Following a fabulous day trip to Bruges, from my P&O cruise ship Arva. drifting lazily amongst the crowds of sightseers, I was unprepared for the hellish number of visitors to Mont St Michel, on the next day-trip.

The day started very early, before any chance for breakfast with a long, extremely boring coach trip from Cherbourg with a dozen other trippers. We didn’t speak much, just watched the sun rising over the flat countryside until eventually I caught sight of the sea, and then the familiar shape of rock.

We had stopped at a remote service station for 5 minutes- just enough time for a toilet break, but not enough to purchase a bottle of water using the impenetrable French debit card machine, so still desperately thirsty.

Will I expire through drought? Would anyone even notice if I didn’t return?

Fortunately, there was a shop with no queue in the car park, where I could temporarily slake my raging thirst - not dead yet!