France, Summer 2010: Week 18

Sunday 26 September - Saturday 2 October

We got up early on Sunday and left to take John and Hélène to Carcassonne airport at 7.30 pm.  We arrived at about 9 am, for their 10.20 am flight.  We came straight back on the autoroute.  We had a little nap in the afternoon.


Next day in the afternoon we did a nice walk - Caylus road, water tower and back through the vineyards and frog pond.  There was a grape picking machine working near the water tower:

Otherwise we did a lot of washing.

Tuesday was the day for cleaning the house and packing: we set Wednesday aside to go to the beach because the weather was forecast to be best on Wednesday.  We had contacted Sara to tell her when we were leaving and also told her and Geoff that we were planning to move to France.  She said the house on Place du Jeu de Ballon with the blue shutters was going to be on sale and that she could show us around it if we wished.  We called back and arranged to have a look around.  It's nice and stylish but "doesn't tick all our boxes".

As we were getting ready to go out on Wednesday Geoff called in to advise me how to get up the roof safely.  He said he walked up the right hand side, holding on to the wall and walking on the overlap of the tiles.  The view from there is apparently excellent.  Then we set out for Béziers, to take the Livebox back to Orange, transfer the internet connection to dial-up and turn off the phone line.  We got some fuel and then went to the beach.  It was not crowded (!), but was warm enough to sunbathe:

Then we went home and finished packing.

Thursday was the day we left Neffiès after four months!  We set out just before 10 am and had a very good trip all the way to Droué:

We stayed with Marie-Claude, who gave us English tea and apricot and almond cake when we arrived at about 6 pm.  Then we had a look around her large house and garden before going in her car to see her farm, where they have thousands of free-range chickens and some cows.  She gave us some eggs laid that day and we went to see the cows, including some calves born that day.  Then we went to Severine's farm and had a lovely French dinner party with Severine, her husband, the two children (Louis and Rachel), Marie-Claude and her husband Michel.

After breakfast with Marie-Claude and Michel next day, we set out for the Channel Tunnel via Chartres, Evreux and Rouen.  We had booked a 13:20 crossing before arranging to stay at Droué and arrived too late for that, at around 13:20, since Droué is not as far north as we would would normally stay.  We were put onto the 14:20 crossing.  The weather in France had been good and the journey relatively traffic-free.  But as soon as we arrived in England that changed.  It was raining and the traffic was heavy with a huge traffic jam at the Dartford tunnel.  It should have taken 2½ hours and took 4.  Everything was fine at Rothwell.

Saturday was the day for unpacking, tidying and generally coming to terms with being back in Rothwell.  Delia went to Northampton in the morning to have her hair cut and had coffee with Aunt afterwards.  Roger finished off his sermon for Sunday.  In the afternoon we walked up to church the long way and made sure that everything was ready.