Oldies On Tour

Tuesday 16th August

A lazy day today sitting around the pool and house apart from an interlude when Christine went with Andrew and Elton to an indoor activity complex, “Fun City”.   Apparently this complex had all sorts of activities for small children up-to performance “freaks”.   By the sound of the activities that Christine recounted on her return, I made the right decision; “stay away!”, still they all looked as they enjoyed themselves.  The link is if anybody wants a workout is:-   https://frejus.fun-city.fr/.  There are four “Fun City” places on the Rivera and the company certainly looks like they’ve created an excellent business model. 

Christine also spent time rearranging the “booze cupboard” to stop the bottles rattling, well, the ones we haven’t finished yet!!!  after all we have to get our priorities right!!

Whilst this was going on I downloaded a selection of films from Amazon which I can now play on Rosie’s TV; makes a change from playing crib each night!!!

Much of the afternoon was all about fun and frolic in the pool followed by another bbq, prepped and cooked by the two of us for our last supper; who knows when we will see Elton next for tomorrow we head north; oh yes, we also had rain this evening, nothing too hard but it’s a start.

Wednesday 17th August

The “little” rain we had yesterday evening turned overnight into “heavy” rain, but did stop in the wee hours. No rush today as Andrew had a pre-arranged “boxing” training session as “Nana” was here to look after Elton; a bonus for her!

We hit the road eventually at 1030hrs but changed our plan of direction.   Our original plan was to route north to Grasse, then over the top of the “Maritime Alps” at Gap “733 m” much to Christine’s displeasure, too twisty with big drops, not a motorway!!!!   Two reasons for choosing this route:  firstly it’s years since we travelled that road and secondly, the traffic along the “Autoroute de Meditarani” is diabolical, August and full of holidaymakers etc. Anyway a change of plan that we “might” live to regret later.   Our target destination was Beaune, a 6-hour drive🤞🤞

After our goodbyes we headed straight to the “Autoroute de Meditarani” mainly because though not raining as we left, the skies looked full of it and also these big black clouds were so low, we wouldn’t have been able to take in the splendid views from the top.

Hit the autoroute and though busy, it was flowing so started to relax.   There was some congestion at the tool booths but that was due to the volume of traffic, so “acceptable” but as we headed further west the traffic was backing up seriously, it was solid and just creeping now and then.    No fire engines to help us today!!!

Eventually after being in and out of 1st gear hundreds of times we came across the problem, a multi-car pile up but by the time we’d arrived all but one, “stuck in the middle lane”, were at the side of the road.   We’re off again then the rain came down, so that slowed things down as well.   The French don’t like driving in the rain and that manifested itself as we were passing Aix-en-Provence; the traffic was slowing and what appeared to be a 35cwt van in the outside lane indicated to move into the middle lane but as he was carrying out his manoeuvre, the traffic braked again and the van driver hit his anchors a little too hard and slewed into the middle lane with the back staying in the fast lane.  At this point the car following him must have thought with the van out the way I’ll gain an extra car length so in anticipation he accelerated, “BANG” he clipped the rear of the van and the central reservation concrete block.   We were right behind but had enough time to take the necessary avoiding action and once we passed the stricken van and saw the car all stoved in, our first comments were very friendly; “stupid buggers”.   With so much traffic behind we had move on But looking as we passed them, I have to say no one other than their pride was hurt.  

The rain came down in buckets as we turned off the A8 and headed North on the A7, the main autoroute for anybody going to the French Riviera from Northern Europe, always has been a busy motorway but being August, it’s chaos.  

Once on the A7 we made steady but slow progress but soon began to realise out planned destination of Beaune was becoming impossible as time was running out and we had to pass through Lyon, always a disaster.

Eventually we hit the Lyon traffic, bumper to bumper, crawling slowly and now the heavy rain turned to hailstones, we couldn’t believe it.   Several years ago we were on the same bit of motorway, albeit heading south, and it was hailing then, but to make things worse, on that occasion drivers stopped under bridges, blocking lanes, until it stopped; today there was too much traffic for that to happen.

