where art collides

Seven twenty two. I can hear noise coming from the boat down below in front of the villa. They must have slept on it. The couple did have a couple of visitors, presumably for dinner, last night and interestingly one of them left after a while in a state of agitation. No idea what had been said. The things you see. I avoided eye contact.

I’m sat on the balcony with a cup of cafe au lait prepared using the espresso machine, more hot water and milk. Feels pretty authentic. It’s cooler out here than the bedroom which is quite stuffy. 

Just realised I can see Hotel Normandie and the Casino from where I’m sat. Won’t be visiting either this trip although the former notionally has the best bar in town so it’s not like me.

It struck home last night that Deauville is very much a resort. People just come here for holidays. The winter population of 4,000 grows to 40,000 during the holiday season. Must be totes dead in winter. Bleak, cold windswept. Snice now  though 🙂

More racehorses trotting along this morning on the other side of the water. One rider to three saddleless horses. Presumably the riders have saddles. Couldn’t quite see. All part of the vibe.

At the far end of the marina I can see a road cleaning cart brushing its way along, orangey yellow lights flashing away. Gotta keep the place nice looking for the punters. The surface of the water is like glass.

The weather is set to hit thirty again today with a cloudless sky. We are off on a day out to Honfleur. I’ve just read that Honfleur is one of the most popular places to visit in France which doesn’t fill me with confidence regarding finding somewhere to park! Woteva.

You will be aware of Honfleur’s history as a magnet for impressionist artists such as Monet and, well, Monet. It was also where Samuel de Champlain came from and was a big trading port with its ships being involved in cod fishing off Newfoundland (long way to go for a bit of fish) and, less illustriously, the triangular slave trade. 

Honfleur is only about half an hour’s drive and there is no rush. This morning I am going to indulge in a bacon baguette. Using lardons. Can’t really get proper bacon in France. It’s okay. When in Rome…

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Back from Honfleur. Lovely place and very easy to understand why it gets so many visiteurs. Historic, interesting, quaint. Streets were somewhat on the narrow side at times. Wouldn’t want to drive into town in a motorhome.

As we arrived in the (a) car park the little tourist train pulled up so we figured we would go on a spin on that first to give us an idea of the place. Don’t bother. Nice enough drive but all they did was take us to a viewing point above town from which all you could see was the river Seine. There was also a nice and very old church there with a stack of exernal bells, one of which was called Pierre. We stopped there for fifteen minutes. Way after everyone was ready to go. It was almost as if the purpose of the tour was just to show the fabulous homes of the rich that lined the hillside. Think Hollywood mansions tour honfleur style.

On the way home we stopped to buy provisions at Intermarche Super. Could also have filled the car up but it was thirty five degrees out and the last thing I wanted to do was stand there at the petrol pumps sweating buckets.

San now on the balcony sans chemise. It is still ot. That is probably us for the day. We have some nice king prawns with salad to fend off starvation later on. It is far too hot to do anything. I have my new book to finish.

The beach is rammed. Well as rammed as it can be in Deauville. The beach here could handle millions of sun worshippers.

Eight thirty one and the sun is already quite high over Deauville. Another hot day in prospect. Noisy seagulls patrol the seafront.

Deauville seems to have two main attractions: horse racing and the beach. In fact there are two race tracks, one of which, La Touques, hosts a very prestigious racing festival each summer. We are going on Thursday.

Deauville is a favoured weekend spot for wealthy Parisians apaz and presumably they like lying on the beach and going to the races. I daresay there are a few bars and restaurants around town for refuelling in between those two very energetic activities 🙂. Olympic beach volleyball has been on the telly.

The main problem with being in France whilst the Olympics are on is that French TV covers mostly those activities where their own team is involved. This doesn’t come as a surprise obvs. Just slightly annoying. We’ve tended to have the telly on mute with BBC coverage on THG’s phone. Being with EE the beeb thinks we are in the UK when roaming on cellular. Switch wifi and it doesn’t work. I did have a VPN but need to get it set up again. Doesn’t really matter.

So this morning we are off to Deauville market. See what choice morsels we can pick up. It’s what they do around here. At least that’s what happens every time I see a TV programme with a chef on his or her travels. Checking out what’s fresh and then buying a bag full and only use a fraction of what they’ve bought.

