
Friday lunchtime and the rain was bouncing off the road. I was driving through barely moving Dublin traffic to buy a pac-a-mac. In three hours’ time I was to meet a group of 17 strangers in a Wexford hotel and set off with them on a cycling...
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Costa del Sol
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Maxine Jones
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Spain
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Andalucia
If you go to Torremolinos expecting the worse, you won't be disappointed. Barely a blade of grass has escaped the maniacal concretisation of the place. Where there is not concrete there is builder's sand, of a finer variety than the gritty grey...
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Aquitaine
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Maxine Jones
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France
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Bordeaux Region
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Bordeaux
Eating oysters on the banks of the Gironde in Bordeaux, enjoying a seafood barbecue in the country garden of an Armagnac producer, picnicking on magret de canard and foie gras cruising down the Baise river and, in an orchard of plum trees, biting...
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France with Kids and Campervan
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Maxine Jones
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France
‘A house is like a prison,’ a traveller woman said on the radio. ‘I know, I know,’ I replied. I was driving the van up and down the Stillorgan dual carriageway in order to recharge its batteries, while my three sons attended...
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Aix-en-Provence
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Maxine Jones
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France
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Provence
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Aix-en-Provence
With Easyjet and British Airways flying direct to Marseille, the centre of Provence is less than two hours away. The airport (reached after a spectacular turn over the Med) is midway between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, in many ways a more...
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Corking Good: Baltimore
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Maxine Jones
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Ireland
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Southwest (Kerry & Cork)
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Cork
Baltimore, West Cork is the sort of place you come back from making plans to move there. Within an hour of arriving for a weekend family break from Dublin, we had booked to go back for a longer stay in the summer. Popular with rich English sailors...