When we pulled out of the Lyon area our destination had changed, Christine searched her overnight stop books at vineyards and found a winery in a small village called Bully, in the Beaujolais area so that’s was put into SatNav and we escaped the A7 and the Lyon traffic.

Off the main road, driving down this rather narrow lane, we’ll off the beaten track we came across this “Domaine de Roche Cattin” and was greeted by Monsieur Le Proprietaire who showed us where to park.   Our eventual arrival time was 1800hrs; originally it was to be 564 kms taking circa 6-hrs, we actually drove “only” 442 kms and that took us 7.5-hrs; we have been fated all the way, August is a definite “NO NO”; still having parked up; rain still falling please note! We headed into the cave to do some more degustation and of course walk out with a case of rather splendid Beaujolais, and this put the whole torrid day into context and after downing a bottle over dinner, watched a film then slept like logs.

Thursday 18th August

We woke up to clear blue skies, the rain had gone, let’s hope the winegrowers are happy now, and hit the road before breakfast.   Our destination today is a little north of Poitiers, about 5-hours drive, “hopefully”!!!!!, but first stop is a supermarket for some basic essentials and fuel.   We are using normal roads today, none of the Motorways for us 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 they’re clear.

Supermarket visited, fuelled up and breakfast taken and back on the road, heading to Poitiers by 1030am and on quiet roads too, ok not so fast but the distance is 40kms shorter and no tolls, win win, hopefully🤞🤞🤞🤞

Our route took us along the traditional long, straight, tree-lined roads and through some very “typical” very French villages but unfortunately couldn’t stop as we had a “ferry to catch”; we must stop putting time constraints on our travels, we always seem to do this so made a decision, after this trip we will limit our day to 4-hours driving only.  This will give us the opportunity to stop if we see something or somewhere we fancy.

During the day we had some rain and a lot of sun but one thing we didn’t have was traffic, we’ll none to moan about!

We by-passed Poitiers and then the “Navigator” set about finding us a vineyard or similar to stay the night.

Being in this part of the world, finding a vineyard is asking rather a lot, a cider producer would be easier but instead Christine found a honey producing farm; “that’s different”, not our normal overnight stop-over, and besides I’m not a big fan of honey!!!

We arrived at another out of the way place in the middle of nowhere, near the village of Soudan and reported to the first, sorry, only person we came across and was told where to park.   We were also informed that her Father, most probably the farm owner, would come and talk to us about their honey etc.

After settling in and enjoying a pre dinner drink in this idealistic setting, this old chap turned up and started “babbling”, at this point I must say it did sound very French, most probably “Bretton” and after a bit he twigged, he didn’t understand our French and we certainly didn’t understand what he was saying but once we got across that we weren’t, as our number plates suggest, Spanish, but English.   At this point he just walked off, probably in a huff knowing he wouldn’t sell any honey; oh well his loss!!!!

We had a wonderful quiet night though it did get quite cold during the wee hours so had  to do something unusual, “wrap up” for the first time in weeks.

Friday 19th August.

Our night in Soudan was like the rest of our overnight stops taken out of Christine’s book, “France Passion”, so far every one’s a winner, we’ll worth investing in.

Tomorrow we catch the afternoon ferry at Roscoff, heading across to Plymouth so tonight we have “imposed” ourselves on our friends, Sandy and Wendy and as they have a big drive we can get Rosie into and we can sleep in her and save them unnecessary work for one night.   Today, as yesterday we headed out before breakfast to get a loaf and again fill up.

Our journey should only take about 3-hours avoiding tolls etc. so no problems.  Firstly we stopped for breakfast then later for mid morning coffee, the things we haven’t been able to do because of time pressure and heavy traffic.   We also stopped for an hour to enjoy a leisurely lunch, unheard of this trip!!!

