Book excerpt: 300 Days Living Like Locals is part travel, part history and is a ripping read full of real life adventures. It delves into the local scene on a deeper level than your average read. A genuine page-turner, 300 Days is a fast-paced story and goes way off the beaten track. It takes you to places you will not find on the tourist brochures. Neil and Gai get you the inside story. How the French are protecting their vulnerable coastal land, we watch two sheep give birth on a Normandy farm, have lunch prepared by a world renowned Italian home cook after finding our own white truffles and we meet an American woman who lives in a huge fortress. We were lucky enough to spend a whole month in a stylish French Chateau and explore the intriguing and magnificent deep south of the country. We experience the charm of a secret cottage with a traditional thatched roof. Also get an inside tour of the most haunted castle in Scotland. For readers it is a truly vicarious experience.