Here and there

Having spent three weeks in Prades, largely working in Cath's case and pottering, shopping and cooking in mine, we caught up with friends and have now returned to England. The overnight ferry from Le Havre on Friday night was the calmest crossing that I can remember. We had a very pleasant seafood dinner at La Voile Bleue in Le Havre opposite the yacht harbour on the ground floor of one of the many postwar apartment blocks built as part of the post war reconstruction. The Channel ports were very badly damaged. We drove to Exeter on Saturday morning for a fantastic breakfast at Lloyds Kitchen, which we discovered on our cycle trip to France last year: outstanding bacon, sausage and eggs. The Royal Clarence on Cathedral Green is under reconstruction but the fire has left very little. We went on to the farm shop at Riverford and last night had wonderful rump steak, very early asparagus and watercress, mopped up with some excellent sourdough from near Totnes. But not before a trip to the Cider Bar, a remarkable and much-loved survival up the street from Annie, who is kindly providing us with a base for the next six weeks.

Today we have moved on to Stroud, where Cath is on an art course until Tuesday. I will be walking the surrounding wolds and, on Tuesday, doing the town trail to look at the fantastic limestone buildings and to understand the history of this Cotswold market town.