We left the UK on a grey day and took the Eurotunnel over to France. This was a bittersweet journey – our first without our little dog Polly whom we sadly said goodbye to a few weeks ago, at the grand old age of 18. Polly was born in France and we found her at the dog rescue centre, aged just 2 weeks. She spent half her life in France and the other half in the UK. We miss her every day.

We stayed in St Quentin for the first night, a delightful town about two hours from Calais. Ed enjoyed his first French beer in a while.

After St. Quentin, we stopped overnight near Macon and continued the next day on to Roz and Andy’s place in Treziers, near Mirepoix. We had a good journey, taking the autoroute for most of the way. We arrived around lunchtime and had a very pleasant lunch outside with some good rosé. The gardens are looking as splendid as ever with everything green and lush.

The following day we caught up with Olivier and Benedicte at their new restaurant in Camon, about five minutes by car. Olivier had bought this place several years ago and it looked just like a concrete warehouse. He has since transformed the place into a lovely restaurant and bar, right next to the river. There is a seating area out the front and a bar just inside the front door. That leads into the main restaurant and from there you access the magnificent outdoor terrace. It looks like an Austrian chateau and the roof is vast.

we had a lovely meal of veal chops, followed by tarte au citron and Riz au Lait (one of Ed’s favourite desserts). Benedicte updated us with all the local gossip of which there were many tales. Some of them too gory to repeat! Their lovely dogs Biffou and Sammy, kept us company during the meal, apart from running off now and again to bark at the innocent walkers trying have a quiet stroll by the river.

Olivier has six dogs, four white Pyrenean’s and two hunters. They are beautiful animals but massive! The other three dogs stay at their farmhouse and I suspect that nobody would ever want to try breaking in to that house!