days 7,8 and 9: brotherly arrival, chas and Dave and a whole lot of miles

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After the wolves on the train, Monday seemed to be a good day for gong nothing. And that's pretty much how it went. We got up late, ate lots and i suggested we watch a ' short, light and fluffy' film. I then suggested Amadeus, neither light nor fluffy and at three hours, I felt like I'd done a marathon by then end. After this ( and several loads of washing) it was cool enough to venture outside: ash soaked in the hot tub and I provided beer and lively( actually very dull) conversation until the noise of a parking car told us Callum had arrived after his epic drive from the UK. Looking surprisingly awake he'd even bought me a present. A spare free goodie bag from his ferry containing leaflets about Normandy ( 4 days too late) and a handy trolley token keyring. I know, I know I'm the luckiest sister around.......After he'd tested the hot tub and found it to have a pH about four higher than needed, ash got out in order to hopefully salvage some of his skin and we at about putting the world to rights over meat and bread. Chas and Dave the geese at the house below provided some intelligent conversation as well as seemingly being scared of bread.... Having decided that space was crazy, the moving light wasn't the space station and there wasn't an asteroid about to hit us, we headed for bed after a really lovely evening.the next day Ash and I were moving on to Arles in southern France so , using a little manly help from Callum, we packed the car and were headed off by midday. Lunch was a stop off in the medieval walled city of Carcassonne ( full of Chinese and American tourists) in the ever increasing heat. One authentic medieval kebab later we set of for Arles. Clear roads meant we arrived by tea time to what is a very lovely Roman town. The evening was spent eating( of course) waddling ( me) to the ampitheatre and trying to find the source of crazy Greek music which eventually we traced to the top of a multistorey car park. We'd have gone up of there had been an actual entrance but in the absence if this and having left our building climbing equipment at home, we just went to bed. Today saw us put in the miles with a drive along the coast first to Nice then up the road to our hotel. It's worth pointing out that I am now considered a world expert on French motorway toilets having had to stop at pretty much every one of them thanks to the bladder jumper ( still not given birth either, win ?).the difference today was that each time I stepped out of the car, a little bit more of me melted. By the time we got to Nice the temp was in the thirties. Parking up and heading away from the over large marble bum we were first greeted with, we were thankful for a breeze along the promenade des anglais. Still bearing the scars of a few weeks ago it was a strange mix of glorious hedonistic rich man's playground beach and reminders of the fragile nature of everything. After some people and pigeon watching( and the best cruise ship parking ever) We ( I ) waddled back to the car, bright red and most attractive. A short drive and we were at our hotel. A short nap and we headed for the ( freezing) pool. A short shower and we were back out for a drink by the pool. I did dirty slightly when ash disappeared for a good half hour to get our drinks. However when I got the message ' Chinese tourists kicking off, ask the staff taken up with dealing with it' I resisted the temptation to go watch and waited with less fear that he'd fallen asleep in a toilet or something. That's France done now, tomorrow the Italian leg

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