I took this photograph last month while on holiday with my wife, Marie, in the south of France. We decided to take a boat trip to Île Sainte-Marguerite off the coast of Cannes.
The island is most famous for its fortress prison, the Fort Royal, in which the so-called Man in the Iron Mask was held in the 17th century.
Having visited the prison, we decided to take a walk around the island. By now it was noon and the temperature had soared to 30-plus degrees, so after a few kilometres we were beginning to wilt.
We started looking for a suitable spot to have a swim in order to cool down, but as a lot of the island coastline was very rocky we had to continue walking for another kilometre or so. We finally came across a beautiful little cove with a sandy beach. It was very tranquil; there were only two other couples there.
We immediately went for a swim to cool ourselves from the searing heat. The sea was crystal clear and very refreshing after our walk. We began looking longingly at the various yachts moored off the beach and agreed one would be a definite purchase with any future lottery win.
After a few minutes, a woman appeared from behind some nearby rocks with her dog literally in tow. She saw us looking in surprise and began to talk to us in very rapid French.
From what I could understand she was explaining that her dog, which she introduced to us as Poupette, didn’t like getting his paws wet.
After a couple more minutes of strained conversation in our poor French and her broken English, we said our goodbyes. She subsequently turned towards her lovely yacht and proceeded to swim out to it, once again with the dry-pawed doggy in tow.
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