In the meantime a stablefull of racehorses have just walked by on the path the other side of the marina. They like to run them on the beach. It all appens ere.

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Well we did Deauville. Ok we did Deauville market and sat outside the Mairie whilst THG had her lunch. Then we did the prom. Iconic prom I’d say, though I don’t really like using that term as it is very much overplayed. I had an ice cream and we strolled back to the sensible shade of the airbnb in the marina. House, duplex apartment, however they describe these places.

The French summer holidays are very much going on around us. People of all ages on the mahoosive beach. Some of them had sensibly hired an umbrella with deckchairs at thirty bucks a pop. These had the advantage of not being far from the beachfront bars and restaurants but were a long hike from the water.

We are staying in the shade for the afternoon. Living where we live we aren’t used to the heat and sun. It’s around thirty degrees right now.

Some sights around Deauville that illustrate the glitzy nature of the place. High end designer shops such as Luis Vuitton and also a mural describing the location of Coco Chanel’s first boutique. Near the Casino and Hotel Normandie. The latter is supposed to have the best bar in town but were having a quiet few days on that front. Save it for the races on Thursday night.

THG had half a lobster each at Chez Roger. Flambeed. No idea how much it cost but I did clock the price of a lobster at a couple of caffs we passed. The first was 85 Euros. Hmm not too bad I suppose. Then at The Normandie it was up to 125 Euros. You makes yer choice you pays yer money.

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Just saw a fish jump up in the marina and swim off tail wagging away. Swaying not wagging, probs. However the movement of a fish should be described.

Thoroughly liberated this morning. Went to breakfast without my device. Gave THG full attention and afterwards we sat outside in the sun enjoying a cawfee.

Couple of hotel guests were picked up by a WW2 Willys Jeep for a day out visiting the DDay sights. One assumes. I think it would be a good thing to do if we came back again although we covered all the Easy Company spots.

Moving on to Deauville today and will take in Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach on the way. Sgonna be a hotun. There is a (another) museum at Omaha beach but will see how we feel when we get there. We’ve done a lot of museum visits already.

This is France. As such our trip has been characterised by eating, eating and more eating. I did skip lunch yesterday as I knew I needed to be match fit for Chez Roger last night. Rog came up trumps. You didn’t know what you were getting until the dish turned up at the table. Not a single dud and apart from the lamb’s sweetbread no meat.

Today looks promising weatherwise. Yesterday we followed the Band of Brothers route from the point where Lt Meehan’s plane crashed, the field where Dick Winters landed (although we couldn’t access the actual field which required us to fo down a road that let us know in no uncertain terms that it was private), where he met Lipton, the road out of St mere Eglise to the ambush point, then on to Le Grand Chemin and Brecourt Manor. Although the field at Brecourt where the guns were positioned is full of cows and surrounded by barbed wire you could still get to the end of the hedgerow which was right by a gate.

On from Brecourt to Culloville where they spent the night on 6th June and then to Vieirville and Angoville au Plain. Saw the blood on the pews in the church there and the cracked flagstone where the mortar landed.

After Angoville au Plain we called it a day but did head towards Carentan past Dead Man’s Corner and Purple Heart Lane crossing the bridge over the river Douve used by Easy Co before the they swung right to get into position for the attack on the morning of 12th June.

Today we are headed back to the bridge outside Carentan as the plan is to photograph all the main points of action ending up at Bloody Gulch. I have all the locations pinned on google maps and will publish it once I’m satisfied I’ve got it as accurate as I can.

Utah Beach dawn.

The large French farmhouse windows are flung wide open and we lie in bed listening to the abundance of birdlife noisily greeting the day in the surrounding woods and fields. This is a marked contrast to mornings in Place de la Republique in Paris where the sound of refuse lorries and police sirens formed the early morning alarm.

We have an unhurried start to the day but have a plan to follow in the footsteps of the Band of Brothers from the field in which Dick Winters landed to where they finished after the battle of Carentan and the Bloody Gulch. Expect this will take us a couple of days especially with multiple museums to visit en route. We did the Utah Beach Museum itself yesterday seeing as the room at the hotel was not ready when we arrived.