We arrived at Sandy and Wendy’s around 1530hrs and apart from a 20-minute break, for a wash and brush up, didn’t stop talking.   Normally we don’t meet up in the flesh more than once every couple of years, but this is our second visit this year, and still time flies by.

Tonight Wendy made an excellent curry which went down a treat followed by a Pavlova, much enjoyed by one and all though we couldn’t quite finish it off having pigged-out on too much curry.   

Following a lingering meal we headed back to Rosie; though Roscoff is only a couple of hours away, with our luck we’ll probably get held up somewhere so will leave early in the morning to make sure we catch our ferry.

Sunday 14th August, continued

…………….. Arriving as planned around lunchtime, we manoeuvred Rosie onto a patch of wasteland opposite Andrew’s house on the outskirts of Frejus, took out the essentials and was greeted by a very cheeky, smiling Elton which made all the hassle worthwhile.

We spent the afternoon chilling out whilst Andrew found time to clean the pool as Nana was here to take on babysitting duties.     For dinner the four of us had a bbq in Andrew’s specially created new bbq area, but cooking duties spread between Christine and I!!! Though this part of France didn’t suffer the rain we “enjoyed” last night, the “storm-clouds” looked very much like they were gathering to deliver a very welcome downpour, so naturally tonight we decided to visit the permanent funfair!!!  

It’s been many years since Christine and I have visited a fairground as opposed to Disney theme parks, so was looking forward to it.   Regarding the rain that started to tumble on us as we entered the fairground, we decided we can dry the clothes at home, so “just-get-on-with-it”, after all “it-is-what-it-is” , so we did and along with many French folk, had a great time.   There were a number of unsuitable rides for Elton but Daddy managed to get him onto some; probably the Log-Flume being the dodgiest for holding on.   Elton certainly liked the dodgems, in fact we all went back for more.  

Being a permanent funfair they had some very scary rides but to pick out one, the sky fall; one-two-or-three people attached to a bungee, laying on their tummies, hauled to the top of this big high tower, then dropped; not straight down, “no”, at an angle so they drop fast “and” swing over the spectators, of which there are many gazing up in wonderment of the stupidity of the folk on this contraption.  From “end-to-end” the swing must be the best part of 100-meters.  As I said, more spectators than participants!!!!    Fortunately the rain didn’t pour down much and soon stopped, to the locals annoyance I expect!!!, just enough to wet us, but not as much as the log flume wetted us!!!!!   

We enjoyed our visit so much that going home turned out to be rather later than planned, still all four of us had smiles on our faces; a very good choice Andrew, well done.   Elton by now was really tired and we had to keep him awake for the five minute car journey; mission accomplished and he went off the moment he was put into his cot.

Monday15th August

Christine and I had a bad night, nothing to do with the bed, the heat, the room or the house, no I had left a vital part of my breathing machine in Rosie; oh not to worry, I can manage for one night without it says I; “wrong!!!!”    I’ve had this machine for so long I hadn’t realised how much I depended on it.   Obviously I kept waking up, but whilst asleep my snoring was so bad poor Christine couldn’t sleep either, and on this occasion she didn’t need to tell me as my throat was as dry as the “Sahara Desert” and very sore, even though I kept sipping water.   I shouldn’t have been so lazy and gone out in the middle of the night for the missing part😩😩😩😩.  Oh well I’ll know for next time!!!      Breakfast with a “cheerful chappie” put the bad night behind us.   

This morning the plan is to head down to the Marina, jump on the tender and spend the day on Andrew’s boat, “Elton”.   Following breakfast and gathering our things together, brimming with excitement we headed off but alas halfway to the marina Elton “kicked-off”, and nothing would pacify him, not even Nana in the back giving him her undivided attention.   It soon became clear why, he was still tired after his “night out” at the funfair and with the excitement that went with it, he needed more time to recuperate; we turned around.

