While visiting the Bordeaux region for the Marathon de Sauternes, we are staying in a gite on a vineyard at Ste Foy la Longue. It’s a beautiful setting, as well as a rather beautiful gite. Three free bottles of the local wine come with our stay, and the place also has its own wine cellar attached.

During your stay, if the three bottles are not sufficient, you can help yourself from the cellar and tally up on departure. The place is also set up with enough crockery and wine glasses for serious entertaining. Sadly, entertaining of that nature is not on our agenda.

On Friday we pottered in to nearby Langon, a decent sized town on the river, for the weekly market. It rates as the best and most extensive market of the trip so far, with diverse produce, and friendly stall holders. We bought four of the regional specialty cakes – caneles de Bordeaux. The guy threw in a fifth free, and then offered us a free crepe. It was probably all part of the performance but it went down well. Tom was equally delighted to find a stall selling his favourite ‘nems’, a specialty of… Vietnam, first tried in the cafe in Nebias!