I have some knowledge about the stretch of road mentioned by Bruce Schneier. I still know a good number of people who use that stretch of the M4 regularly. In the main, rather unsurprisingly, these speed cameras aren't welcome. Mainly I suspect because people enjoy speeding and feel a bit put out that they are being asked to control their speed or pay the penalty of a fine and points. I understand that the police are trying to convince motorists that speeding is an anti-social activity in the same vein as drink driving. In terms of the campaigns there are some parallels between the two, I've heard the following arguments from both "anti-campaigns" in the past:

Drink / speed driving actually makes you more aware because you are high on adrenaline.
Drink / speed driving in the early hours of the morning is perfectly safe because there are no others on the road at that time.

Anyway the stretch of the M4 approximately lies between Swindon and Bristol. I made that journey pretty much every working day for about 2 years, in that time I saw many accidents, and far too many road works. On average I'd say that the 50 mile trip to work would take about 65 minutes. If there were roadworks or an accident then this time would exceed 90 minutes.

Curiously, the best travel times I had were during the fuel protests where the average speed on the motorway was set lower which also carried the bonus of reducing my fuel bill.

Yay, I've just had a holiday, my first break since Xmas and the first proper holiday since last July, suddenly my nervous twitch has stopped.

We went to Cornwall for the week and had a wonderful time visiting the Eden Project and fish and chips for our wedding anniversary.

Also worth a mention was the Ship Inn, Mousehole and Sofia's in Penzance, great fish dishes as you'd expect from Cornwall.

Anyway, back to the daily grind.

In our second week we visited the seaside resort of La Baule This town is absolutely gorgeous the market is open everyday and being British the choice of food on display is mind numbing. When we get told that we have great supermarkets able to provide everything - When you go to a French market and see more variety in an area the size of a double bed compared to the football size area of the typical vegetable section in a British Supermarket then you start to realise why food in this country is so poor.

Anyway the first night we were there we visited the "Restaurant La Marechal" which was diabolical. The service was awful, we were tucked around the corner away from the other guests, the food order was taken incorrectly, the delivery was slapdash, Mum did get what we thought was the right cheese dish but it was missing the salad. Now when you consider that for the same amount price that we ate at La Table d'O then you can understand why La Marechal was so awful. There's absolutely no good reason to treat your staff with disrespect.

To top it off the staff refused to speak to us in French!

Following on from the previous entry, there is another restaurant which certainly stood out in Josselin and that was La Pelican. Mainly serving fish and very rustic, the food was excellent.

This restaurant is certainly not touristique, but nevertheless the value for money here far exceeding most restaurants in the region. It's quite incredible that for €12 you can get a 3 course meal that in this country you'd be looking to pay more than twice as much.

There was no English spoken here but the staff are friendly and even if you picked you meal blind folded you'd still be very happy.

La Table d'O in Josselin in the heart of Brittany was a fantastic meal. It was simply the best meal at a restaurant I have ever had.

I had the 'Délices de saison' and from that menu I chose the 'Millefeuille de Saumon' which was layers of poached salmon and pastry with I think new shoots of leek, astounding. I then had the 'Jarret de Veau'. Now I don't want to sound like a second rate restaurant reviewer but the 'Rosace de Tête de Moine' was amazing, it was like a curl of cheese, as though the chef was carving a bowl on a lathe.

So the food was great and the staff were excellent. Very often in France when you go for a meal, the staff realise you are English speaking and then continue to offer you a translation of everything, which is quite unnecessary especially when you're still learning the language. But the staff at La Table d'O were good enough to realise this and although their English was excellent they spoke French to us and only translated when necessary.

I have to recommend that if anyone is in the region of Josselin then this restaurant is well worth a visit.