I am writing this on Christmas Eve. Christmas will be a quiet affair for us this year. Apart from sharing Christmas lunch with good friends , life will go on as normal at Domaine des Rochers. As usual at this time of year in this part of France, the weather is moderately cold and windy, but skies are blue. There will be no snow to add any Christmas magic. Perhaps that is why we were especially thrilled this morning , as we ate our breakfast beside the window, for at that very moment we spotted a very special visitor indeed. It was a shy young doe, who was grazing just below us, barely three metres from our table . We do occasionally spot deer , but usually an adult pair who have inadvertently jumped over the electric fence at the top of our property , which is placed there to deter sanglier. But once inside they are surrounded by taller, more conventional fencing, and they will often roam nervously about seeking to escape. Eventually, somehow they manage. Today's sighting was unusual in that the doe was alone. I felt thankful that there would be no hunters in the forest today . But I worry. Is his young doe alone because her parents have been shot? Our visitor was clearly nervous, and having grazed in front of us for a few minutes, it roamed to another part of the garden. How I would love to show you a photograph of this most perfect creature with her large brown eyes, smooth tan coat and little white rump. But alas, any movement on our part would have scared her off straight away. And so I hope my words of description will suffice. Please note the photograph above is a stock photo, but I swear our doe was every bit as beautiful.