Absolutely Fabulous star Helen Lederer rates France’s Dordogne

Canoodling down the Dordogne.

“The Dordogne River in France is very special to me. The first time I went there with a boyfriend we canoed for a month, would you believe.

I was 19 or 20 and it was incredibly romantic. I’m not sure why we picked the Dordogne. I think my boyfriend came up with the idea and I went along with it, the way you do when you’re that age.

It was brilliant. We travelled by river, only going into towns to get food. It was an amazing trip.

We took everything with us, rucksacks lined with bin liners to protect our stuff from the water, tent, the lot.

We camped on the shore and were really self-sufficient. It was amazingly peaceful and we felt as if we were completely away from the world.

I hadn’t done much paddling before so I’d be in the front, steering, and he was in the back, paddling. All I had to do was make sure we went left or right.

We had some rapids to negotiate and the kayak was made of a wooden frame covered in canvas, so we’d patch the holes up like rubber tyres and glue them.

We just went off and did it. Now my daughter is off to Thailand and I’m really worried about it! My family probably had similar worries about me back then.

I liked it so much I went back with another boyfriend a couple of years later.

Within seconds of being in the canoe we had capsized, whereas the previous occasion we hadn’t fallen in once.

We got back out of the water, dried ourselves and carried on. It was still a great trip, though.

A couple of years ago I went back and we stayed in a house in the Dordogne.

Now it’s heaving with British people but it’s still lovely, and I have all those memories of being there before.

Lovely as they are, I don’t want to canoe down the river again I’m not very good with all that physical stuff now.

When they told me I’d have to ride a bike in Hollyoaks, I started worrying about falling off.

If I go back to the Dordogne I’ll just follow it by road!”

Helen Lederer is famous for playing dippy Catriona in Absolutely Fabulous alongside Jennifer Saunders.

A versatile actress and comedienne, she created the “girl at the bar” in Naked Video and is currently playing a midwife in Hollyoaks.

A prolific comedy writer, she has a unique brand of wit and observational humour.

Her first novel, Losing It, out on February 12, is the story of a celebrity who agrees try out a new diet system in order to get her finances back on track.

It is, she says, very loosely based on her own experiences in showbusiness.