Student of the Month: Max Leonard
At Yoga on the Lane we’ve long known that it's the students that make a studio, give it its buzz, its sense of community. And we’ve also long known that at YOTL we have the sharpest, keenest, smartest set of students that have ever stepped on to a mat, and to celebrate them we’re launching our new online feature: Student of the Month, a place to share the stories of the wonderful people that give the studio its unique atmosphere.
We start with adventure/cycling superstar writer Max Leonard. Lovely Max has been coming to the studio for three years and when he’s not off cycling through Alpine passes, he tries to come two-three times a week. His last book Lanterne Rouge: the Last Man in the Tour de France explored the joys of bringing up the rear in the world’s most famous race. This summer he published Bunker Research…
In southern France, high above the villas and the pleasure palacesof the Côte d’Azur, there is the Alpine Extension of the Maginot Line. This little-known system of fortifications was built before the Second World War, and was meant to protect France from Mussolini. But nobody has successfully invaded over the Alps since Hannibal and his elephants, and things didn’t quite turn out as the French expected...
Now, the bunkers are marooned, forlorn and crumbling, in some of the most beautiful and remote parts of France. They are disappearing into the landscapes they once commanded, sitting in both harmony and discord with the mountains around them. They are a testamentto the ingenuity, engineering and resolve of men who then lived below ground among the high peaks, waiting for an onslaught that never came.
Recorded in stunning pictures and prose, Bunker Research isfor adventurers, architects, historians, mountain lovers and urban explorers. Join the authors on a disquieting journey up peaks, along ridges and down valleys, on their search for the hidden history of modernism in the mountains.