Plotting, pantsing, head-banging !

A little stone house on a hillside surrounded by fields of neatly combed vines, stretching down into the valley and across the plain. A few ribbons of trees, marking the roads; here and there the rooftop of a farm in the midst of its vineyards. So rural, so peaceful, such a splendid change after years slogging in a grey city in rainwashed northern England. 

                                     Vineyards at Domaine de Pech-Ménel, Quarante

But even rural retreats under a sparkling blue sky have thei...