The Batroun coast

Batroun lies an hour north of Beirut on the coast road: a Phoenician harbour town with a stone souk, a sea wall built against the waves two thousand years ago, and a tradition of long lunches by the water. Diar's homes are a few minutes to the south, in Kfaraabida and Fadous, where the coast opens and the sea lies before the balcony rather than at the end of the street.

The days are simple: swimming from the rocks or at the beach clubs of Kfaraabida, an excursion by boat from the harbour, the souk in the evening and fish at one of the restaurants on the old port. In the hills behind, the monasteries of the Qadisha valley and the cedars are a morning's drive; Byblos, older still, is twenty minutes back towards the city.

The coast is at its best from May to October, and the water remains warm well into autumn. Most of the homes here have a terrace or a pool, and every one of them faces the sea. Beirut airport is approximately an hour and a quarter by car.