'Oh look, there’s a little town called Betton on the map, close to this road and beside a river. Maybe that’s a good place for our picnic lunch.' It was one of my better map-reading suggestions.

Betton Church (click for larger image)

‘Oh look, there’s a little town called Betton on the map, close to this road and beside a river. Maybe that’s a good place for our picnic lunch.’

It was one of my better map-reading suggestions. A short drive away from the D175 road from Rennes to Mont St Michel and there, on our left, was a huge, almost empty tree-lined car park set between two rivers. Our joy was made complete by the discovery of a picnic table with a view across the River Ille to the splendid church of St Martin - and the company of two handsome ducks and their brood of fluffy ducklings.

The Ille is split into two courses at Betton and behind us was the navigable waterway part of the river, lined with brightly painted canal boats. This riverside walkway turned out to be named Quai de Dartmoor and Betton to be twinned with the town of Moretonhampstead in Devon.

Our serendipitous picnic was finally made utterly French by the appearance of a group of men who proceeded to play boules in the warm sunshine on a pitch beside the elegant avenue of trees that line the river, framed by the Gothic splendour of the church.