Following a rather longer “nap” than usual we re-loaded the car and headed back down to the Marina, this time Elton was his normal “chirpy” self.

We arrived at the marina to pick up Andrew’s little “speed boat”, really an “inland waterway”  boat but hey, this is Andrew and it’s a boat and it “floats”, so it should go anywhere. Being so low to the water, neither Christine or myself are as subtle as we used to be, (it’s been 10-years or so since we jumped onto and off boats!!!); still we got on and headed down the Marina canal towards the sea, but our first stop is for fuel. 

OK, all fuelled and ready to go to our next stop Andrew’s sailing boat, “Elton”, but oh dear, the little speed boat with its big brute of an engine won’t start, flat battery😩😩 so out comes the booster pack and “pow” the engine fires up, so we cast off and away we went, well until we left the harbour mole where the sea becomes rather choppy. The engine now decided to go into “safety mode” and just idles.    We can see Elton lying at anchor about 150-meters away and we were now bobbing up and down in the swell making about 1-knot, painful with just the one life jacket on board for Elton; in the back of this low-lying speed boat made for calm lake etc., we’re two worried people!!!

Eventually we got within earshot to Elton and got their attention so a line was thrown and we moored up.   As the swell was coming around the stern,  Elton’s vertical movement was about 70% “less” than the little boat we were trying to get off so timing was critical to get right if we didn’t want to go via the sea!!!  They say many hands make like work, well it certainly helped here, first and importantly Elton was manhandled off, followed by Andrew and bags then Christine who was sort of dragged off!!, then my turn.  

There was insufficient space on the swim platform to get the necessary manpower onto, to hoist me off the same way as Christine so timing for me was even more critical, still with some help, selecting the right wave, getting the timing spot-on and with fingers crossed, I took a “leap-of-faith”; fortunately it was well executed and I didn’t go via the sea!!!, I think secretly there were a lot of relived people on board!

We spent a very pleasant afternoon on board whilst the “skipper” and his “mate” used Elton’s tender to tow the offending vessel back to harbour.

OK time to return so all piled into the tender, a substantial RIB made for choppy waters, and a safe passage back into the Marina where Andrew moored it right opposite a restaurant which we made a bee-line to.

A little late in the day for lunch but too early for dinner, still after some difficulty getting the waitress “on-side” to get a food order in; Christine and I settled into a bottle of very quaffable white wine whilst waiting for food.   We all agreed our food was excellent, just spoilt by the waitress, she was miserable, arrogant, stand-offish, Charisma by-pass, probably thought she was having an early finish this lunchtime; “wrong”, we just hung everything out.   That’ll teach her to mess about with Brits🤭🤭🤭.

Back to the house and a dip in the pool before an early night for all of us

Friday 12th August

After a rather disturbing family ‘phone call we packed up Rosie and headed off; destination U.K.   our normal route is to head north through Spain and catch a ferry from Bilbao, Santander or occasionally, Gijon, but alas no availability so it’s off to France and the channel ports.    Wait a minute, Andrew is in Frejus with Elton for the weekend so why not detour that way, and that’s what we did.

Friday morning after Christine had her “nails” done we hit the road around 1130am, straight onto the motorway at Los Montesinos, “pedal to the metal”, Frejus here we come.   We were slightly apprehensive as we hadn’t used Rosie before but fully confident she would be a good girl.

Travelling mid August in the exhaustive heat was bad enough but the traffic was unbelievable, and nearly every car had a top box; holiday-makers arriving or returning, but clogging up the motorways and service stations!!!!!   We suspect this was the Dutch, Belgiums and other northern europeans “their staycation”!!    The other issue at the top of our minds was LPG; we had tanks fitted but couldn’t find a service station that had an LPG pump and when we did, they had none!!!   At least our new generator worked well and whatever we went without, Christine still could boil her kettle and make her tea🥰🥰🥰

100-kms short of Barcelona we pulled into a service station and found a spot to stop over, not the quietest mind you with commercial vehicles running their fridges all night but acceptable.

