Our customers can challenge themselves over three courses of the famous Club, which mixes outstanding sea views with striking age-old scenery, glimpses of the ancient Bayeux Cathedral and testing water hazards. The offer cuts green fees from €55 to just €31.50 per person and with week long holidays from as little as £180, that’s great value.

I have actually hacked my way around 18 holes of the course and it is great fun, provided you’re prepared to lose lots of balls (although that could be attributed to my playing style). There are three 9-hole courses, themed around the Sea, Ponds and Hedgerows. The views on many of the holes really are outstanding, with glimpses of the Channel, the D-Day beaches and even the Bayeux Cathedral.

Combine the Sea and Hedgerow courses and you have a Scottish style links course, whereas the Pond holes features lots of water (hence the name) and hills. Amateurs, like me, are probably best to avoid this stretch if they want their holiday to stay relaxed.

A colleague also pointed out that a week in France is a great chance to learn golf and there are a variety of courses available at Omaha, staring from just 220 Euros for 10 hours over five days.

Brittany, the Vendee and Loire Valley are awash with fantastic courses, so why not tell us about the best, and worst of those.

But things could change for Pont Aven, a small town in Brittany, as the team at Domaine de Kerlann bid to put themselves on the winter sports map.

Not content with having a sun-splashed early summer and a busy July and August, they’ve set themselves the challenge of doing something no other siblu parc would. And we think they’ve achieved it by bringing a ski slope to Brittany!

Casting aside the images of beautiful beaches and cracking coastline dappled in September sunshine so lovingly captured by the marketing bods, the parc director Karim and his team have gone for snow and ice as their theme in September.

For one week from 27 September they’ll have a 50m ski slope, luge track and ice rink dominating the parc. There will be instructors on hand to provide basic tuition and everything is available for just 30 Euros for the whole week. Add that to the cost of accommodation, from as little as £287 including Dover-Calais ferry and you’ve got a fun-packed week.

And even if Brittany is un-seasonally hot at the end of September, there’s the giant outdoor pool, splashzone and tennis courts to enjoy.

I can’t help picturing Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards when I imagine the team strapping on their skis, but I can certainly think of worse ways to be welcoming in October.

If you want some early practice, take a look at Passport Diary’s round up of dry ski slopes in the UK.

First stop was Domaine de Kerlann near Pont Aven, where we were to spend a day learning the secrets of food and cooking in Brittany.

The tour started in Concarneau, once a thriving port but now a bustling ship yard with a pretty, fortified island old town.

Our charismatic guide Simon took us first to the local fish auction, where the daily catch was delivered by the fleet and auctioned off to restaurants, suppliers, even pet food factories.

Although we missed the auction, which takes place in the early hours of the morning, there was still plenty for us to see, from the assembly line of workers filleting fish, to the boxes and boxes containing the day’s catch to a (loud) demonstration of the auction practices from Simon, who was clearly getting into character.

The tour is predominately in French but our translator Gwendolene ensured we were up to speed and Simon’s actions kept us in the picture.

Next stop was a trip round one of the typical sea trawlers used by local fisherman. We were lucky as ours was being cleaned and painted so we were spared the smells of fuel and fish. Seeing the scale of the boat and getting a feel for the conditions gave us a healthy regard for the teams who spend two weeks on board with very little sleep. 

A comfy meal followed in the fantastic La Coquille Restaurant. Enjoying a slow-cooked chicken, a fruity dessert and a crisp white local wine – this really was French life as we love it.

Then, after dejeuner, our chance to see how a French chef perfects his fish soup. It was time for a re-appearance from our fishy friends from the auction, which were swiftly selected, chopped and thrown into a giant soup pot.

Clearly my blank looks were seen as a sign of cooking idiocy, as the chef used a felt-tip pen to spell out the simplicity of his dish. And despite my food-lite knowledge, a learned colleague assured me that this really was a tasty way to make fish soup and he had save several tips to use at a later date.

Delicious – and there was enough left for a fish soup dinner back at Domaine de Kerlann!

This course is for: those who want to find out more about the fascinating town of Concarneau, the trials of sea fishing and make the perfect fish soup. A translator is provided by some French is useful.