Beaucoup du vin en la belle France!

Venue: Polly Possibly-Not's maison de vacance in la belle France - Tardiveau in the Charente region (see below left)

Non-walkers: Polly Possibly-Not, Fifi la Carr, Mrs Provincial (being even more provincial in this French backwater) and our friend, Fat Pammy (as you can see from the photos, she only weighs about 7 stone . . it's just not fair!)

Wot, no wine? that was a mistake which was soon rectified!

Weather: Pretty stunning, and hotter each day

Distance: just a few steps each day from house to poolside to bar to restaurant back to bar and back home again to wine supplies -oh, and a little walk around the beautiful chateau at Verteuil! And because we felt so guilty a little walk down to the river and around Polly's village on the day we came home.

Time taken: 5 days - heaven help my liver

Find of the week: A gorgeous lost doggie. Came wandering up to us while we were sitting in a bar (where else?) in a pretty village and we were fairly sure that he was either lost or dumped. We got some water for him as he was very thirsty and made enquiries as to whether anyone knew anthing about him, but no luck. The local Mairie is responsible for lost dogs but is on holiday in August (no handy RSPCA or local animal rescue - bloody French!), so we decided to do a supermarket dash for food, which we duly fed him - he was really hungry. After much soul searching we made the decision to leave him but go back the next day to see if he was still around, in which case we would have taken him. However, the next day he was nowhere to be seen, so all we can hope is that he was either reunitied with his owners, or some other kind soul took pity on him. Fee has flown back to France today as they are spending a week working on their house, so will also spend the time trying to track him down. Just hope he's OK, poor thing.

Pluses: Great girlie company -no men, sorry TB!, weather, venue, scenery, wine, food including brilliant local cheeses, value - wine at 1.79 Eur a bottle, what more can a girl ask for?

Minuses: Flying Ryanair - an experience not be repeated in a hurry . .

I hope to have recovered enough by next week to join you all again . . .