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, ...