If we get a chance I’d like to stop by the Herout calvados distillery following the delightful experience of the digestif after dinner last night. It is near Carentan and is closed on Sunday so it has to either be today or Monday en route to Deauville. 

Tonight we have a reservation at Chez Roger @Reza about which I am v excited. We did a recce yesterday afternoon en route to the beach. May skip lunch to ensure optimum gastronomic performance at dinner.

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Had to mute the Olympics on the telly. I just don’t get on with French sports commentary. Apart from the fact that I don’t understand it, it is a bit of a dull monotone and too irritating to be background noise in the way that test match special is good with the cricket.

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Well we’ve just got back from Chez Roger. Probably one of the best meals we have ever had. Oysters, langoustines, lambs sweetbread with sardine and sun dried tomato, lobster flambeed in something, tuna, five cheeses and some milk moussy pudding. Different wine with every course and green chartreuse as a digestif. I’d already had the 12 yo calvados. Great experience. If you have the opportunity to go don’t hesitate.

CR was 4 miles from the hotel. Country roads, bugger all traffic. We are now home watching the beeb’s excellent olympics coverage. Not the French stuff.

Square du Temple – Elie Wiesel

Great couple of days at the Olympics rugby sevens. The absence of beer at the ground turned out to be a blessing as the temperatures hit the high twenties. We were lucky enough to be in a box where it was easy to pop inside every  now and again and watch the games from bar stools.

We weren’t that impressed with the catering facilities generally as they seemed to run out of things on a regular basis and didn’t have enough staff working. This is in marked contrast to the cricket at Trent Bridge where they had a large number of people working behind the bars which meant service was almost instantaneous.

Despite the catering we had a good time. Was incredible how many people they shifted out of the stadium afterwards. Eighty five thousand people walking to the RER station twenty five minutes away. Shuffling really.

It was still less than an hour door to door and Simon and I managed a welcome cold beer in the bar over the road to the hotel when we got back.

Last night we hit Le Procope. I had planned to stop by Harry’s New York Bar afterwards but we were all knackered and it made more sense to find a bar local to the hotel.

Our hotel, the Beaurepaire, was a classic low cost Parisian joint. Tiny rooms with no air con. The room did have a fan but that made a terrible racket as the fan kept clicking against the metal cage housing. The windows did open wide but then let in the noise from the bar across the road and the many police sirens that are a feature of the streets in Paris, at least whilst the Olympics are on 😀

Don’t get me wrong. The hotel was clean and the staff friendly. Also the lift worked and brought with it the distinction of being the smallest lift I’ve ever been in. 

We are now on the 10:59 to Caen from Gare Saint-Lazare, unaffected by the chaos that would appear to be the Eurostar service following concerted arson attacks last night on high speed lines. 

Good to be leaving the concrete jungle that is Paris. I quite like the cafe culture but many of the normal touristy things were off the menu due to large sections of the city along the banks of the Seine being closed to regular punters pending the opening ceremony tonight.

Already a hot morning on the pavements of Paree. Back at the hotel, party to charge my phone having taken so many vids, and partly to recharge meself before heading to the rugby all dayer at Stade de France.

A highlight was coming across the place where the Montgolfier bros lived.

We bought lunch from a v nice patisserie somewhere in town before strolling back. Jambon beurre baguette pour moi and a salade pour THG. There was a heavy and very visible armed military presence on the streets. The five troopers who walked past us at Place de La Republique carried lots of spare cartridges of ammo for their rifles and also had pistols slung around their waist. No messin.

The soldiers were a bizarre contrast to the almost naked violinist sporting an Aztek costume plying his busking trade on the steps of the monument. He wasn’t a particularly good violinist and I didn’t see anyone give him money. Ditto the beggars that seemed to be every fifty metres or so on the streets around the square.

No backups for 353 days. Should I be worried? 🙂

Anyways nous sommes sur le train a Paris Saint-Lazare. Non stop from Caen which is a good thing as it was a real scrum to get on board. Didn’t help that we got on at the wrong end of the carriage and had to squeeze past families trying to get prams on board and other passengers who had also got on at the other wrong end.

