The first sound is a honking swan flying over to land in the lake. We open the screens to a blue sky with high fluffy clouds. Late morning we take the 11 mile drive to Bergerac and easily find a large carpark with plenty of space for MoHo's a few hundred meteres from the historic centre. The old town spreads back from the banks of the Dordogne. Beside the water one of the traditional flat-bottomed boats, called garberes, is on display. Starting up one of the...

Torrential rain in the night found a weak point in the roof letting water in by one of the skylights. Nick W removes the inner frame and finds the leak which he temporarily repairs with tank tape. Grete walks into town and returns with a large caramel and cream eclair that we share with coffee. Amidst all this we pause for a two minute silence in respect of Remembrance Day. The sun is out as we leave La Reole and follow rge picturesque route to Monsegur, wher...

Heavy rain in the night. We're in no particular rush to move but when we open the blinds we see Claudie has put out a home-made union flag. Before we leave she gives us tourism maps and tells us a long list of places we may find interesting. We decide to follow the canal back to where it meet the river Garonne. The grey day means it's not as attractive as might have been but still nice to see. At one lock a man is clearing leaves from the lock, sending them ...

It's a windy, rainy start to the moning but by 11:00 it has eased enough for us to set out on our walk down to the canal. Once we get on the towpath, out of the wind, it's not too cold at all. Unfortunately the gales have almost stripped many of the leaves from the trees but the thick layers of them covering the path and floating on the canal still make a colourful scene. Nick W scoots back and forth on the motorbike and when we meet at the edge of Meilhan he ...

There is a soft sunrise this morning, lighting up the trees across the valley. We need LPG today so look up where it's available en route before setting off towards Meilhan sur Garonne. The roads away from St Meard-de-Gurcon take us through some beautiful valleys and over hills of vineyards where the vines have all put on their autumn cloaks. We've seen vineyards bare in winter, lush green in spring and laden with fruit in summer, but never seen row upon row g...