Every parent will be familiar with this scenario: you’ve dared to venture to a restaurant for lunch, your wine glass has just been filled, your meal has been served – and at this very moment, your inquisitive toddler decides it’s time for a wander.

This happened during a recent visit to Hôtel de la Plage in the village of L’Herbe in Cap Ferret. Knowing all attempts at diplomacy would fail – with the sole exception of “ice cream?” – I took his hand, and off we went.

With the determination of an army general, George led me into the village’s maze-like grid of wooden houses. We walked along sandy alleys, tiptoeing around a somnolent golden retriever, Lasso, who is so famous in L’Herbe he has a street named after him. Then, glimmering in the metre-wide gap between the houses, lay the brigh

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