Caen was ok. The city had the sH1£ bombed out of it during the Normandy landings. Took until the middle of July to get rid of the Germans. They are still rebuilding the castle. Doesn’t do any harm to repoint the masonry every thousand years or so. 

We arrived in Caen mid afternoon having driven along the coast from the ferry port at Ouistreham to Arromanches where we had a spot of petit dejeuner in Hotel de Normandie. As we got off the ferry early, not long after dawn really, there were no caffs open until we got to Arromanches. The building was around during the D Day landings. Picture the scene:

Allied soldiers finally get ashore having flushed out the German opposition. They spot Hotel de Normandie which is now open. Its proprietor, Pierre, having got up early to walk his dog had noted the huge invasion armada and rushed back to tell his wife Genevieve to stick a few more croissants in the oven in anticipation of a bit more business than normal. The Germans often didn’t pay anyway and strode around as if they owned the pace.

Pierre did have to shut the shutters whilst the fighting was going on but once the shooting had died down he opened up for business and stuck some tables and chairs on the pavement outside. The pretty red and white checked table cloths would have immediately grabbed the attention of the incoming British troops. Fierce fighting does give you an appetite and they rocked up in their droves.

It did come as a bit of a disappointment to find that Hotel de Normandie only offered croissants, French bread and coffee on its breakfast menu. No orange juice as oranges were not yet in season and supplies from the southern hemisphere had been impossible to get.

They grudgingly accepted what was on offer being better than army rations and polished off every last croissant in the joint. They also drank every last drop of cider, red wine and calvados the hotel had to offer. The descendants of Pierre and Genevieve still dine out on the story about the best ever business day the hotel has ever seen.

After breakfast we did the museum which was tres interessant and then headed to Bayeux to see the tapestry. It was also tres interessant to hear the William the Conqueror story from the French perspective. I won’t bore you with the deets. Bayeux was an attractive mediaeval city, town really, though its cathedral had been butchered about a bit over the centuries and wasn’t nearly as nice as our own in Lincoln. 

So today we are off to gay Paree for Les Jeux. The French harvest is in full swing as the train speeds towards the capital and all is calm in carriage number three.

Deck B5. Docking. Waiting for the doors to open. We will be third off. Priority disembarkation innit. In May when I arrived in Rotterdam it took a good hour to get through customs. Not d’aujourd hui, fingers crossed etc. 

All sorts of alarms sounding. Keeps making me think the doors are about to open. Not yet. 05:46.

The car deck is a hive of punters returning to their vehicles. Happy faces. Start of their summer holidays. We’re all going on a summer holiday, no more working for a week or two. Kids being squeezed in between the bags on the back seat. THG used to have to put her feet in the pressure cooker.

Another bright and beautiful morning to be enjoyed by all creatures great and small. Good lie in after hitting the hay at nine pee em. A great day out at the cricket in which the Windies overtook our score and set a first innings lead which is great. Makes a game of it. Sense this game could be heading for a draw though as we don’t seem to be able to knock the wickets back at any great rate.

Today we set off for France. Fair stands the wind but our ship will not be relying on sails to get there.

Good day’s criquet yesterday. A dramatic moment when the Windies number 11 hit a six and the ball clattered onto the roof of the bar behind us bringing some tiles down on the spectators below. It was generally one of those classic days of test cricket where nothing happened too quickly and the game plodded along steadily.

More or less ready to go. A few last min bits to sort out plus a trip to the market to buy picnic supplies for the journey.

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The queue for the ferry in Portsmouth harbour is busy enough. People milling around having checked in but now waiting to board the boat. We are right at the front and a couple of lanes across a load of French Masonic bikers have rolled up. I used google lens to check it out – Widows & Sons. Fwiw.

The lights have come on around the port. We are sat immediately in front of a big neon sign distributing advertising and messaging to anyone who cares to have to stare at it because there is nothing else really to look at. This is how i disc=overed that the change from using GB stickers on your car to UK was insisted uponby the UK government. Wft? Pathetic.

Mind you it annoys the hell out of me that the British Olympic team is called Team GB. Rubbish. What’s wrong with calling them GB?

Worra day yesterday. Blisteringly hot. Another great day out now in prospect as the Windies held up their end and finished the day with only five wickets down. Should also be a little cooler today. The stand we were in, Larwood and Voce, was very convenient for the pub below which served a wider set of beers than the usual stuff in the Trent Bridge concessions. Also it was just a short walk down the stairs.

