Last night was bitter cold, down to 4 degrees so we run the heating for a while before getting up.

The tide is almost all the way in giving the estuary a very different look from yesterday. Canada geese and gulls float on the tiny incoming waves only 100 yards away and an endless stream of headlights arc across the bridge.

Our plan was to go to visit Cognac and then onto a nearby passion, but with low grey skies and showers imminent we decide to drive south for a good distance instead. There is a site on the outskirts of Bordeaux so Ali rings to make sure they're open, which the call confirms.

We leave busy La Rochelle behind and head along the Marrans where we see a number of inland oyster farms; blocks of rectangular pools about the size of a tennis court with a small warehouse alongside,

We stop in a supermarket for a few provisions and some fuel. Diesel works out at £0.84 / ltr.

Further down we enter Cognac country. The buildings change from the plaster and pantiles of Pitou Charente to the solid, dressed limestone blocks and slate of this region. The rolling hills are full of vines and chateaux with maroon signs advertising Pineau Cognac. We notice the vines here are not pruned so severely as the Muscadet ones, maybe less risk of frost, maybe just a better way for this variety of grape.

At Soubran we see a huge cloud of smoke and road signs warn, 'Attention Fume' and soon we pass the factory creating the smoke. Outside are stacked probably hundreds of thousands of staves for the cooperage, some the light ginger of newly cut timber, other charred and blackened where they have been fired.

The last twenty miles are on a drizzly, truck-filled motorway before we cross the Garronne over a huge bridge and arrive at the campsite Camping la Village du Lac, just outside Bordeaux. The site looks a bit sorry for itself in the depths of winter, bare trees and soggy pitches but it is only €16.00 and has electricity and wi-fi so all is well.