THE Ile de Ré on the French Atlantic coast is renowned for its micro-climate and adored by chi-chi Parisians. The locals will tell you the weather is balmy and benign, but I have been there three times; each time it has rained. I complained to the man in the tabac.

“It will stop raining tomorrow,” he said.

“I am leaving tomorrow,” I replied. “Every time I come here it rains.”

“Then perhaps it is your fault.”

A classics feast in France

The Times' cartoonist crosses the Channel to find a flourishing chamber music festival in an abbey in northern France

Teen cooking classes in France

Cathy Smith's daughter and friend weren't quite teenagers when they visited, but they were soon cooking up a storm

• 14 tasty cookery courses

BACKGROUND

• The cheese-lover's guide to France

• The cunning holiday guide to France in August

• The budget guide to the French Riviera

• Deauville: a classy Channel resort

• Don't pass Pas de Calais

Related Internet Links

• Peregrine's France: the Sunday Times francophile reveals all

Related Links

• Life is a carnival in France

That cannot be right; I know other people who have been here and it has rained on them, too. My wife now calls it the Ile de Rain. But it was no hardship to hang out in the Hôtel de Toiras, a beautiful building in the port of Saint-Martin, the island's capital.

It has a great little restaurant for dinner and during the day we ran under umbrellas to the nearest bistro to eat oysters. Most of the people in the restaurant seemed to be from Ireland. With the combination of rain, oysters and gentle Irish accents, it felt rather as if we were in Cork.

After a day of rain and a delicious dinner in the Hôtel de Toiras restaurant we decided to explore some of the other islands. Noirmoutier is a three-hour drive north. It is linked to the mainland - rather quaintly they call it the Continent - via a bridge, but also by the Gois, a road that is exposed at low tide.

Legend says that it is a Roman road. There are still parts that are paved, but most of it is covered in bitumen. The south end of the island is rather plain, flat and full of potato fields, but near the northern tip the landscape perks up. The houses are white, mainly single storey, with blue painted shutters.

The main town, Noirmoutier-en-Ile, has many restaurants offering seafood and crêpes. We ate at the Grand Four and consumed the largest lobster that I have ever seen.

The Bois de la Chaise is the most exclusive part of the island, a holm-oak forest under which you can picnic. Some years ago the bourgeois of Nantes imported granite and built colossal houses. You can just make them out among the trees, large and grey like elephants. Jean Renoir came to Noirmoutier and was charmed.

“It is as beautiful as the Midi, but with a sea that is much more beautiful than the Mediterranean.” He was right: the water has an energy that is invigorating. There is not much to do on the island - there is not much to do on any of these islands - which I think is rather the point of them.

We went cycling and walked on La Plage de Luzéronde. It is a long beach of curving golden sand, deserted save for a few kite surfers. After 20 minutes' walking, it turned into a nudist beach. We realised this because suddenly there was a man strolling beside us, naked except for the hat on his head.

Times recommends

• Dubai cheaper than Doncaster as room rates tumble
• World Cup 2010 - how to follow England
• Copenhagen: Europe's greenest city