Touching base with old friends is always good for the soul – and for a lifelong Francophile like me, the perfect excuse to embark on a tour across the Channel and a long-overdue catch-up with our copains français. But not one bicycle in sight, I should hasten to add.
We had our Dalmatian, Zara – not a good fit with life on two wheels – in tow as we wended our leisurely way across Normandy, Champagne, the Loire Valley and Loire-Atlantique, then back to Normandy and home again.
Post-Brexit, taking a dog anywhere in Europe is a bureaucratic and somewhat costly challenge, but we decided not to let that deter us in our quest to reacquaint ourselves with the simple pleasures of exploring rural France.
We have visited so many times in the past 40 years that these days, we like to discover hidden corners of the ‘Hexagon’ that are new to us, as well as
