It’s still the magic milestone when senior citizenship begins … with a host of money-saving offers to take advantage of

The UK state pension age has risen but many companies and organisations still hold on to “the big 6-0” as the point at which senior citizenship begins, and it continues to represent a money-saving milestone as a result.

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Motorway will be shut both ways between junctions nine and 10 from 9pm on Friday until 6am on Monday

Drivers tempted to bypass the official diversion for this weekend’s M25 motorway closure have been warned of potential ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) charges if they stray off course.

The London orbital motorway is having its second ever planned closure , with a busy stretch in the south-west closed in both directions for works, potentially bringing long delays and congestion for thousands of drivers.

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Forget what you think about the Costa Brava: this whitewashed town on a horseshoe bay was ‘the best place in the world’ for Dalí – and is still pretty much perfect today

I have travelled all over Spain for both work and fun in the past two decades, but the Catalan seaside town of Cadaqués had somehow failed to register on my radar. Last year, my husband was working in Catalonia and when he had a few days off between jobs, I proposed an impromptu tryst. The brief: somewhere by the sea.

I’m a map optimist, which can result in disappointment. I’ll spend hours tracing tantalising coastal roads, imagining wild cliffs or pristine sands dotted with charming fishing villages and chiringuitos . But the reality often fails to match my fantasies, and my dream road trip ends up leading me through Spain’s more familiar coastal milieu of endless high-rise concrete and phoney Irish bars. Cadaqués, however, looked promising – a tiny dot on a Mediterranean cove at the end of a tortuous 10-mile mountain road, where the Pyrenees give way to the sea – and surrounded by pretty much nothing. So far, so good.

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A buzzy town prom, plates of moules with chilled rosé and cycle rides to sandy beaches on Cap Ferret add up to happy holidays on the Atlantic coast

The Bay of Arcachon, on the south-west coast of France, is a happy place. It must be, because I’ve been visiting it with my family nearly every year for the past 15 years. We usually rent a small apartment in Arcachon town for four or five days, but such is the draw that we have been known to make a two-hour drive just to spend the day there when we’ve been in that part of the world. Everything about it speaks of summer joy: the promenade thrumming with cyclists and strollers; the parade of bistros serving moules , oysters and buckets of chilled rosé; families playing beach tennis on the sands; and a bay brimming with pleasure boats and ferries. It’s like a scene from a Raoul Dufy painting.

The first day begins at Halle Baltard , the town market, where we drink coffee with brioche and croissants, then head to the bike rental shop, and always the same one ( Dingo Vélos ), because you don’t need a car in this largely flat landscape. Next, we buy ferry tickets at the little beach cabins on Thiers jetty to take the ferry over the bay to Cap Ferret. The wait in the queue on the jetty is more Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday than huff and puff, the air thick with sunscreen and anticipation. Children wear inflatables around their waists and rest crab nets on their shoulders, parents sport sunnies and straw hats and carry overloaded picnic bags and rugs. There’s a babble of chatter as the ferry crew load bikes on the roof and passengers scramble for outside seats.

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From a hideaway with star-gazing spectacular enough to keep you off your phone to a ‘burnout’ retreat and a reimagined coastguard lookout

Bordering the Consall Nature Park , a nature reserve featuring 740 acres of woodland, heath and moor, is The Tawny, a “deconstructed hotel”. This means that instead of a single house with rooms there are a collection of boathouses, huts and treehouses scattered around the woodlands and lakes. At the top of the hill is a modern glass building, the Plumicorn restaurant, and a heated outdoor pool looking out over the gardens. Stargazing sessions and night-time meditation are on offer, while spa treatments can be booked in the thatched cottage onsite.
Huts from £240 B&B; thetawny.co.uk

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There’s a great restaurant and bar scene in this surf mecca, plus birdlife and snorkelling on peaceful islands a short ride away

It was the small and enigmatic Berlengas archipelago that drew us to Peniche harbour. Peniche, 60 miles north of Lisbon, is famous for its surfing beaches, but the islands off its coast often get overlooked. Every morning a couple of hardy passenger boats bounce over eight miles of waves from the peninsula of Peniche to Berlenga Grande. We took our seats on deck between sacks of onions and oranges and, flecked with sea-spray and followed by flocks of screaming gulls, we watched green hills emerge from blue waves ahead. At the port, the goods are unloaded with gulls wheeling and cawing overhead.

Seabirds nest everywhere: in the island’s grass, its sea caves and its hidden coves. Keeping out of nesting areas, we followed a footpath to a pair of sandy beaches. The sea is warmer here than at the more open mainland stretches and, at Praia da Berlenga, it is as still and clear as sea-green stained glass and offers fantastic diving.

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With a famed pie maker on board, the new ‘British brasserie’ in Paris ought to be glorious. Instead, it’s a huge disappointment

Public House, 21 rue Daunou, 75002 Paris, France (+33 1 77 37 87 93; publichouseparis.fr ). Starters €8.50-€19.50; mains €19.50-€36.50; desserts €9-€15; wines from €28

It was a simple plan: hop on the Eurostar to Paris and go for dinner at Public House, a new and audacious restaurant in the 9th arrondissement by pie king Calum Franklin, formerly of the Holborn Dining Room. Its mission: to bring scotch eggs, sausage rolls and the best, most golden, flaky pastry creations to the French. I could then write a sweet observational piece about the bourgeoisie of the Louboutin-shod opera district swooning over steak and ale pies, and adjusting both their corsets and their gastronomic perspective. Behold, the gravy-slicked anglais showing us how to eat. “ Donney-moi une autre pie ” etc. Because if anybody could do it, if anybody could finally make the French understand the quality and depth of modern British restaurant food, it had to be Franklin. He’s a gifted chef. He’s a lovely man. He literally wrote the book on pies. Go Calum, go.

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Pizzas, aperitivos and a big sandy beach add to the offbeat charm of this Adriatic resort town

I hadn’t heard of Pesaro before my ex-flatmate sent me there in summer 2018. I was writing a book at the time, and Giulia reckoned the best place for me to do such work was in her grandad’s old flat, a modest unit in a block put up in 1946, during the short reign of Umberto II. It had lain empty since her nonno – Dottor Spinicci – died of liver failure, having failed to take his own medicine.

The flat’s balcony looked on to a hot and dusty courtyard shared with the local police station. When, on my first morning in the flat, I discovered a faded handwritten recipe for ragù alla bolognese that didn’t involve tomatoes, I was tempted to head down to the cop shop and report it as a thoughtcrime.

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From the Turkish Riviera to the Île de Ré, we select quiet and unspoilt places to stay for sun, sand, snorkelling – or just snoozing

There’s something quite particular about small but perfectly formed Assos – butterscotch and rose-pink houses line a horseshoe bay, with Venetian ruins scattered between the narrow alleys. There are two small beaches, but the real joy is to rent a motor boat and discover the small bays and coves that fringe this part of the Cephalonian coast. Walkers can follow the path out on to the headland to the ruins of Assos’s 16th-century castle; there’s not a huge amount to see, but the views make the walk worth it. Roi Suites is a bougainvillaea-clad cluster of well-equipped studio flats in a waterfront neoclassical building, with gorgeous sea views from the pool terrace.
Doubles from £117 (minimum seven nights), roisuites.com

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