I have used "Le Tonkinois Vernis no. 1" for interior and exterior varnishing and absolutely swear by it. It is distributed in the UK by a lovely old boy by the name of Brian Murkin in Maidenhead, who comes to lots of the boat jumbles and assorted country shows, as well as having a stand at every Southampton boat show, but you can order it from him direct too. (You can find a list of the shows he's attending on his website, although I don't think the 2014 dates are up there yet). It's easy to work with and looks like a million dollars.

Top tips:

1. Before the first coat make sure the wood is absolutely dust free with a good tack cloth.

2. Between each coat lightly rub down with ultra fine wire wool (not the rubbish you find in the DIY stores but something like Liberon grade 0000, available on the internet, not at all expensive and well worth the effort of getting hold of it), get rid of the initial dust from doing that with the brush attachment on a vacuum cleaner and then go over the wood thoroughly with a tack cloth to remove the last traces of dust. The wire wool sounds a bit counter-intuitive but it produces the most glorious results!

If that all seems like a bit of a faff, remember that getting a good result with any varnish is a bit of a labour of love, but I've found Le Tonkinois easier to get good results with than anything else I've tried. Good luck.

http://www.letonkinoisvarnish.co.uk/VarMain.html