Continuing the picnic theme, here are a few photos from a rather magical one by the Lac du Tolerme in Southwest France last month.

This picnic was also particularly memorable because, in honor of World Hiroshima Day, some members of the party organised a mass candle-lighting and sending off of these little lights onto the lake. Here is what they looked like as the sun set...

...and here we are enjoying them.

On the day that we visited the village of Suopo, Cam and I had been on the road for over a week and were a little bored food-wise. Breakfast was always baozi (steamed bread) and xifan (rice porridge); lunch, noodles; dinner, rice and dishes. It was starting to get repetitive, and so we decided to liven things up a little with a proper DIY picnic - bread pouches, fresh vegetables, boiled eggs and fruit. This was the kind of food - filling and portable - that we had lived on when we hitch-hiked in Europe, and its return to our travelling routine was almost nostalgic.

After wandering around the castle-like houses and winding paths of Suopo in the blazing midday sun for hours, we found a shady wood by a stream to eat. It was the perfect spot - babbling brook by our side, awe-inspiring mountains above us, and a delectable picnic waiting to be devoured. The yellow tomatoes we'd found in the market that morning were almost creamy in their richness; the bread a nice balance of fried and baked, and local red plums for afters tart and juicy.

We loved that picnic so much that we made sure we ate a few others on the rest of the trip, but none matched the perfection and deliciousness of this one.