This year's holiday was a return to the Pyrenees - haven't been there for a few years now so it was good to get back. We stopped off at Collioure on the way down and accidentally arrived for the festival of Saint Vincent, which meant the town was full of bands playing all sorts of music, stalls selling all sorts of booze, and general party related stuff. Traumatic stuff, obviously. Some of the local specialities were great (anchovies feature highly), and I managed to discover the best dessert in the world: fennel ice cream on spiced bread with a saffron coulis, at the Hotel des Templiers. The local ros… wine is mighty grand, too.

Then on to Font-Romeu, a small Pyrenean ski resort, where the walking boots were dusted off. Can thoroughly recommend the restaurant at the Hotel de la Poste, which serves superb tartiflette and a rather nice rum-flamb…ed banana dessert.

And finally the gite - which can only be described as curiously functional. With a mural of a mountain view on the wall, a trough of rocks below it, and flankings of a tree-trunk lampshade and a tree-trunk, er, tree (complete with bird's nest), it was typical French kitsch. Still, it was cheap and it kept the rain off (not that there was much).

And while we were there we managed to get engaged as well - which was nice.