Villedieu-les-Poeles

This was the nearest decent sized village or small town from us - Villedieu-les-Poeles.

It was a bit of a sleepy wee town. The whole area is very laid back to be fair but the town seemed to take a fair bit of time to wake up.

We went down to have a look round to see if we could pick anything up for bringing home.

If you get off the main roads, of which this is one, there are tight high sided empty back lanes with shuttered buildings to keep the sun at bay.

To be fair there wasn't that much to see - a few hairdressers, cafes etc. but it was all very nice - not a Starmegabucks or Costa Fortune in sight.

I did notice a couple of estate agents so scoped out the price of properties out of nosieness.

They are less expensive than back home and you could see why people would invest in property to rent it out.

But from what I have seen the cottages just aren't being booked much - ours (yes there were two but that's another long sad sorry story) were empty the weeks before and after us and if any sporting event comes near anything in Scotland on the scale of the Tour de France property is booked out years in advance.

I think there is a bit of slump here in northern France on the British tourism front.

It is a beautiful part of France but it is expensive and the French lifestyle is very backward compared to the UK when it comes to shopping and and public facilities etc.

Try getting anything done on a Sunday over there. The supermarkets don't open, petrol stations likewise other than "pay by card" some of which will not accept UK bank cards.

As for the toilet arrangements anywhere they are simply bizarre set ups and that includes the likes of "new" premises like McDonalds and KFC etc.

However if you work round these things if you feel they are an issue and you have a beautiful place that is very, very laid back - except on the roads.

Ps: it is pure coincidence that Wiki uses this same side street as their picture of what is a fairly decent size village with a town square etc.