Our sons, too, bolted their morning croissants - delivered to our villa every morning by the bread van - and actually nagged us to comb our hair and put our shoes on in order to get there for the 9.30am kick-off.

S Map For morning croissants or an afternoon pastry the best places to go are Pâtisserie Driss (which has a hidden seating area) and Café Faid, both near Pl Moulay Hassan.

Each cottage is a unique folly, built over the last few years by Guadeloupe-born Charles-Henry Bichara - "I know eet sounds like an English name," he says with a delicious French accent as he presents you with your morning croissants and egg, "but eet's really not."

We slept on featherbeds, feasted on morning croissants, afternoon saucissons, twilight macaroons, late-night wines and foie gras.

Skip the underground breakfast experience and head out to one of the neighbourhood cafés overlooking the river for your morning croissants and espresso.

"Banana Republic's having a sale," she reports when I catch her roller-skating down the boardwalk to a beach-front cafe for her morning croissant.

But it is only a veneer: the morning croissant is accompanied by prayers from the many minarets poking above European roofs.

The morning croissant had not slaked her appetite.