After Sarah had taken the dogs on their obligatory early walk I hoisted my carcass out of my pit like a man on a mission. And I did have a mission. Our first croissants of the trip. The only problem was that I would have to walk a whole 500 metres to the bakery. But I needed little motivation and 15 minutes later I was tucking in to a good, but not excellent French pastry with Sarah sampling her favourite – a Pain au Raisin.

Thus fuelled I was ready for a day of high energy brain work, planning our forthcoming trip to Tuscany and Umbria. My methodology was to first list all the places recommended (not just mentioned) in either the Michelin Guide or the Rough Guide, excluding the sights of Florence, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimigiano and Siena, all of which we have visited at least twice before. Surprisingly I was still left with an impractically long list of over 35. I then removed any which had nowhere for Basil to stay overnight and then finally selected only those recommended in BOTH the Michelin and Rough Guides. The result was twelve lucky winners who will have the pleasure of our company over the next two weeks or so.

All of this high power exercise was carried out in t-shirt and shorts. Not because my brain was overheating but because here in beautiful Provence there was not a cloud in the sky and the temperature was approaching 20 degrees. It was time to start to cast off that pallid skin developed in a North European winter and charge up my stocks of vitamin D.

As the day draws to a close and temperatures drop sharply, my forehead seems to have taken on the hue of a flamingo. Factor 50 for me tomorrow.