My Favourite Holiday: Oliver Cotton’s heaven is history, beauty and food

ACTOR and writer Oliver Cotton is best known for his role as Cesare Borgia in the BBC series The Borgias.

Other recent television credits include Penny Dreadful, The Musketeers and Ripper Street.

He stars alongside Belinda Lang in Duet For One, which is at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, from Tuesday to Saturday.

I ALWAYS say when I go on holiday it’s to just rest and crash out, but after a couple of days I can’t help but go exploring.

I’m a history buff and I like to do lots of sightseeing, which I also find relaxing.

I enjoy Italy very much. When I did The Borgias, I would go around all the places in Tuscany on my time off.

Family driving holidays in northern Spain are also memorable.

Far from the Spanish tourist trail, we visited Santander on the ferry and drove around Burgos, which is a beautiful place. The French Gothic Cathedral of St. Mary is located there and it’s a stunning building.

My overall favourite destination, however, is the south of France.

We go there quite a lot, and I especially like the Languedoc region as I’m very interested in the history of the area, particularly the Cathers, which I became fascinated by quite recently.

A horrible thing happened there in the 13th Century, when the Cathers were attacked, and there is a very strange atmosphere around the place, even now.

I find the medieval towns in France fascinating. I love the feeling you experience in towns built on old ruins.

I also enjoy French country cooking and I can speak a little of the language.

As far as childhood holidays are concerned, I remember being taken to Denmark when I was seven.

To go abroad in those days was very exciting and not all that common, so it was a huge adventure.

My mum was Danish, so she took me to where she grew up, but usually we went on holidays in Britain.

I remember being taken to Broadstairs when I was three, which was exciting. I clearly remember people performing a show on the beach.

We often went to Cornwall too, and my dad would hire a caravan. We went to Holywell Bay and I remember playing in the sand dunes and watching all the surfers.

Another time I remember sailing around the Tighnabruaich area, which was very nice. I’m looking forward to coming back up to Scotland on tour.