Just had a fairly mediocre meal with a large bill as our last one. Deauville (should it be D'oh!ville)? is rather posh, with rather smart apartment blocks and two marinas. Dog muck everywhere, including the beach. What a shame. We're back in jeans and jackets, it's trying to rain.....getting us used to English weather.

Leaving the Loire this morning we decided to do a quick detour via a vinyard to buy another box of wine. we followed a winding road until we arrived in a pretty garden with a cottage opposite farm buildings. Madame answered the door and asked us to follow her to the cellar, which turned out to be her mother's house, deep in the woods, with a turreted manor house and cluster of pretty gites. A golden labrador wound herself round our legs while we tried the wines, ...

We've enjoyed the lush river valley of the loire. We visited only 2 of the more than 300 chateaux in this area. They range from quite modest to spectacular, from hilltop to river, from derelict to luxurious 5* hotel. In 2003 we visited this area with Ros and Carly and visited the underground chateau, which has now been excavated further, although much of it is unsafe for visitors. This is Brézé, known for its enormous pigeon loft as well as the fortified under...

I've missed a couple of days' blogging as the hotels we were in, although lovely places, didn't have enough WiFi signal to be able to upload content. We've had a few days here in the Dordogne, named after its lazy, meandering river, and famous for its large British ex-pat communities. I can see why they're here; the countryside is rolling, lush farmland, rather like the West Country in appearance, but the climate is much better, enabling outdoor swimming pools...

The legendary home of Cyrano de Bergerac, in fact he never lived here, but that hasn't stopped the townsfolk using his name as their USP. His statue dominates the central square under the 14th century church, which has been renovated more times than Trigger's broom. This pretty town has many jetted half timbered houses from the late medieval period when the town's prosperity grew due to the export of wine and timber. It was one of the first towns to have elect...