There are so many questions when one moves to France. Will it be hard to learn the language? How should I dress? And, most urgently, how will I not “wear” all those pastries and calories, never having been raised on French cuisine? I can’t be the first one to obsess over these things, right?

Platform 13 CEO Vanessa Grant sits down with the a local artisan who shares her story of creativity and community. In a sun-washed workshop on Rue Notre-Dame, in the beautiful bastide village of Monpazier, jewellery designer and maker Claire Lamouroux shapes stories from natural materials. Her boutique, Semilla (“seed” in Spanish), is shared with her partner Jean-Luc Pigeat — together they create wonderful, original jewelley pieces that feel both ancient and utterly present.

Our Brave Seeds "Women of Note" posts were originally conceived around a focus on the women who shape our regional community - social and entrepeneurial movers and shakers, whose gifts of giving back are, well... noteworthy.

I love almost everything that is old. Old books, old times, old manners. One of the few enviable advantages of being British lies not only in how we have managed to preserve old things, but in how we continue to delight in them. We don’t simply store the past; we keep it in circulation, like a favourite chair, endlessly sat in.

There was a time when a social visit began not with a text message or a hopeful knock, but with a small, stiff rectangle. The calling card was both introduction and safeguard — a way to say, “I was here,” without barging into someone’s day. It was etiquette in miniature, a pocket-sized handshake.

“Travel whispers to the soul’s boldness. It asks not for the absence of fear, but the courage to lead into the unknown, to embrace both the journey and the self that is discovered along the way”.                      Attributed to Mark Twain                       Every step beyond what is familiar is an invitation to growth. We do not travel to coll

October in the Dordogne is quieter now. The fields are slowing, the walnuts gathered, the vines picked clean. But for bees, it’s still very much office hours. The hum in the hives may have softened, but inside, a busy workforce is still clocking in.

September is a bit of a hinge month, a threshold that resists placement in the pigeon hole. It is neither the lingering ease of summer, nor the crisp certainty of autumn. It hovers in a space of its own — a pause in the rhythm of the year, a seasonal ellipsis. Spiritually, September invites us inward. The sun still warms our skin, but the evenings hint at a chill that asks for sweaters and thoughts of firewood come. This duality reminds us that change is rarely abrupt; it is

Platform 13 CEO Vanessa Grant on Soul, Strength and the Sacred Feminine. Sitting in sacred silence There are words that carry weight far beyond their syllables: soul, strength, sacred.  Each speaks to something elemental, a truth we sense in our bones even when we struggle to name it. When combined, they sketch a portrait of the feminine at its deepest level — not as a role or a set of expectations, but as a source of power rooted in authenticity. At Platform 13, we believe s

If Fridays had faces, it would be the mug shot of a pair of donkeys. Unhurried, not bothered, standing in the most shetered part of a wet meadow, the very picture of end-of-the-week sufficiency. The error we make, according to most donkeys, is in seeing these sweet and gentle creatures as slightly under-evolved horses. It is a subject of both slight resentment and constant discussion in all places where donkeys gather. They readily admit they lack the sleek flanks and polishe

Vineyards are surely the most civilised of our ancient cultivations. Humanity seems to have evolved liking its plants arranged in tidy rows, but while carrots and corn stand tall and straight, like obedient soldiers, vines have a rebellious elegance that cannot be stood to attention. They lean and twist with weary dignity, brothers in arms, performing more important work.

On a rainy day last November, the humble baguette was acknowledged and enshrined forever by UNESCO as “a thing of exceptional interest for the common heritage of mankind.”

Larders. Everyone either has one or wants one. Even the word is a delight to say. Lah-dah....lah-dee-dah, I'm in the lah-dah.. The word of course, has Latin roots, and derives from Lardum - meaning pork fat or what we now call bacon. It was (and still should be) a kitchens inner sanctum. A holy place, robust and well-filled with strong white ceramics and jarred beans and jams. It's an interior designers dream..