That’ll teach me to gloat about the weather. I’d earlier spoken on the phone to my mother, who’d told me about the bad weather back home. I took great pleasure in telling her just how warm it was here and with hardly any wind. That all changed come bed time, and it was a very noisy night with the wind howling round our ears until we got up.

More by luck than judgement, in our elevated position we were pretty much nosed right into the wind, which is always best. When we did get up, Sophie suggested that the movement of the van was increasing and so perhaps we should find somewhere more sheltered. Who am I to argue.

We had planned to eat at the lovely L’Écluse restaurant in Port Maubert, just down the road, and so headed to the port’s waterside parking area, where there was little evidence of any wind at all. Having done our research the previous evening and establishing that it was open on a Monday, we later headed to the restaurant. No sign of life at all. Disappointing as we’d had a great lunch outside on the raised deck last year, so there was nothing to do but continue our journey.

En route, as we headed South West, we made sure to get our first Lidl fix for a long time, and this included pastries. After this my objective was Sauternes. We’d stumbled upon this tiny village, with its famous name, some years ago, and found it a great, quiet and picturesque overnight stop. Two years ago we’d found it on our route again. This time it appeared magically on our map because I’d recorded it as one of our successful night stops from the last couple of years.

So here we are again – it really does help to go to tried and tested “Sophie-proof” overnighting spots. In fact, she had reminded me that on our original visit, the restaurant we’d fancied trying was closed. It’s not open tonight, so I’ve been told that we’ll be lunching there tomorrow. We’ll wander up shortly to check there are signs of life, and if so we’ll look forward to tomorrow’s lunch.