Alex, Graham, Izzy and Martin arrived for their holidays last weekend, glad to escape from the cold and the snow in Harrogate. The weather here is mixed, but with good days between the rainy ones and at least it’s not cold.

We’ve been on a private tour round an armagnac distillery, followed by a tasting; by the end of the fifth armagnac, the boys were all pretty mellow and not sure which one they liked the best. Today we went to see the remains of a Gallo-Romain villa at Seviac; the mosaics are inspirational! Izzy liked the two skeletons of children best – typical! Then on to one of the official “most beautiful villages of France”, which was, well, quite lovely and almost empty of tourists.

Tomorrow’s market day in Eauze; another chance for Graham to take lots of photos; then over the weekend Nogaro is having an exhibition of medieval arts and crafts. So there’s plenty to do, even if the weather’s not brilliant.

In the meantime, Nick and Kieran are labouring for Joel, who’s started replacing the roof; the bits where there’s wood or chipboard below had to be covered by tonight as it’s forecast to rain again tomorrow, so Joel and his lads worked solidly from 8 this morning till 7 tonight. I can’t believe the progress they made in just one day; it’s looking really good.