Country diary


For some years, before we bought this house on the Breton coast at Plougasnou, family summer holidays saw us assembling at Quillan, in the Aude valley south of Carcassonne. A very different part of France where pantile roofs, fields of sunflowers, dependable warm sunshine and country roads lined with plane trees set the tone. I was always interested by the number of middle-aged cyclists who passed through Quillan and learned that these amateurs were cycling the often-used Tour de France stage up to Andorra.

So, with the 2008 Tour de France starting with three stages in Brittany, and one of them passing only within a short distance of us, I thought it would be good to get the flavour of what is the national summer sport in France. The second stage of the race was across the peninsula from Auray to St Malo. The 180 riders came along, at a formidable speed, with the race leaders only a short distance ahead of the peloton at the middle stage of the day's ride, and bore evidence that the required speed of the top contenders averages almost 40kph.

And with a taste of the national enthusiasm we returned to quieter activity on the coast. I have noticed that the butterfly population is very much reduced this year. Giant buddleias, known as the butterfly bush, have none in attendance and there are few enough to be found wherever I have looked. It could be a seasonal failure, as is always possible, but butterfly populations have generally done better here than in the UK.

However, I was swimming one morning off the tiny beach below Prajou, the one used by the Royal Navy to supply the resistance group at Guimaec during the second world war, when my eye caught a small brown butterfly just skimming the placid water ahead of me. It struck me as odd place to see a butterfly given their notable absence.

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