It's been a busy, stay-at-home year for us. I had an operation on my foot in February so was hopping on crutches for a while. Ros and Pete's baby, Hattie, arrived on the 9th of February. My mum died on the 13th, leaving Dad on his own, although coping well. In June we had a car accident while with Ros and Hattie, who fortunately were fine. Andy had a few days on morphine in Milton Keynes hospital. His fractured sternum kept him out of action for a few weeks and...

On Remembrance Day we flew out to Keflavik and transferred to the Northern Lights hotel on the outskirts of Reykjavik. A lovely hotel but if we went again we'd choose somewhere in the town centre, as there would be more choice of restaurants. On the first day it was sunny but cold, we walked to Perlan, from where there are fabulous views over the town. Day two we had booked to go Whale watching, but it was blowing a gale (the snow was driving horizontally too) s...

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...