Saturday 13th August

After a very hot and noisy night we had our breakfast and hit the road, even though it was only 0830am, traffic was heavy and passing Barcelona was bumper to bumper at 💯 KPH; good fun!!!   Add to all this, we were still looking for LPG so drove through most service stations along the motorway, and they are numerous but non selling what we want!!  We resigned ourselves to buying it in France as it is probably used more there when suddenly we drove into “another” service station and we were spoiled for choice, they had about 6-LPG pumps, wow, another tick in the box.  Our plan now was for one last stop in Jonquera, the last service station in Spain; might as well take our last chance advantage of the “generous” Spanish rebate on fuel!  Arriving at the service station, with traffic backing up on the motorway and crawling very slowly, we were confident that after we had filled up and had a spot of ‘elevenses”, the motorway would be clear.

Our “woes” started here.    There were about 6/7 cars queueing for each side of the pump islands and here, there are about 6-islands so around 50-cars all trying to get fuel with more joining this queue by the minute.  Several cars didn’t bother and drove across the pavement to get going.   We had time on our side so kept creeping forward as a car left.   Like many garages in Spain one has to go into the shop, register their car and which pump they are drawing fuel from.  This in itself is a painful time wasting exercise, especially these days with sophisticated numberplate recognition available but that wasn’t the end of it, oh no, they couldn’t take credit cards👹👹👹👹👹 and folk who had filled their tanks were scratching around for cash whilst leaving their cars on the pumps!!!

After the best part of a wasted hour we got to the font of the queue but knowing we had zero cash, just drove off and before you ask, there was no cash machine available!!!   Oh well we’ll just have to fill in France!!!

When we got going we hit the motorway “car-park”, far from easing, it was worse and we drove bumper to bumper along with cars with every European number plate the last 8-kms in Spain and the first 15-kms in France at an average pace of a “heavily-pregnant-snail”, another couple of hours lost!    The hold up turned out to be, what looked like a minor RTA in front of the French Toll Road booths!!!   At last we’re off now and hopefully we can pull back a little time; no, wrong again we kept getting held up, even on the peaje; so slow this journey and no discount of the charges for the inconvenience; just not our day.

  Probably the one bright spot in the day was hearing police sirens coming from behind, well it sounded like police sirens but they turned out to be Fire fighting vehicles, probably 40 in total but once the last one had gone, we tucked in behind and had clear passage for a bit, yeah!!!

We are due to meet up with Andrew and Elton tomorrow so decided to take a short detour and stop at a vineyard we know in Châteauneuf-du-Pape and enjoy a bottle or two but no, time had run out and we would have arrived after they closed so plan “x” came into play.  We found another vineyard that allowed overnight parking not far from Montpelier so quickly jotted their address into the ‘phone and headed into the mountains that run along the Mediterranean.  

    On the way up we passed acres and acres of burnt out forest fires, the land was so scorched one wonders if it will ever recover and as the area was so large, most of France’s firefighters must have been employed!! Perhaps the fire fighting appliances we’d seen earlier were the same ones!

Languedoc is not our first choice of wine region but hopefully going straight to the Château we won’t be disappointed, anyway we’ll give it our best shot!!!!  The route to get to the vineyard was interesting and Christine was hanging on as we drove along the narrow and rough road.   I really must get a “truck” GPS that takes size and height into account, this was not a suitable road, still we arrived at the “Clos de L’Amandaie”  in a village called Aumelas. 

Naturally our first port of call was the vineyard shop for some “dégustation” before buying, so far so good, the second one we tried hit the spot so bought a case to go on with but shock, horror, as we were walking out of the shop we were stopped, very apologetically admittedly, by a lovely lady and told we couldn’t stay over night as they had a big wedding function tonight; bleep bleep: “and” we’d spent a fair amount of money!!!!!   Anyway we were invited to join them in their car and taken to see an alternative overnight parking place.   During  the 2-minute drive we discovered our host was Philip, was the sixth generation of the family vineyard business, and his wife Stephanie, the English speaker who together took over the “torch” in 2002.

