After a lazy morning, we made our way to Cotehele - a Mediaeval/Tudor house in the Tamar Valley. Reputed to be one of the least altered Tudor houses in the UK, the earliest buildings date to around 1300. Managed by the National Trust since 1947, the estate includes the house and associated buildings, extensive gardens (inlcuding 5.3 ha of orchards), as well as a quay (on the Tamar River) and a working corn mill. Part of the property was used to establish The Mother Orchard in 2007/8, intended to act as a 'gene pool' to protect local apple varieties. Eventually, more plants will be propogated and made available to the public. The house was quite different to anything we've seen before. It is definitely grand, but in a very rustic way. The doors, staircases and some ... read more

Today, as the weather was forecast to be fine, we decided to spend the day on Dartmoor, which is in Devon, about an hour's drive away. We stopped in the little village of Postbridge (to get a pastie for lunch) and luckily decided to pop into the excellent visitor information centre. In retrospect that was a very good decision as we probably would never have found the places we wanted to visit without the detailed instructions from the Dartmoor National Park Authority staff. It's good to see that the much publicised government funding cuts have not impacted (yet?) on this important service. We had no trouble finding Grimspound, the remains of a Bronze Age village of which there are many scattered across the moor. Although not the largest example, it is reputed to be the best ... read more

John very kindly cooked bacon and eggs for brekkie this morning. Yesterday morning we had laughed at all the Brits on the ferry tucking into their 'English breakfast' after having to put up with pastries for breakfast while in France. Here we were doing the same thing (no sausages though)! We thought we'd venture out onto the moor today. From Minions - the highest village in Cornwall - there are walking tracks to the Hurlers and the Cheesewring. The Hurlers, believed to date from the Bronze Age, comprises a group of three standing-stone circles which local legend states are the forms of men turned to stone for playing the game of 'hurlers' on the Sabbath! It was pretty wet underfoot and it started raining but we decided to press on. Fortunately, we realised that there was ... read more

Neither of us slept very well because just after dinner last night we learned that our ferry trip from Roscoff to Plymouth had been cancelled in response to industrial action. This means we now have to catch the ferry from Calais to Dover – a much shorter crossing but an extra two days of driving. Consequently, we spent this morning on the phone and internet sorting out our car rentals and hotel bookings. Thank goodness Hôtel des Rochers has Wi-Fi! We finally emerged from our room and headed out onto the Sentier des Douaniers – a walking path that was established at the time of the French Revolution to guard against smuggling. It follows nearly the entire Breton coast for about 1,300 kilometres (we didn’t walk all of it!). Once patrolled day and night by brigades ... read more

We’re settling nicely into our morning French lessons with Claudine and Yves! They do, however, tend to prevent us from getting out and about early! We drove to Fort La Latte (on the Côte d’Emeraude – Emerald Coast) thinking it would be a quick visit, but it was such a great place we ended up spending quite a bit of time. Built in the 14th century, atop the cliffs of a rock outcrop, high above the sea it was designed to be impregnable – and so it was. Later, it was converted to a military post by the legendary military engineer, Vauban, for Louis XIV in the 17th century. The secret to its success was the fact that the rock outcrop was separated from the mainland by two natural chasms. These were incorporated into the defensive ... read more