The bar I thought we would be using was only letting members of the Trent Bridge Taverners in or anyone else willing to fork out a tenner for the privilege. Didn’t seem worth it.

For today I’ve changed our breakfast venue to the Larwood and Voce as the Waterside Bar we were in yesterday only wanted to serve bacon sausage butties in a brioche bap. No full English wot!

Ready bright and early. Off to Trent Bridge today and currently printing my ticket off in the shed. Taxi coming in half an hour. 8am.

It is a glorious morning with the forecast set to hit thirty one at the cricket so have my factor 50 sun hat wot I bought in Miami Beach and long sleeved safari shirt purchased for the African bush.  It is very lightweight and totally suitable for sitting in the sun all day. Shorts and sandals complete the outfit.

No shade in the Larwood & Voce stand although there is a bar at the back. It will be important to take in lots of fluids during the hot day ahead. Likewise a good breakfast is called for. We have a table booked for nine thirty. Gotta do these things properly innit.

The big question is whether the Windies will bat out the day. Recent form suggests otherwise but because I am also going to the match tomorrow I need this to happen.

Cmon the whites 🙂

Awake since around five this morning and at five forty got up and headed downstairs. It is going to be another lovely day. The rooftops of Lincoln Prison can be seen in the distance across the allotments from our landing window. The early morning sun shining on the red brick structure of the building is striking. Peculiarly artistic. I don’t want to say attractive. Bet the inmates don’t look at it like that.

Before hitting the hay last night I was researching hotel prices for Paris next week. They have come down from when I booked in November or whenever it was. Emailed the hotel suggesting they might want to reconsider our pricing. I have six rooms, all cancellable by the 21st July which is in three days time.

Whilst looking at booking.com for alternatives I came across Hotel Avenir in Montmartre. THG and I stayed there in 1987, I think. Don’t recall exactly. Long time ago now. Will we ever return 🙂

That trip was memorable for us finding out how expensive Paris was. We had a spends budget of fifty quid and blew twenty of it in the first bar we got to on a dry martini and a gin and tonic. It was a jazz joint just down from Harry’s New York Bar. I guess the drinks prices were hiked in lieu of a cover charge.

Can’t remember where we visited on that trip. We do have photos somewhere. Usual places I think. Eiffel Tower, Versailles etc.

I look forward to hearing back from next week’s hotel 🙂

Second test starts today, at Trent Bridge. Exciting. The absolute height of British summer. Hopefully the Windies will knuckle down and last a bit longer. It is a far cry from the glory days of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards. Busy day today but I daresay there will be enough downtime to catch a few overs. Glad I made progress with the garage yesterday. The rest of the garage clearing can wait until after the Olympics.

Doesn’t feel like twelve years since the London Olympics. I was lucky enough to see twelve events. I remember at the time the brand Gestapo insisting that references to those games be always called London Olympics 2012 or similar. There was a large money element to the games and nobody was allowed to dilute the brand. I guess it does cost a lot to put on a games.

The notable thing about the Rugby Sevens in Paris, that’s what we are there for, is the absence of beer from the ground. Only found this out after buying the tickets. Now if I was watching athletics or swimming I’d be ok with that but rugby??!! I’ve got over the shock and we will have a good time anyway.

I’ve booked a table at Le Procope on the Thursday night. Oldest eatery in Paris and where Voltaire based himself to publish his stuff. Quite an interesting gaff that our Hannah introduced me to. This’ll be my third visit there, not counting the time Han and I just walked in to have a look. Did try booking at La Coupole but it was full, or at least couldn’t take our party of eight. Another time. That was another place Hannah introduced me to.

So today is all about finishing off. Bit of packing. A visit to the local market for supplies. More visitors this weekend! This evening in fact. Swim booked for three pee em. I was happy with yesterday’s swim. There were only five or six of us in the pool and I had a lane to myself. Made it easy to add ten minutes to my normal routine. Luxury swimming.

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Lots of train delays as Hannah and George head north to Lincoln. Problems down Stevenage way by all accounts. They are running an hour and a half late with the prospect of a  replacement bus service from Newark.