The alternative spot was fine but before heading back they showed us the way to the ancient castle “up-on-the-hill”, they suggested we may like to take a stroll later: hhhhmmmm a definite “no”; too far, too steep, to hot!!, so they took us to see three of their plots growing the vines but due to the lack of rainfall, they looked rather “off-colour”; I think they had a number of prayer mats out for rain.   They told us about the two main grape varieties they grow and said how lucky they had only suffered minor fire damage recently, having vines growing in a number different locations, they were luckier than most.

Once “deposited” back at Rosie and our good-byes said, we headed to our new overnight stop; a very large, parched area, probably the village green in normal times but all to ourselves.   

Their website is worth a visit on their link:-   http://www.closdelamandaie.com/

The village of Aumelas boasts a medieval castle up-on-the-hill but little else, other than numerous plots of vines growing.

We were spoilt for choice when it came to parking Rosie but after much discussion settled for the evening and after dinner played crib before heading for another ‘hot” night.         Me-thinks an air conditioner may be the next thing on the list!!!; however we were for a surprise in the night, it rained😁😁😁, not before time looking around this part of France!!!

Sunday 14th August

We were away early, even before breakfast as we had no way of knowing what the motorway traffic had in store for us.    Fortunately we didn’t have to repeat the way we arrived yesterday afternoon, this morning we headed straight into Montpelier and onto the peage, so far so good, so soon stopped for fuel, breakfast and diesel.   To coin a famous phrase “I don’t believe it”; the guy in front struggled to get his pump to work and eventually he finally moved forward, but that wasn’t the end of it.   The car in front of us who had been watching,  tried as well and he was forced to move forward as he was unsuccessful!   All this took up valuable time but what was worse, we couldn’t have moved to another pump island as the service station was so busy.

After fuelling ourselves and Rosie we hit the road again and have to say, though heavy traffic it was generally moving at a fast pace which meant we arrived at the planned time for lunch.   After the previous days, this one was a doddle.      To be continued…………..

Saturday 18th June contd.

…………………. After an uneventful drive we arrived and as usual we were greeted like long-lost-relatives;  covid again got in the way, as we usually have their two boys over for a Spanish treat in their school holidays.

This afternoon and evening was all about catching up though this evening they introduced us to “their” rules for “Phase-Ten”!    We started soon after dinner and only got about 25% through the game before it was their bed time; part two tomorrow.

Sunday 19th June

This morning we headed off to have lunch and then visit the beautiful and elegant “château de Sully sur Loire” sitting on its man made island surrounded by a rather green moat.   But first, “Restaurant des Artes”  for an early lunch, well early by our standards, but normal here in France.   

Today followed the earlier days, very hot weather and after lunch at excellent French restaurant, we headed to the château to begin the tour.   The main party strolled on ahead of Tobin and I, my knee was giving me real gip today but to our horror there were stairs everywhere and no consideration for less fit folk and the clerks did not “commend” this for us, my knee and Christine’s hip joint; I rather think the two boys were silently pleased this was a no go!!!!   So another stroll back to the cars in the heat.

Back at base and after a snack this evening, round two of “Phase-Ten” began.   The competitiveness between “certain players” was palpable, still just as things were getting “tasty”, and with school tomorrow it was bedtime for the boys.   Part three tomorrow!!!

There then followed a few hands of crib between the four of us before it was our time.   The “Riley” household rises rather too early for our taste, what with the early start for Mike and followed still at some ghastly hour, the two boys leave, still they were very quiet.

Monday  20th June

Today being a normal workday we decided to make ourselves scarce and head into Orleans, on the tram and be ”grockles” for the day.

