Elton John and Scotty the Peugeot 106.

Last week, Andy and I spent a few days going round local towns leafleting to promote La Maison des Chameaux and pull in some crowds for the summer season.

We quickly set up a roadtrip routine:

8.15 - wake up, cup of tea, weetabix.

8.30 - shower, dress, clean teeth.

8.45 - pile in to Scotty the Peugeot 106 with a zillion leaflets and posters. put Elton John "Tiny Dancer" on the iPod full blast. roll the windows down (yes ROLL down. no electric windows in this bad boy). hit the road...

The villages around the farm are stunning and is the countryside between them. Quaint just doesn't even begin to describe it and they are about as French as you could possibly get.

We also quickly discovered that every village has a a dog grooming parlour and at least 25 hairdressers. Although this does not seem to have any effect on the amount of horrific 80s throw back hairdos we saw on people and dogs alike.

(i'm upstairs right now and I just heard Andy outside say "Oh god, she's just pooing everywhere". I dread to think which animal he's on about now...)

We targeted these hairdressers as well as launderettes, supermarkets, beauty salons, greengrocers and flower shops. Our basic thinking was that we would put leaflets in places where women would find them and then drag their families to the farm over the summer holidays. The same line of thought saw us avoid mechanics and electrical shops. Men don't get to make decisions where family outings are concerned. Fact.

Perhaps most importantly, these long drives around the French countryside gave us the opportunity to work on our trucker tans. My right arm (driver side) and Andy's left arm (passenger side) are now nicely bronzed. Also - 70mph is the perfect speed to do 'air boobs'. If you've never done this, you've never lived.

H xxx

PS - CHICKWATCH: we now have 6 chicks hatched. 2 black, 4 yellow. CUTE.