Totes bootiful day in prospect. I expect an ideal combination of relaxation and productivity. Bit more garage clearing out, a swim, stuff like that. Start the packing for France as Friday and Saturday are going to be wipeouts.

I’ve started unsubscribing from sites sending me emails I wasn’t interested in. My “social” tab was easy as that was all LinkedIn. Email from LinkedIn are of no interest whatsoever. I also deleted around 12k emails from my “promotions” tab which is now empty. Stuff does come in but I either unsubscribe or leave depending on the source and then delete. 

Time will tell if the unsubscribes work as they often come from complex mailer addresses. I used to get spammed with press releases from vaguely tech related sites when I was actively writing for trefor.net but that has dwindled, nay gone. Must be eight years since I stopped writing that blog.

The most pleasing aspect of my email strategy is the amount of crap I get on my hotmail address. I use that exclusively to register with wifi hotspots in pubs etc and if I need to provide an email address on website I might have had a vague interest in once, maybe. My hotmail address is rammed with rubbish.

I am now sat tapping away in the shed with the doors wide open and a pot of tea brewing on the desk in front of me. I like to start the day with tea and a bit of ritin. Breakfast was a very satisfying granola, yo’gurt and berries. THG’s home made granola is the best and can leave you filled up for the day despite only having a small portion. When I smugly ordered granola on the Hull to Rotterdam ferry in May I thought I was doing the right thing but the bowl turned out to be massive and I couldn’t finish it all! Would have fed a family of four.

The critical aspect of the improving weather outlook is the days out at Trent Bridge planned for Friday and Saturday. Saturday is not without risk as the current tourists have not demonstrated staying power. Hopefully they will last to the end of day three. We are in the members only Larwood & Voce stand which has a bar at the back so we will be ok one way or another.

I’ve been a good boy since the NetUK1 conference the week before and the days out at the cricket will represent a break from that. You need to keep hydrated in the heat.

Milkman arrived at three twenty three wearing a polo shirt. Must be reasonably warm at that time of day.

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Coco Chanel. Heard her name on the telly. THG is watching some sewing programme so I’m doing stuff on my laptop whilst listening to tunes in order to drown out the chatter. The noise of the sewing machines. Chatter chatter chatter chatter. THG does a bit of sewing herself. Dab hand fair play.

Saw a documentary on Coco a while back. V interesting woman. I’m looking for some inspiration here. Ain’t coming. Nothing I want to watch on any media. Finished watching Anything Goes earlier. Totes fantastic musical.

Been moving my schedule around this morning. Had intended to go to the tip, drop car off at Coops’ garage and get home in time to take THG to the gym in a loaner. Turns out the Lincoln Recycling Centre doesn’t open until nine so THG gets to go first.

Was awake at five twenty and even pondered getting up but the next thing I knew it was twenty past seven. Got up and made the tea.

It’s chucking it down in Lincoln and I did note the lack of birdsong at dawn this morning. Obvs our little feathered friends stayed hunkered down in their nests. Either that or their voices were drowned out by the rain.

Busy enough day ahead. Good job I mowed the lawn yesterday. Need to buy one of those headlight reflector strips for THG’s car. Last year when we went to France in the Defender I didn’t need to as the lights on that car were ok for France. The Peugeot ain’t. The difference will be that there will be no problem parking the car this year. 

The French mostly build car parks that are unsuitable for 4×4 cars. This is down to their revolutionary streak seeing such vehicles as the product of the capitalist system, or something like that. On the flipside I will have to take great care when following sat nav directions in Normandy. Last year when headed for Gold Beach I ended up in a field full of sunflowers and was only able to extricate myself because of the off road capabilities of my car. Fifty grand well spent  😂.

The sat nav proved to be unreliable in France. On another occasion we headed for a car park in Arles and found ourselves down a narrow dead end street with a difficult reverse out. We ditched Arles and headed for the Camargue which was blessed with plenty of open air parking. The Camargue was great fair play.

This heavy rain is relaxing. Even whilst sat in the kitchen. What’s not to like? Good job I loaded the car up for the tip last night.

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Must buy a lottery ticket. Every traffic light seems to be on green this morning 🙂