Sleepy old villages, wild hilltop castles, azure rivers, singingcicadas, 1,198 wine producers and the finest fortified city in Europe – welcome to “the thinking man’s Provence.”

Our friends, Roger and Annie, blog about their recent trip to Corsica…

We’d loved neighbouring Sardinia, but our Italian is nowhere near as good as our French – so Corsica was an obvious choice this year. What had we ever heard about Corsica? Banditry, vendetta, lawlessness… During our first few hours, we realised there are indeed some very definite rules…

The Dingle Food Fair always takes place on the first weekend in October, often managing to steal a smidgeon of the mellow warmth of September in its wake. This year with our Indian summer in full swing on Europe’s most Western spit of land, the Dingle Peninsula, the festival promises to be an exciting and vibrant celebration of the most delicious and innovative Irish foods.

As we celebrate our 18^th birthday, Alastair revisits some of the special places he discovered – and fell in love with – during that first trip around France.

We asked Soisick de Champsavin of the Manoir de Tarperon and Mme Christiaens of the Villa les Roses to let us peek into the history of that first meeting and to share their stories about being among the first of Sawday’s Special Places to Stay.

Rather wonderfully, 2012 is our 18th birthday. To celebrate, I took myself back to some of the special B&Bs who have been with us since the beginning. I won’t spoil the stories I collected, which will be appearing here and elsewhere in the coming weeks. But I will stress how very much I enjoyed my time reminiscing and rediscovering the charms of these Sawday’s Originals.

I once fell into conversation with a blindingly white skinned fellow who’d just arrived on a Cornish beach for his holiday. Evidently not of the kayaking or swimming persuasion he complained disconsolately - “All this way just to sit on a bloody rock!” I should have helped him, but instead sidled away from his despair in case it was catching. A stroll along the beach may not have lightened his mood, but what if I'd told him about foraging? This transforms any walk into both a journey of discovery and a treasure hunt. What, I wonder, should I have told him to look for? Here are my top six:

From little acorns... Iberian ham blinis sprout, to tempt our autumnal palates. Our friends at the Hacienda Zorita Wine Hotel & Spa whip up a mean blini.

Their head chef, Raúl Losada shares his recipe, using ingredients from their organic farm. You might want to improvise with local ham and cheese..!

We roamed the rocks as the tide retreated, picking winkles, Mermaid's Hair and lava. The harvest was enough for our supper, but the potential was vast – the seaweed covered huge stretches of rock and the winkles – cavorting among the limpets – seemed to be competing for our attention.

River beaches and hidden lakes, waterfalls plunge pool and blue lagoons: France is an aquatic wonderland and a wild swimmer’s paradise. Daniel Start chooses 5 of the best destinations from his brand new guide to Wild Swimming in France and recommends special places to stay nearby.

Summer wouldn't be the same without a host of good books to see us through the lazy days and nights. We asked our Facebook followers to tell us about their favourite reads. Here's a selection of their personal recommendations.