Early (ish – we are on holiday !) start to the day as we were visiting the lovely market in La Flotte which is mornings only and very busy. There are two excellent fish stalls but unfortunately we don’t recognize many varieties of fish on sale and also have the problem of not wanting to prepare anything too ‘fish smelly’ in the Tandy. I decided to take the easy option and buy sea bass. The first stall didn’t have any (I discovered this only after accidentally jumping the queue to the indignation of the French lady at the front). The second stall did so I pointed at a nice plump fish and asked for it to be filleted. Oops really should have checked the price first. So expensive I am not going to say here how ... read more

Had a pleasantly disturbed sleep. There seemed to be owls all round, hooting and toowit toowooing at each other, and as it was such a lovely clear night the sounds carried right across the campsite. I note that now as I type this the evening serenade has already started. This really is a lovely place, beautifully green and very peaceful, except for the owls that is. What a glorious day. Exactly as forecast, summer has finally arrived and long may it last. First day I have put on shorts and sun-top as soon as I got up and the first day I have needed suntan lotion. We scootered into Coulon, only a couple of miles, along the river and followed a couple of 'no entry', 'locals only' signs to the riverbank where we parked the scooter. ... read more

This is a lovely campsite, very green, very peaceful and our quite privately located pitch has a view to the spires and towers of the medieval city as well as one step away access to the sanitaires. Add in a pool and electricity and the wifi mast just 5 metres away and all for £13.33 a night. Today is the first day we have not been driving anywhere so we got up gently, collected fresh baguette and croissant from reception, showered and then strolled along the river into town. Weather exactly as forecast, cloudy but no rain but 22° so quite pleasant for a walk round the city even if not for getting a tan. I am still waiting for my “summer of 2012” suntan, I still have my hopes for later in the week, ... read more

We were up and off quite early today, by 8.40, and only just caught the bread van which visited the aire at 8.30. (I have made a note of that for future visits to this very conveniently placed Aire). Quite a longish drive ahead and we hate doing it all by motorway so Bob had planned 1/3 motorway and the rest country roads. Had a bit of a fight with Clarissa Tomtom a couple of times when she directed us to fast dual carriageways especially when there was a perfectly good and lovely country road which followed the same route. She also tried to take us through a village which was not wide enough for us, just to shave 100 metres off the route. Good thing we have a road atlas as well as her. ... read more

We’ve now had just over 2 months at home following our June trip to Ireland. That was cut a little short by my attack of volcanic blood-pressure resulting in a night spent in Tralee hospital and we returned home a week earlier than planned to get it fully sorted out. Happy to say my BP is now consistently excellent. The English summer of 2012 didn’t start at all until August and has been characterised by lots and lots of wet stuff. Even Uttoxeter got flooded one very wet Friday in July and I drove the car along roads which were more like rivers. We’ve had a busy 9 weeks at home. First of all to my utter delight, I welcomed my daughter Jenny and family back from a 2 year sejourn in Melbourne. So ... read more