IT'S A BIT COLD HERE........

9th-14th OCTOBER

Good drive up the Rhone Valley to St.Laurent du Pape where we stopped overnight. Found a better route than last year, taking a toll round Aix for 1.40€ which saved over half an hour - unfortunately I obviously didn't explain it well enough to D&M who got lost and despite leaving an hour before us, arrived an hour later feeling very grumpy. So much so that next day they spurned my lovely route up the left bank of the Rhone and cunning deviation round Lyon, avoiding the centre, and took the motorway all the way to Beaune at a cost of 30€ and arriving about 2 and a half hours before us. At least they an afternoon to look round the lovely old town. We all went out for a meal in the evening which was pleasant enough, pricey and rather spoiled by a grumpy proprietor.

We went our separate ways on Tuesday as they had to go and get the dog innoculated in Reims. We spent the night at Gurgy on the riverbank after a nice exploration of Auxerre which we always seem to miss on account of parking problems but this time found a coach park on the left bank of the Yonne which was ideal. Weather getting chillier.
Made such good time on Wednesday towards Mareuil sur Ay, our usual stop, and with the weather starting to get rainy so that we might as well be driving as sitting in the van staring out, that we pressed on to Catillon sur Sambre where we found an excellent aire with electric hook-up for 5€ a night. As gas might be getting critical this was just what the doctor ordered.

This left a 2.5hr drive on Thursday to Gravelines, between Calais and Dunkerque where we had tried to find the aire some years ago without success. As there is a perfectly servicable ( if somewhat noisy) aire in Calais next to a great restaurant we had never bothered looking at Gravelines again, but in conversation with D&M we decided to have another go, this time with better instructions. And a jolly nice aire it is too, overlooking the harbour, quiet within walking distance of the town centre where we had a jolly nice meal that evening......the GF treating me to a late birthday dinner.

Friday was nice and sunny and home by 2pm. A very pleasant,warm and sunny trip with many memorable moments. Van has now been washed and polished and put to bed until January.....perhaps.

ALL GOOD THINGS........

19th September - 8th October

28 days at CAVALAIRE-sur-MER draws to a close with a day of uncharacteristic bad weather in the form of violent winds. Since we have arrived here, we had 1 day on which it rained, 1 day when there were a few showers and now 2 days on which there were high winds and the temperature has remained constantly between 25-30.

Derek & Margaret arrived 2 weeks ago and the alcohol intake has increased to such an extent that the Good Fairy has forbidden me to go round to their place to play any more......and she is still trying to teach us all to say "No thank you, I've had enough" without much success.

We have found some good cycle tracks, visited nice beaches at CAVALIERE, about 8 miles down to the coast and introduced the Parkers to the joys of Boules to such an extent that they have bought their own sets.

A great day out was spent at sea following the regatta at St.Tropez. It was the last day and all the old classic yachts were in full sail as well as the modern huge racing yachts...a magnificent sight against the blue of the sea and the Provence sky. We boarded the boat at Cavalaire, sailed round the coast to St.Trop and spent the day in the Gulf watching the yachts all around us and then had a brief stop in the port to mooch around the town for a couple of hours.....still one of my favourite places.

We have managed to watch most of the Rugby world cup games and are now waiting to watch the England-France 1/4 final having just seen a terrific match between Wales-Ireland in which Wales were awesome winners 22-10. If we beat France (possible but our form has stuttered so far) we shall meet them in the semi-finals.

Starting back home tomorrow, 9th.Oct, with the Parkers until Tuesday when we separate as they head off to a vet to get the dog vaccinated.

Postscript...........

We won't be facing the Welsh in the semi-finals as England dismally failed to surmount the first hurdle of beating the French first. 16-0 at half time was enough to make a grown man cry as England decided not to bother the scorers and the second half was only marginally better.....but as the checkout girl at Carrefour said ,,it's only a game,,