Lunch time in the pretty port of Cassis: a classic retreat to the Mediterranean sunshine from storms further north. This should be about a sit-down meal at a harbour-side restaurant featuring seafood or Provençal cuisine. Increasingly the French tourists appear to be abandoning to the foreign tourists the over-priced restaurants serving “prettied up peasant food” (like Soupe de Poissons or Bouillabaisse) and themselves settling down to a rather cheaper picnic direct from the boulangerie artisanale.

The British weather knows what is expected of it for a Bank Holiday!
(With apologies to E. H. Shepard's drawing of Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh staring out of a window laden with rain drops).

View of dawn over the river Saône at Macon, a major tributary to the Rhône. Our motel room and terrace opened directly on to the river banks: it's surprisingly reassuring the way a major river “just keeps on rolling” past. The textures of the surface constantly changing but always moving steadily and incessantly downstream. Local wine excellent... we chose and enjoyed a bottle of Azé (Maconnais) as we had driven amongst the vineyeards.

Heartening to see (and join) the queue for Hot Cross buns this Good Friday morning in at Ravens Bakery, Fiveways, Brighton. So many craft bakers have given up, but Donald Raven’s bakery continues to offer a range of good quality and expertly baked, no-nonsense British bakery products. His “signature” brown loaf is a sunflower seed tin loaf, made with a tasty and high gluten flour. Joining the Good Friday bakery queue is an opportunity for talking with neighbours and finding out about the area, to step back from the one-stop shopping mentality lure of the supermarkets. The Hot Cross buns were – as usual – well worth waiting for and delicious either straight from the bag whilst walking home (see the guy with dog in my photo) or on a warmed plate for breakfast.