days 2,3 and 4 and still not given birth!!!!!

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So, the last few days have involved cars, donkeys, the most stereotypical looking bunch of French folk ever, markets, kebabs and possibly the worst customer service ever. Leaving Rouen we headed towards le mans and a visit to the 24 hour museum. A petrol heads dream, the museum had more cars than the Ikea car park and ones even older than me. A delicious Ham and cheese baguette ( still can't figure out why French ham and cheese is so much better than British) and we headed off to the coast. Having visited Ile de re last year and completely missed the donkeys in pyjamas ( the perils of a van, parking is almost impossible) I was determined to see them this year. We arrived at the hotel to be greeted by a less than cheery owner and the most hideous green bathroom I've seen since 1982 but the room was at least pretty cool. We found food and watched as a market appeared from nowhere and 32 thousand ( ok closer to 20 but there were a very lot of them) French singers set up on stage. We settled in and watched from a bar as they proceeded to sing stereotypical French songs whilst wearing blue and white striped t shirts. There's only so much culture we can take so we headed back to the room. Sadly right outside our room appeared to be an alternate reality where all the noise from all the world goes to . Plus we could still hear the singing. During the night I'm fairly sure an apache helicopter landed outside our window and fourteen town cryers gathered to discuss shouting it was that loud. The next day was donkey day. Ironically we found the fabled donkeys in pyjamas around 100m from where we'd been last year and found several car parks we could have parked in with the van. Yay. At least we found them and could then explore the rest of the island after possibly scaring the donkeys for life as ash was determined to make them all look happy before we could leave....... A drink at a beach bar at which ash broke the toilet and a short wander on the beach and we headed back to the hotel for a nap. the evening passed with much food and ogling at expensive boats. Today we set off early on the long drive to Lourdes. Sad to leave the green bathroom but ready for divine inspiration in Lourdes. Poor ish weather meant we didn't stop at the beach add planned and the need for a nap meant Lourdes tomorrow instead of today. The drive was slow in places and a cruise control dream in others. When ash saw a parade of around10 police on motorbikes behind us fear of arrest mixed in with hope that it was a presidential convoy. I'm still sure it was some kind of king. We arrived at our hotel ready for more sleep and greeted by a less than cheerful receptionist. A dip in the pool to bathe my shintoe ( lovely pregnancy fat lady ankles merging straight into got) and cool ash down (which apparently, according to a laughing ash made my legs look like doner kebab tuners in a chippy, great.....) And we were ready for an ibis bar snack. Sadly the glum receptionist was also the bar snack lady and seemed disinclined to feed us. When she was eventually persuaded, she threw two packets in the microwave ( frozen toastie anyone) and begrudgingly got us a drink. Fortunately ash's request for ' a pint of attitude' went unheard. Hopefully we can seek forgiveness in our pilgrimage to Lourdes tomorrow...... Oh and still not given birth, whoop whoop!!!

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