Dear Reader,

THE chant of Millwall supporters, ‘no one likes us, we don’t care,’ came to mind earlier in the week when dozens of EU countries banned all travel from Britain. Except that we do care. Just as we take exception to the New York Times describing our nation as ‘plague island’.

For sure, those aerial photos of hundreds of lorries stranded in Kent won’t be competing for space in future VisitBritain brochures, but we could do without the glee with which some of our ‘friends and partners’ in Europe — as the PM quaintly calls them — comment on our travails.

Italy’s La Repubblica said the turning away of flights from the UK was a ‘form of punishment for that extreme British pride’. Charming.

We will rise above it. We have a vaccine! We have a deal! And so, in the spirit of seasonal goodwill and growing enthusiasm for the year ahead, our cover story is a love letter to France, written by the actress and author Carol Drinkwater, who famously played

Helen Herriot in the 1978 TV version of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great And Small.

Carol is in the fortunate position of residing on her olive farm overlooking the Bay of Cannes on the French Riviera. For the rest of us, it’s a case of waiting to see when we can start travelling again, most likely armed with vaccination passports, Covid-19 Passenger Locator Forms and plenty of accrued can-do spirit.

Looking on the bright side is something we are meant to be good at — although I’m not sure that ‘mustn’t grumble’ has been on our lips in abundance in the past 12 months. But there’s plenty of optimism from our panel of experts on Page 69, with villa holidays in Italy ( pictured) and Greece expected to be in high demand next summer and beyond.

We’re far from there yet — but living in hope is a choice. Here at Escape, we’re not exactly packing our bags, but we’re dusting them down. A very healthy and Happy New Year to everyone.