THEY keep filling me up with stuff in bottles and expecting me to carry it for thousands of miles!

Tu exagères, Petite, it will be one thousand at most; and you carry it very well. It’s only right that we take a bottle of bubbles from Limoux to everyone we’re going to visit.

Comme tu veux … Lots of packing and jobs still to do on the morning of Wednesday April 3rd, but at 10.30am we said ‘Au revoir’ to big Harry and locked him in the parking space at Sunejo.

(The remote control on the gates has stopped working on one side, so we’ve removed the gadget on that side but even with the working gate closed onto it, the wind can blow them open just enough for the ‘loose’ gate to get free. So we’ve put a cycle lock round the two so Sally is correct to say we’ve locked him in.)

Of course I am! I know what you did … I don’t suppose anybody else does, after reading that …

Someone was asking where Harry lives; he lives here: 

 

So we set off to follow the usual route northwards. Fine weather came with us and it was warm enough for THEM to have lunch outdoors at a picnic table. However, owing to a misunderstanding back at Sunejo as to who was going to put the wine into the coolbag, it turned out that nobody had done and M’sieur went into a mega-sulk which lasted all lunch time:

 During the afternoon Madame did some driving, including crossing the Dordogne,which you can just see on this picture, if you look carefully enough:

(Picture disappeared)

After nine hours, including stops – one for fuel at Limoges; some people do learn from experience! – and 410 miles, we had reached the Loire Valley at Orléans and THEY decided to find an hotel. 

In that matter previous experience let us down! We had once before stayed in a Campanile hotel and been very pleased with it, so we happily chose that when we found it among the cluster of hotels on the edge of the town. Not the same! Nothing was seriously wrong, but the service in the restaurant was not as expected – our apéritif didn’t arrive till after the food and the wine (we sent it back) and one of the dishes was not what was ordered! But we slept well and woke up to find there had been a bit of a frost overnight – the evening had been very fine with clear skies – but Sally’s windscreen cleared easily and we were back on the road at 8.50.

I can do it now! Laissez-moi faire! So you sulked all through dinner as well, M’sieur, did you?

No, I did not! I enjoyed it – and it cost less without the apéro.

Tant mieux! On we went to the north; there was a diversion in Rouen which seemed to send us in the wrong direction but overall we did not lose time by it. THEY had lunch at Baie De Somme services, but they didn’t get out to eat …

We got to Calais at 3.45 for the 4.30 sailing, which was OK. 283 miles from Orléans, 7 hours – there was a fuel stop as well as lunch, but lunch was a bit long …

Once over the water, we stopped at Maidstone for THEM to have a meal; HE had breakfast! –

Only because there were no pasties left!

Then as THEY came out there were slight snow flurries in the air, and snow was lying in some of the fields as we drove on. So, 790 miles from Sunejo, the journey finished in Surbiton where at Porton Court Philip & Christine have one flat and Carol (Jnr) has another on the same floor.

This is Porton Court as seen from the river:

P & C were out for the evening, but we were warmly welcomed by Carol. We’re sleeping in her flat, anyway. We sampled the content of one or two of the bottles left for us by the others, and then some more when they came home … 

Next time: A terrible time trying to tax little Sally; a German birthday dinner; a strum-and-singalong in Plumstead and a River trip to Hampton Court. Don’t miss!