Silent and peaceful night and a lovely dawn chorus of finches, thrushes and blackbirds.

Ali pops back into town intending to visit the Tourist Office and buy some of the special breads that were advertised yesterday but everything in the whole town is closed.

We set off hoping to visit the chateau at Crevecouer en Auge but when we reach the town there is no sign of, or signs for, the chateau. Maybe renovation, maybe no longer open, we don't know. But this is an area of chateaux so we head on to the next one at St Germain de Livet. Technically this is also not open, in that the ticket office is unmanned, but the entrance gate is opened back allowing us to look at the exterior of the chateau and its gardens and moat. Built in a style called 'colombage' the walls are a checkerboard of grey, green and red stonework. The gardens are lawned with borders of sweet william and sedum. Iridescent peacocks strut about, occasionally piercing the air with their screech, except one peacock that is entirely white from beak to the tips of his tail feathers. When he displays his fan it's like a night at the Folies Bergeres.

Further down the route de cidre, and after a bit of laundering and shopping at Intermarche, is Livarot. The town is home to the revered cheesemakers E. Graindorge and their factory comes up as a France Passion offering tours of the plant and tasting. Unfortunately, with this apparently being 'France is closed Monday', the shop is staffed by two young women totally indifferent to their clientele. Tasting amounts to a couple dishes of mixed and unlabelled morsels, an enquiry about seeing the works is met with shrugs and the information pamphlets are in numerous languages including Danish and Chinese but not English. The cheese is undeniably good and we do buy some. Even though it's a France Passion the parking is as unlovely as the staff, a sloping carpark right by the road. We programme the next nearest Passion into the satnav and pull out, followed closely by an Austrian MoHo also not staying. We travel 6 miles in convoy to the little village of St Germain de Montgommery then up the steep single track road to Cave Cidricol Gautard, where we park in a little hedged grassy bay next to an orchard with celandines under the trees.

Ali and the Austrians go to say hello, and degustaton starts immediately. Owner, Didier Gautard, ask Ali if Monsieur is coming and when she explains it's not worth unloading the wheelchair he pours a glass of pommeau liqueur to take back to Nick in the van. He said something else 'pour Monsieur' Ali didn't catch, but when she goes to stow our purchases there is an extra bottle of cidre. How welcoming and kind and such a difference for a short drive up a green lane. Later, as he is closing up he even comes out to the van to say hello.

Trees whisper all around us, birds sing and cattle low nearby, as the sun drops down the hill and lights up the grass in the orchard. Such an idyllic scene.

We wonder if there's anyone in the cheese factory car park...