Of this and that

Have been to some really nice little places in Normandy recently. Honfleur is a very pretty - and very touristy (mainly English) - seaside town. I think it's one of the places that pretenders to the British throne used to head off to in order to escape execution for treason and from which to plot their, hopefully, triumphant returns - people like Henry Tudor.

Also went to Trouville-sur-Mer and its better-known neighbour, Deauville - a famous beach resort where they have lots of horse-racing I think. It's the kind of place that's on the social calendar of the British smart set. Some amazing architecture there - huge (tall) beach front properties.

In Lisieux, they were holding some kind of town fête, with lots of activities for kids and a karaoke. No, don't worry, I didn't create an international incident by attempting to sing but there was one young guy there who was just amazing - very Leonard Cohen. He got a most enthusiastic round of applause.

We went to see the famous Bayeux tapestry. It was quite different from what I'd imagined. For some reason, I thought it would be a huge wall of tapestry but in fact it's a 70m x 1m strip that winds, behind glass, around a very dimly-lit room. It recounts the story of the Norman conquest of England. It's stunning - it's a series of scenes of medieval life, fables and mythical beasts - a bit like a massive cartoon strip. It was thought to be done by nuns in England, commissioned by Bishop Odo, William the Conqueror's half-brother, in time for the inauguration of Bayeux Cathedral in 1077.

We've been staying in a number of chambres-d'hôte - the French equivalent of a b+b. They're really comfortable and less impersonal than hotels. Guests generally eat breakfast together at the one table and we've had some interesting conversations, mostly with French people. One place was a huge old house in the middle of nowhere, run by an elderly lady whose business appeared to be ruled by the times of mass - breakfast was at 9am (guests had no choice in the matter) and you couldn't turn up before 6.30pm. We had the Louis XVI room - all blue and gold, including the bathroom - with very ornate furniture and a crucifix placed prominently on the wall. Stayed in a renovated farmhouse one night in a huge room for a family - there were two huge basins in the bathroom, lurid lime green - their coup de grâce, however, was giving us crème brulée for breakfast!

In the Pyrénées, we stayed with a wonderful couple, Gérard and Marcelle. They were unbelievably hospitable and sent us away with a pique-nique of bottles of wine, two jars of homemade paté, salamis and Seville oranges, which they brought back from Spain last week - just wonderful.

They are coming to NZ for the World Cup and we decided to do an exchange - they'll stay with us the nights they're going to be in Wellington. They don't speak any English, so their visit to NZ could be very interesting.

But the most memorable accommodation has, without doubt, been at an intimate bijoux residence in Favières in Northern France, run by Leslie and Jean-François. Very convivial and wonderful food. A truly exceptional table d'hôte. Merci å vous, mes chers cousins!