Our trip into Orleans was “interesting” to say the least.   Mike had given us directions on Sunday for the tram stop.  This morning Catriona gave us instructions to the same tram stop, however, the crucial junction was described differently by both so when we arrived at the junction we debated.    Christine said left whilst I said straight on, and that’s where we headed. Eventually, after what seemed an eternity I looked on Google maps and clocked two icons depicting a stop on each side of the road up ahead, so off we went but on arrival noticed there were no tram rails and two bus stops.  By this time it was a grovel to Catriona and after describing and sending a short video of where we were, the words she uttered “blimey, you’re right up there!!, completely the wrong place”.  “OK I’ll send Zander to collect and take you to the tram stop”,  next minute we see Zander running up the road.   He was off school as he had been poorly in the night, his loss, our gain!!!!

Arriving at the tram stop and with Zander’s help we bought a couple of day passes and jumped on the first tram.    On advice we decided to get off on the opposite side of the Loire and walk back over the bridge and head up into the main square etc.  The bridge (Pont Jacques-Gabriel) spans the River Loire and there has been a medieval one here since the 11th century but in 1716 it collapsed.  The current replacement one was built at the beginning of the 18th century and is 283m long, it is made up of 11 arches, and is the last arch bridge on the river that is pointed. It was listed as a historical monument In 1937.

We strolled up the Rue Royal where all the shops are in the arcades, each side of the street and on into the square that is dominated by a giant statue of Joan of Arc sitting astride a large horse.    We have been here before but it rained, fortunately today it is dry though a little cloudy.   It was on this square we eventually found somewhere to eat, not a full blown French lunch, just a light snack.  

After lunch we continued our “grockling” by jumping on the tourist train that circulates through the old and new parts of Orleans.  We were asked by the driver for our country of origin and was “placed” in Carriage number 2:  once we started we realised why the question; each carriage’s commentary has a different language, ours was English.  This city has a great history dating back to before Roman times and it has been of importance ever since, fascinating history; Joan of Arc and the English siege was only one very small part of it.   

After our train ride, and to continue the theme, we sat in the square and enjoyed some delicious ice cream.    Next we headed to the magnificent Cathedral, built originally between 1278 to 1329, but was partially destroyed in 1568 during the French religious wars: It was rebuilt between 1601 and 1829 in the gothic architectural style.   During the English siege the cathedral was visited frequently by Joan of Arc and this is depicted in the cathedral’s stained glass windows.

Our walk back to catch the tram we passed the Hotel Groslot Mansion, it was built in the mid 16th Century as a private house.   Later it became a royal palace where King Francois II of France died, the husband of the fated “Mary Queen of Scots”.  In 1758 the building was sold to the town and later became the town hall until they moved out in 1981. Today it is a museum and a wedding venue.

We wandered back and caught the tram, but to ensure no mistakes on our return got everything up on Google maps.   The return walk back the “Google” way was so easy, why did they send us the difficult way???

Over dinner we all had a good laugh before settling down for another couple of rounds of Phase-Ten: hopefully we will be able to announce a winner tomorrow!!!!

Tuesday 21st June

A free day today to sort out a number of administrative things that we had been putting off for sometime; quite boring really but they had to be done, not least sorting monies to pay my income tax that the Spanish authorities “just take” on the 30th June!!!!!

After our final meal we settled down to Phase-Ten for the last time and the needling was “rife”, no quarter given by anyone especially to Mike who had been ahead all the way through, but tonight everything changed; Christine came “up-on-the-rails” out of nowhere, totally unexpected, she left us all scrabbling around and just won this marathon game played over four nights.   Through gritted teeth, well played Christine.  As Mike and the boys we’ll be away at the crack of dawn we said our goodbyes tonight.

Wednesday 22nd June

This morning we were up much earlier to pack and get away after breakfast.   Thank you Mike, Catriona, Tobyn and Zander for making us welcome, we had a fabulous few days.   See you in Spain late July.    We are now heading to Beaune, a superb wine region, can’t wait……………..