Jon Bryant

United Kingdom

Freelance Travel Writer and Journalist at The Guardian

Writer and Journalist at Freelance

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Articles

Sète: the seaside town with year-round sunshine in the south of France

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Jon Bryant

While much of southern France closes its shutters for the winter, the fishing port of Sète comes alive. The oyster and truffle seasons are in full swing and bright, sunny weather makes it the perfect place to sip a glass of muscat on the banks of the town’s Canal Royal. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.
10 Things to Do in Provence and the French Riviera

Jan 9, 2025 | moon.com | Jamie Ivey |Jon Bryant

Writer and journalist Jon Bryant lives in the south of France with his wife, the writer Ruby Soames, and their two children. Jon has traveled and written about Burma, Egypt, Sri Lanka, China, Australia, Germany, Portugal and Norway but he specializes in France, Spain, and the Mediterranean, where he has been based since 2003.
‘Everything carries a hint of myth and magic’: six great island escapes in Europe

Aug 17, 2024 | theguardian.com | oliver balch |Jennifer Barclay |Jon Bryant |Mary Novakovich |Colin O'Brien |Dixe Wills

Islas Cíes, Galicia, SpainGaze west from one of the crows-nest hilltops on Monteagudo (“Sharp Mount”) island, and you can just about imagine the rooftops of Atlantis beneath the Atlantic swell. One of the three islands that comprise the Islas Cíes archipelago, about nine miles off the Galician coast, it is where Captain Nemo, hero of Jules Verne’s 1871 novel Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, salvaged the treasure that funded his adventures. Verne’s choice of location makes sense.
Ancient Angers to antique emporiums: how to spend a week in the Atlantic Loire valley

Aug 2, 2024 | newsbreak.com | Jon Bryant

Historic Angers’ riverside chateau is just one of many in the Atlantic Loire valley. Photograph: Labellepatine/Shutterstock From beautiful countryside to historic chateaux, and sprawling vineyards to markets selling local delicacies, there’s plenty to explore and enjoy in the Atlantic Loire valley . Wondering where to start?
Nice and easy: a leisurely cycle, with dog, along the final stage of the Tour de France

Jul 19, 2024 | theguardian.com | Jon Bryant

The Tour de France ends in Nice this Sunday – the first time the race will finish outside Paris since it started in 1903, and the first time since 1989 that the winner’s yellow jersey will be decided by a final-day time trial. The Tour’s arrival in Nice also coincides with the 200th anniversary of the city’s Promenade des Anglais, the seafront walkway partly funded by English chaplain Lewis Way.
The History of Peugeot

Jan 16, 2024 | completefrance.com | Jon Bryant

It’s over 200 years since the Peugeot brothers set up their steel business in a small village in eastern France. Jon Bryant charts the history of the car-maker that became a national treasure…It was in 1810 that the Peugeot brothers first started producing steel in their father’s cereal mill in the small French town of Hérimoncourt in eastern France.
Campaign trail: follow Napoleon’s progress across Europe

Nov 17, 2023 | theguardian.com | Jon Bryant

Ajaccio, Corsica, 1769-1778Napoleon was born in Ajaccio on 15 August 1769, the year the French took back Corsica from the Genoese and just a few months after the birth of Arthur Wellesley – later the 1st Duke of Wellington – in Dublin. The Bonaparte family owned olive groves in Ajaccio as well as vineyards and grain mills. Napoleon left when he was nine, heading for Autun on the mainland to perfect his French, then went to the École Militaire in Paris.
Postcard from Bordighera: autumn sun on Italy’s Ligurian coast

Sep 27, 2023 | theguardian.com | Jon Bryant

Leaving my wife and daughter under a parasol on Bordighera’s beach, my teenage son and I set off in search of the largest Ficus macrophylla in western Europe. The tree, commonly known as the strangler fig, was planted in 1886 by Clarence Bicknell, British botanist, collector, lover of Esperanto and chaplain of Bordighera’s Anglican church.
France port of La Ciotat is a little-known beauty

Sep 13, 2023 | theguardian.com | Jon Bryant

So impressive were the shipyards at La Ciotat, halfway between Marseille and Toulon, that French emperors, dignitaries and scientists would flock there to witness the launch of an ocean liner. The swell overflowed the port, flooding cafes and carrying diners and motorcars out to sea. It all seemed calm when I visited this summer.
Gold mining in France

Jul 19, 2023 | completefrance.com | Jon Bryant

First published: 19 July 2023 by Jon Bryant Hidden along some riverbanks in France are surprisingly large deposits of alluvial gold. Jon Bryant joins the weekenders trying to unearth a nugget…The Romans didn’t call France Gallia Aurifera (Golden Gaul) for nothing. Two millennia ago, ten tons of gold was extracted from the country each year but since the end of the 19th century, no one has bothered much about French gold. It wasn’t until the publication of Jean- Claude Le Faucheur’s book.