Discovering Durrell’s dreams in peaceful Paxos

Food, fauna and lots of family fun – Claire Spreadbury can’t get enough of the quiet island life in Greece

My six-year-old daughter Rosie has her pencil poised on a notepad. “Lakkachatta swinda lactu,” she says.“Yasi,” comes the reply from her sister Poppy, four, who’s sat at the table. “Ikki tabu.” It’s a new game they’ve started playing since we landed in gorgeously sunny Greece. They’re being waitresses and making an effort to grasp the local language.

It’s been 15 years since I last visited this country. Back then, it was all booze and bathing, but this time I’m here with my family, discovering a land more akin to the one Gerald Durrell wrote about in My Family And Other Animals, when he wished he could give everyone the gift of his wonderful childhood.

After flying into Corfu, we hop on the hydrofoil and bob across the ocean for an hour to pretty Paxos – the smallest of the Ionian Islands, and said to be similar to the Corfu Durrell adored as a child.

With winding roads, gorgeously green plants, an azure sea and villas dotting every corner of the three main villages, it’s clear this is a part of the world that’s made for exploring.

Our villa, Milou, is a grand affair – set off the beaten track at the top of a hill – with nothing surrounding it but a handful of other properties.

The front door opens into an enormous games room, with a very cool, electric blue billiards table.

We make downstairs our slumber zone, with a main bedroom leading out to the poolside, and a calming twin room, painted to match Greece’s country colours of blue and white.

The kitchen-dining area is spacious, white and welcoming, but we spend most of our days outside.

The infinity pool provides hours of entertainment for the kids – and Daddy, who loves nothing more than drenching them with a running dive-bomb. And the view, looking out towards the Pindus mountains, is enough to take the relaxation factor up a notch or two.

Mind you, there’s a cackle of hysterics as the volume on the docking station reaches ear-piercing levels, belting out club classics in the blazing sunshine.

I emerge from the pool to see my husband James throwing some serious shapes, shouting, “Pool party!”, while our children giggle at his moves and attempt to join in.

Despite being a sleep-deprived, overworked and consistently exhausted parent, this villa escape is making me feel young and energised.

I said goodbye to holidays like this after our “babymoon” seven years ago, but now our daughters are older and having swimming lessons, a villa escape is a great option.

Armed with rubber rings, a mountain of sun cream and a hire car, this is about as relaxing as a family holiday gets.

We spend our days gorging on Greek salad with fat and furiously red tomatoes, crunchy cucumber, giant lumps of local feta cheese and lashings of olive oil and oregano. And come the evening, James lights the BBQ and cooks the most enormous sausages ever seen, pork and chicken kebabs, giant peppers, and what can only be described as a “nine-bar” of halloumi, all bought in the local shops at Gaios, the island’s capital, and beautiful Loggos, both just a few miles away. It’s cheap too – we easily buy enough meat to feed us all, with masses of leftovers, for nine Euros at the old-fashioned butcher’s.

A car is essential here. Even just getting supplies for the villa is tricky without wheels. And it means you can explore this beautiful, unspoilt island with ease.

Measuring around a mere eight miles