Yesterday, we went on a spectacular drive round the Gorges du Verdon, Europe’s answer to the Grand Canyon. Impossible to photograph, really. It’s the kind of countryside that calls out for Ansel Adams’s skill, technique and infinite capacity for taking pains. The rest of us are reduced to snapshots like this. What made it worse was that, because of RyanAir’s draconian campaign on baggage weight, we had travelled light — and left my Nikon DSLR at home.

I’d like to come back here sometime with a Hasselblad when the light is less fierce. This part of Haute Provence is quite, quite beautiful.