It’s refreshingly cool, drizzly and breezy when we wake. Today is our first ‘standstill’ on this trip. No need to get up early or plan any routes or get on the road. We’d decided not to go out today even before the rain made that decision for us. After a quiet lie-in we enjoy a cooked breakfast, including some of our Troglodyte mushrooms, which have oh so much more flavour that the sterile blobs from Sainsbury’s or Tesco. It’s a lovely, restful an...

In the middle of the night we woke to see a huge, dull yellow moon low over the vines shining through the windscreen. At breakfast time Monsieur Camus IV comes by on his tractor, which he drives through the vines, trimming the leaves with a 3 sided gantry cutter. We say goodbye to M. Camus III, who tells us he takes his own camping-car to Spain each winter. Today’s drive takes us south and west, straight through the centre of Marmande and over the River Garo...