Town mouse on the delights of travel

Clive is tempted from his beloved Ramsgate by a bespoke travel company with some delightful ideas

Town mouse; country life
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(Image credit: Country Life)

I sometimes think I'm not sufficiently demanding of life. Do I drink the cup to the dregs? For a long weekend, such as the one past, there is nowhere I would rather be than Ramsgate. Apart from the charms of its architecture and topography, which never fail to delight, it provides the comfort of familiarity the knowledge that things are as we like them, or as much as possible as such a state of affairs can be achieved in an imperfect world. Meeting Philippe Brown of the travel company Brown + Hudson, however, has sown doubt.

Brown + Hudson offers bespoke travel, hand crafting each holiday to its distinctly high-end clients' needs. If, like one American client, you happen to enjoy cycling, mingled with cultural stops of just 30 minutes (your maximum attention span), with chicken served every night at 6pm, they fly to, as it might be, Australia and prepare the route in advance.

To keep some children amused, they gave each one a potted plant, with a pupa attached. For days, the children carried their plants everywhere, so as not to miss the hatching of the butterfly-a heavenly blue one. Recalling it makes even Philippe go misty-eyed. Could he find me some pupae for Ramsgate?

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Country Life

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.