Rochefort en Terre is a beautiful old town, a “Petite Cité de Caractére”, a “Plus Beaux Villages de France” in the Morbihan department of Brittany.  On a hot Sunday in May it was surprisingly quiet, it seems purpose-built for coach trips and cruise ship excursions – see the mice in their million hordes, from Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads.  It is just a little too well preserved.

The streets are “dotted with artists and craftspeople: potters, a candle maker, a toymaker” – all that was missing was a National Trust gift shop.

The Chateau up the hill is a little more ragged around the edges and all the better for it: