This was quite a storm which affected a lot of places around Larnogol. In Caussad it looked like a typhoon had hit apparently. Our campsite had a tree fall over and many branched fell off trees. At least three campers were seriously affected by water and about 7 families left the following morning. The home madecaravan across the road obviously leaked water like a sieve as they family were seen with lots of cloths, going in to the van and then wringing oiut the cloths for at least half an hour-shame.
The weather started to improve during the day and in the evening it was quite warm again but no further sign of rain or storms. We had a pleasant and quiet evening reading and watching the world go by and also spent some time looking at the route we need to take over the next couple of days.
We are going to see our friends David and Lorraine in a small village about 40 minutes from here and will spend the afternoon and have a BBQ in the evening which we are very much looking forward to.
Michael is of to South Africa on 1st of August and will spend most of his holiday? working with the South African medical organisations either in the hospital or on the road and perhaps even in a helicopter.
This promises to be a great trip for him and we hope that he really enjoys it but at the same time we are also aware that Johannesburg is not the safest place in the world today
Tomorrow we will start packing up the awning, this should take a couple of hours if we take it slowly. The rest of the caravan packing can wait till Thursday morning
We left for Villefranche on our looking at campsite’s day and started in Villefranche at a site which is quite nice for an overnight stay or perhaps two nights if you want to be almost in the town. The site was well equipped and it was getting hotter by the minute as we walked around. We got in the car and it showed 32 degrees centigrade and slowly crept up to 34 degrees. We stopped in Limogne for a beer and croque monsieur (ham and cheese melted sandwich). This was the little café that we used a lot when staying on the farm just up the road for several years and it was nice to have a return visit.
We then headed for the camp sites near St Cirq –Lapopie another small town which clings to the side of a cliff. It is great but not as great as the town of Rocamadour. St Cirq was very busy with all the car parks full and therefore it’s almost time for us to leave this fair land. There are two sites here and neither of them we would stay at as they seem very crowded. It was now about 36 degrees as we got back to the site. We read for a while and then headed down to the pool for a quick swim and in the meantime the sky was changing from a clear blue into very dark and cloudy with thunder rumbling time to get out of the water.Then suddenly the sky almost exploded. The wind came roaring down the valley at about 30 to 40 miles per hour combined with extremely heavy rain which then turned into hailstones with thunder and lightning and it looked like the site would get blown away. The storm lasted for about an hour and then started to ease up. The site roads were beginning to get flooded and some tents began to give way under the wind and rain. The rain stopped for a while and then about 8.20 pm it started with large hailstones and heavy rain again. They do say in this part of the world that if the temperature rises too quickly it brings the storms and it was certainly true here. A couple of trees gave way and one blocked the site entrance. Our Dutch neighbour’s tents got almost flattened and their outdoor kitchen was awash. An English couple down the road blamed it on the fact that they had just washed their car that day for the first time in weeks.
As we said earlier, it’s strange weather!
Later Noel went up to use the internet and found the Gazebo had been blown away and everything else was saturated and so no internet. Perhaps tomorrow when the weather is better-we hope.
UPDATE- Well the storm came back again at around 10.30pm and again with heavy rain, thunder and lighting. The sky was almost awash at times with lightning as far as the eye could see. It seemed to finally pack it in around 12.20 and then the Dutch groups in their tents surfaced and compared notes for quite a while and you could tell by the nervous laughter they were also very glad the storm was over.
The French family across the site from us in their home made caravan (for want of a better word) must have got saturated as when it went up I watched this home made contraption and wondered where the water seals might be. Tomorrow we should no doubt be finding out. Please watch this exciting story of camping in storms for an update on events.
After a busy day yesterday we decided to spend the day at ‘home’.
The sun was radiating down and Jen did some washing and hung it up to protect us from the Dutch next door. They are a noisy couple with four loud children if we could understand what they were saying it would be even worse as you here every single word, especially dad who shouts at them.
We spent the rest of the day reading and generally sorting out caravan type things. The book reading is going well and Noel is reading a Wilbur Smith novel which, unlike previous Wilbur Smith novels, has a lot of sexy bits in it. Jen is reading Michael Palin’s Diaries (him of Monty Python fame) and seems to be enjoying it.
We understand that the weather over the next day or two should be great.
It was a bit grey this morning as we awoke and it looked like it would rain and so no reason to stay on the site. Our plan was to look at other sites in the area and compare them to where we are as preparation for next year.
At the Birmingham Caravan show a couple of years ago there was a stand from a site called Chateau Le Comte at a place called Carlucet.
Two years ago we tried to find this place on our way down to the Lot and did not succeed. This time we checked on the map and off we headed to near Soulliac on the Auto route and went to Carlucet and nowhere could we find the subject camp site. We found many other sites including one for the Dutch only, that’s what it looked like, and it was brimming with Edam and cars and people and Dutch signs everywhere. There were municipal sites and also the Castel Chain sites but no Chateau Le Comte.
This cannot be right we thought and then re investigated the map and found that there are actually two Carlucets and the other one was near a place called Rocamadour. This was about 40 miles away and so we went through Soulliac in the rain in the new direction. Both Jennifer and I thought we had been to Rocamadour on a previous visit but when we got there we realised that we had not. This place is absolutely amazing and was jammed packed with tourists and nowhere to park or even stop and take photographs.
This is a place we WILL return to as it’s a whole town built on the side of a mountain gorge. It Really is quite incredible to see. See web link as follows.
So off we went to Carlucet through some beautiful countryside and we briefly stopped in a village called Cales which is right on the top of a mountain with great views. Also worth a visit and there are two very nice Hotels there.
We finally found the Chateau Le Comte on the top of the hill. It is a larger site than the one we are on but it was very, very quiet. We met the English owner Stuart and took a long walk around. The site is a Four Star with each plot having it’s own water, drainage and electricity. It would be a very quiet site to stay at and also the services, showers and loos etc were very modern and very clean.
We have added this one to our future site list.
We arrived back in Larnagol and the sun had been out most of the day and it was quite warm.
A couple from across the site, who also work to pay their camp site fees, came across for an evening drink. We talked about the sites we had visited and they will visit the Chateau on Sunday.
The restaurant at the Chateau was well laid out with a nice bar and you could tell they made quite some money from this. Where we are staying the restaurant??? food is all frozen from the fridge and cooked to order by the owners who clearly cannot cope when there are too many people and also it is expensive for what it is. 3.5 Euros for a portion of chips for example. They had to turn seventeen people away the other evening as they could not cope but they don’t seem to recognise that they could do so much more if they were organised and had a full time chef and a proper restaurant.
We demolished a couple of bottles of wine with them and then went to bed. A very pleasant and interesting day out.
We took a different route today to Cahors for a change and went via Cenevieres, Cregols, Tregoux and finally arrived in Concots. There are a number of new houses and also some older ones are being converted. There were a number of English cars around by the new houses and so either they are rented or owned.
Noel needed to buy a large spanner to enable him to tighten the nut and bolt on the famous tow ball and the first shop we went had every size spanner except the size we thought we needed a 22mm.
Soon afterwards we found a much better auto supply shop with an amazing range of tools and the shop looked very new indeed. We duly purchased the 22mm spanner which took only a few moments to run it through their new super duper check out machine. Anyway pleased with our purchase we went outside to check it was correct and then found that we should have bought the 24mm size spanner instead. Damn!
So we went back in to the shop and found the correct size and then went back to the counter to apologise and request the change. This totally confused the shop assistant as he could not make the new super duper system work to provide a change process. So he apologised and said he had to see the ‘chef’ by which I presumed he meant the boss as we weren’t ready for lunch yet. So backwards and forwards to the Chef’s office he went looking even more perplexed, by which time there was a queue of people waiting to be served. Finally they sorted it all out after about 20 minutes and we paid the 89 cents difference and left. Whew.
Carrefour do a great range of fish and so with some salmon and half a kilo of beautiful king prawns and a nice bottle of Chablis to go with it we headed home and then realised we needed dome diesel. The Sat Nav shows petrol stations and also the owner ie Shell, Total, Esso etc but it is not up to date and the first Total station we came to it was some brand of fuel which we had never heard of. Having once bought diesel in a ATAC supermarket and found the effect was appalling on the car (It became very noisy and lost power) so no more French Supermarket fuel for us.
Anyway we found a Total station and invested our life savings into filling the tank.
The afternoon was spent relaxing and preparing for our fishy dinner and chilling down the Chablis. You know it’s very hard work over here sometimes.
The sun was shining again and so we headed off down the road beside the campsite on a route we have walked before during a previous visit.
The first part through the fields is flat and very pleasant and then by an old farmhouse we turn right and walk steeply uphill for at least 40 minutes. It was damned hard work but both of us wanted to get some tough heart pounding exercise after being a bit lazy recently.
It was getting a little warmer; I guess around 27 degrees centigrade and so the sweat was flowing nicely.
Almost at the top there is a private residence with a great view over looking the valley and with a beautiful swimming pool which looked very inviting. Unfortunately nobody invited us in.
At the top of the hill there is another house which we think is owned by some Brits as there is a French registered Sunbeam car in the garage. Only English bought Sunbeams we thought.
The road ran along the top of the hills for a short while and then headed off on to the small track which goes part of the way downhill and then alongside the hill for about a mile and a half. This track is very narrow at times and perhaps only eight to ten inches wide and made of gravel with at least a one thousand foot drop down the side of the mountain and plop in to the River Lot, if you are lucky. If you are not you hit the road and get run over by a passing lorry. Anyway you have to be most careful not to fall but we made it ok. By now it was midday and the sun was beaming down and we were getting rather hot. The rest of the journey was mostly down hill through the woods which were cooler and we got back to the campsite about two and a half hours later and about a kilo or two less weight. So straight to the bar we went for a cold beer to replace the lost juices and weight and we soon felt much better.
It is a lovely walk and we took a few photographs en route as you could see on our Phanfare Blog including one of a very large Hawk or similar. My camera lens is not strong enough to cover the distance to where it was perched. There are also lots of lovely little wild flowers to see as well.
Following a well earned beer and shower we had a great afternoon enjoying the sun and reading and hoping that we would not ache too much later or even tomorrow.
We took our evening walk down to the camp site owner’s house where the WiFi is located and caught up with some emails and checked out the UK news which is still quite depressing.
This camp site used to be owned by a Dutch couple and that would explain why there are so many Dutch people here and so I have started practising my Gud Morning with a guttural cough and it seems to work OK.
By early evening the skies had started to cloud over and at about 8.30 pm the thunder came and some rain, not much, but enough to damp down the road dust.
Shopping for us tomorrow, as I need to get a spanner to check that the nuts on the tow bar are tight enough.
After traipsing around Cahors yesterday we decided to have a quiet day just relaxing and reading. The weather is still good at this time and coldish at night, around 10-14 degrees but then getting up to 28-31 degrees during the day.
The site has become a lot busier in the last seven to ten days as no doubt the children are off school and the Dutch, Belgian, French and English start heading for the sun. There are quite a few children now on site and they head straight for the swimming pool each afternoon and their shrill screams can be heard up the valley. We prefer it quieter than it is now but this is still a quiet site.
There are approximately 7 English site support staff working at the various functions. They work for about one and half hours per day then get their camp site fees free. Not a bad deal really however we like the easier life.
In the evening there was a wine tasting, also an English couple who make occasion cards on site together with the Pizza man. His Pizzas don’t look nearly as good or as well made as the lady who makes them on Sunday nights. The wine was reasonable, we tried a Rose -not good, a rouge better and finally their best rouge which we liked and bought two bottles because he was a nice guy. The wine may have been cheaper in the supermarket but it was an interesting way of spending an hour.
We both fancy a challenging walk tomorrow; let’s hope the weather stays fine.
Gosh it was cold when we awoke this morning. The thermometer in the caravan said 10 degrees centigrade and it was colder outside. It would be a little chilly camping we thought.
However, the sun was shining and the sky was blue and no doubt the day would warm up. We headed towards Cahors alongside the River Lot past the houses built into the rock walls and also some pretty little villages.
Since we first came this way just over two weeks ago they have completely resurfaced about a 15 mile stretch and so the road surface is considerable better than when we arrived.
We found an Auto repair place and in less than two minutes the old tow ball was off and the new one fitted, as it took such a short time there was no charge.
I also wanted to find an internet café where I could connect up and fully upload my Phanfare Blogphotos but the shop we found would not allow private notebooks to be used for so called security reasons. Anyway we used the time to check emails etc.
A walk around town followed by a very nice lunch, in a street café where we have been before, whiled away a good 90 minutes and then the high spot of the day, the trip to the launderette.
We sat by the river bank whilst waiting for the washing and by the main Cahors bridge they have used the space to recreate the Kings garden planted with different species of fruit trees and also herbs. This was also a good way to fill in some spare riverside land and make it enjoyable for the residents
The Carrefour store in Cahors has good quality food etc and their fish counter is better than the Hyper U we use in Villefranche and so as our next shopping day will be Friday, Cahors it will be.
On the site next to us are a Dutch family with two young children of about two and four, when we got back to the site late in the afternoon they were running around naked having a water pistol fight and having a lovely time. It was good to hear the screams of delight rather than the cries of distress you often hear on sites.
As mentioned in a previous Blog, we need to change the tow ball on the back of the car to the one that should have been fitted by the dealer but wasn’t...
The ball comes covered with paint which you have to take off with fine sand paper, which we purchased at Do It All on our last brief UK visit, anyway it’s now clean and shiny and ready for fitting. So I tried to undo the nuts on the tow bar with my long handled spanner but after turning blue and nearly fainting with effort I gave up and will go to the garage tomorrow and get them to do it.
The rest of the day was spent reading and walking and also looking for Camp sites for our second night of travel home as it would appear that some of the sites near Le Havre are already full.
The weather today was a little cooler and this evening it’s turning quite cold and so we hid in the caravan and read. Tomorrow we plan to go to Cahors and spend the day there getting the tow ball fixed, do some washing and shopping and have a good lunch somewhere and generally make a nice and fruitful day of it.
Our neighbours some-how managed to leave the site around 0830 which is surprising really considering the amount of wine that was consumed the previous night.
The weather was a bit cloudy in the morning and so we spent the time reading and looking at camp site information for the journey home. We now have confirmation of our site booking at Limogesfor the first night and we are now looking for a site fairly close to Le HavrePort.
We watched the German Grand Grand Prix on TV in the afternoon and saw Lewis Hamilton score a good win over Massa. It was a good race and Lewis led most of the way except after and accident which brought on the safety car It was also great to see Nelson Piquet Junior come 2nd for Renault as it is always good to see new drivers come good.
After the race we took a 4 kilometre walk up hill to Calvinac for a look around There are a few houses for sale up there and also a couple to rent, not that we would either want to buy or rent there.It was still a bit greyish so I didn’t bother with photographs.
Sunday is Pizza night at the site and a very nice lady arrives in van and makes pizzas to order. So we sat and had a beer in the bar whilst waiting for the Pizza to be prepared and cooked and then polished it off with a glass of red wine. The site owner joined us for a while and I discovered he used to work for ICL in the UK and new several of my contacts from the past-small world.
Both of us had finished our current books and so we decided to watch a film. and so we watched Meryl Streep in ‘The Devil Wear Prada’ quite a good film really. If you like Bitchy women then this is the film to watch!!
We noticed that the couple that we had spoken to earlier in the day who said they were leaving at 0800 on Saturday were still here at 0930 when we got up. It would appear that that have enjoyed this site visit and so decided to spend yet another day.
Our day was relaxing really. Jen did the washing in the morning and Noel read his book. The afternoon comprised of a swim, our first swim since arriving here, and it was great and we spent about 90 minutes swimming and enjoying the sun. The pool was quite empty as is most of the site although an ominous number of reservation signs have arrived particularly for August.
We spent some time looking into route planning for our return, we need to book some camp sites as it’s getting to the busy season and so we really need to book. We have found two locations just North of Limoges which look quite good and so have emailed for reservation. This location will allow us on the Saturday to get within striking distance of Le Havre for the final days drive.
In the evening the couple, who had decided to stay another night joined us for a drink after dinner and we had a great evening talking about past life changing events and camping experiences. Perhaps too much wine may have been consumed as there were at least three dead bottles when I got up this morning. Anyway it was a great evening.
Well the good weathers back and the sun was burning through quite early in the morning.
We felt that as we were planning to leave here around the end of July and start heading home that we should book a ferry as no doubt being in the thick of holiday time it might be difficult. Being also aware that the first weekend in August the motorways, particularly those going south from Paris will be a nightmare we decided that we would go home via a different route to the one we came on. This made sense of course as we are further down in France and more to the West and to go back via the East of Paris would be daft.
So using Skype we phoned the Camping and Caravan Club and they have booked us on the LD Ferries service from Le Havre to Portsmouth route for Sunday evening the 3rd of August. This should get us home around midnight on Sunday. A bit late but the roads should be clear.
We now need to find some sites for our journey home and this we will do later today as we have four books to choose from so hopefully we could find somewhere nice.
Villefranche was fairly quiet and we had a sandwich sitting in the town square waiting for the Petit Train to leave.
The journey on the train lasted about 40 minutes and took us around the town to show us the high spots which quite frankly we had seen before many times, but it was still nice to see them from a new perspective.
A bit of shopping at the Hyper U and we slowly headed home for an early tea. We had decided to have chicken salad, very nice. We met another couple in another Bailey Senator caravan and chatted to them for a while. They came with the intention of spending 3 days here, never have been to this site before, and ended up by booking 7 nights as they like it so much. Their plan is to leave early tomorrow and head for Saumer and visit the vineyards for a little sampling. So we said goodbye and hoped they enjoy their journey.
Mike, the campsite owner arrived to remind us of the evening market at Calvinac but we had decided not to go. This was probably a wise decision as a number of people who visited the town were disappointed as there were only eight stalls with not much going on and so they left after only half an hour and returned to the site.
The sky was grey this morning when we awoke. Our plan was to travel and do research on routes (more later) and take some photos but we had second thoughts. Jennifer was planning a wash day followed by touring but it looked like rain and so the washing was called off again.
When we arrived at this site it is through some challenging roads, rather narrow, sharp bends and overhanging rocks. If you get it wrong with the rocks bang goes the caravan roof. So we asked neighbours which way they arrived at the site and therefore as the weather was poor we decided to look at the alternate routes. We headed west towards Cahors and stopped at Vers which we thought would be a good site only to find the fair had arrived and the place was full of caravans and roundabouts etc. Not for us we thought as this can often be the problem with Municipal sites. So we headed up to the A20 and found the road had improved considerably since we last did this route. Then we headed off to Figeac and then followed the road to Cajac back to Laranagol. This route is much better as you avoid most of the overhanging rocks and the road is wider and straighter and so we decided that this is the route we would use going home. Not that we are anxious to leave here but as we did not know when we would leave we have not booked any ferries home. In August this might push us to ferries at the wrong time, we shall see.
We also started looking at the route in general and decided that we would go home on a completely different route to the way we came. The way we plan is up to Limoges and then on to Poitiers and then head in the general direction of Le Havre where we shall try to book on LD ferries back to Portsmouth. We have three books on caravan sites but most of them are a little bit light on choice on this route and so we shall have to dig a litter deeper to find what we want particularly as it’s August and the sites may start to get full, we shall see. Neither of us fancy parking in a lay-by for the night but I am sure we will fix something. One thing is sure we cannot go traipsing across the country with a large caravan on the off chance we may find somewhere suitable.
Anyway we headed back to the site and the weather moved from 18 degrees through to 22 degrees and then back again. We spent the afternoon reading and Noel checked email messages and looked at the dire financial news that is emanating from the UK at the moment. We think the stock market has reached its bottom and can hopefully only go up. Gordon Brown and the famous New Labour seemed to have cocked everything upin a big way after having spent the bank by promoting so many government incentives for the unemployed and those who see a way of not working what with job seeking allowance, sick allowance etc it makes no sense to work with high taxes. Perhaps the guys who took care of Kennedy fancy a trip to the UK and relieve us of this madman- Anyway back to reality.
Let’s hope the weather tomorrow is better for our trip on the Villfranche ‘petit train’
Another bright sunny morning and we headed off to Cajac which is about 8 miles away. Jennifer drove and Noel took some photos from the car.
The old town of Cajac we have shopped in before but never did a walk around. Its quite an interesting place with a few hidden squares with restaurants etc. The Information bureau appears to have been an old chapel and has been very tastefully converted in to its current role.
The town was quite busy with people having lunch. We walked down to the river to take some photographs. Many of these old French towns have small alleyways with interesting buildings and perhaps I tend to focus too much on these for my photos but I hope they look good and give a good view of the place.
We walked across the bridge to look at the camp site across there, its was in need of some grass cutting but had no security at all and could make you feel nervous leaving expensive caravans etc on site.
In the middle of town is a very nice public swimming pool which was quite busy with the local children and it is also open to tourists at about 30% more per ticket.
We headed back to Larnagol and spent the rest of the afternoon doing some exhausting reading under the trees whilst trying to decide what to have for dinner. The sun was still very warm at 7pm and so we plan to have our dinner outside and watch the world go by.
Tomorrow we will probably go in the direct of Cahors to some of the lovely villages by the River Lot and take some more photos.
A late morning, boy do we sleep well in the caravan, it was about 0900 that we awoke and had a cup of tea. Breakfast was an exiting bowl of cereal and a yogurt. We headed in to Villefranche de Rouerguevia Carjac, a very pleasant drive indeed through the green fields and hills all by the River lot. This is a lovely place to stay.
We reached Villefranche just in time for the main shops to close and we stopped at a sandwich bar for a quick lunch. We walked around the town and Noel took some photos of the place. There is one interesting photo of a nude male statue where somebody has put a condom on his manly part.
We headed home the same way after shopping at Hyper U and bought enough stuff the feed the army for a few days and as we are planning to BBQ some Lamb steaks we should have some good food tonight.
It is getting quite warm now and the temperature is about 30 degrees and great to have a little afternoon zizz.
The lamb was great, thanks to the chef and also the rosemary and lemon marinade, courtesy of Jen and the campsite bushes. A nice bottle of red wine complemented the evening meal and then a quiet evening blogging and checking the photos. Tomorrow we may go to Carjac on a photographic expedition
0500Hrs is a time we both hate, but that is what we had to do so as to catch the taxi at 0540 to GatwickAirport. The Taxi was on time and we arrived at the airport and could see this huge queue of people waiting to get in to the terminal. Oh No we thought there must have been a bomb scare or something however it turned out to be the line for the EasyJet flights which have just transferred to the North Terminal. And so being on the World favourite Airline?? We were able to go straight through security and the gate without any difficulty.
The flight was brilliant, one and a half hours of sheer boredom only interrupted with a cold breakfast roll and a cup of tea followed by a couple of bounces as we arrived at Toulouse Airport.
The car was where we left it and we drove on the empty roads, it was July 14th Bastille Day, and nobody is about. We took the quiet country roads up through the Aveyron Gorge and it was a lovely drive. We stopped for coffee in a small village and then started looking for a restaurant to eat but either they were closed or the town was en-fete and so many people and so we settled for a loaf of bread and got home to the site and sat in the sun for lunch.
We had been invited to a neighbour’s private party but decided that with the early morning that an early night was called for and so we watched Michael Palin in Himalaya (part 1) and then went under the covers for a good nights sleep.
We were a bit slow of the ground this morning. Both Michael & Joanne stayed overnight after the concert but left mid morning to their respective homes. Although we know there is a lot to do in the house, most of it can only be done once the famous building inspector has signed us off. Work will restart on the house in early August once we are back finally from France. Over the past few years we have occasionally passed through Bagshot on the A30 and seen what is a a very active cafe and fish & chip shop, aptly called Jacks Famous Fish & Chips. So we decided to pay a visit to this eating establishment whilst en-route to Reading. Jennifer had the Haddock and Noel the Cod together with the chips and a cuppa. We both agreed that this was possibley the best fish and chips we have had for quite some time, not as good as the Akaroa New Zealand Fish & Chip shop mind you, but still very good indeed and we will return at a later date. Our quick trip to Costco was to look at an under the counter wine refrigerator cabinet which we wish to purchase for our new family room and remove the small white freezer which stands out a bit like a sore thumb. Its a good unit and hold about 38 bottles and a good price. Costco sell the Aftron range, never heard of it. We have as the AF at the beginning stand for Al Futtaim a huge company based in Dubai. Noel has done lots of business with them in the past when based in Hong Kong. Anyway Costco have this excellent unit which will purchase when we get back from France along with a few other things that are required to finish of the house and no doubt our bank account. As we are planning to be in New Zealand at the end of this year for about four months and then possibly visit Florida and then caravaning in France and the rest of Europe next year we may consider renting the house out for one year and hence out need to fully equip it. Anyway, nothing is fixed re renting but we will look at it again in August when we get back. Michael was back at Brooklands again last night for the McFly and Sugababes concert where it was only about 50 per cent full compared to the Elton John two nights where they are completly sold out. Ahh the old ones are much better rockers.
We were up early but no workmen. Perhaps Noel misunderstood the conversation with the builder. Anyway it was not problem as most of it can wait. We did a few jobs around the house and garden and had an early lunch. By late afternoon both Michael and Joanne had arrived and also Gerry and Toni and we headed of to Dexters Bar and Grill in Weybridge for dinner but had a couple of glasses of Moet first. It was quite a rushed dinner but enough time to down two bottles of a decent Chablis. As we left the restaurant is started to rain heavily. By the time we arrived at the outside of the arena the grass was already very muddy but we bought some wine in plastic bottles at a rip off price of £24 per bottle just to keep our spirits up. Elton came on ten minutes early just as the rain really started chucking it down and it was only Jen and Noel who stood up to dance and join in. Two people out of the 20000 seemed to be enjoying it unless it was the booze beginning to take over. Needless to say Michael was perhaps slightlyembarrassed with his parents but then both he and Joanne joined in. Most people seamed to be sitting rather than stand and dance perhaps they did not want to get to wet. There were people arriving as though it was an outside summer evening ball and not dressed for a very wet evening in Brooklands. Elton and his band played for two and a half hours non stop and was magnificent. All the new and some of the older great numbers were played. He had a slight sore throat but you would never know it. It was also quite annoying at one time because there was this oldish guy with grey hair and glasses and back from his french holiday in the crowd who kept on shouting out 'Rocket Man' between all of the songs until Elton sang it. Jennifer reckons he was pi**ed. Noel had forgotten to take his camera to this event, anyway Michael will be on St Johns duty there on Sunday and will take some pictures . We trudged home through mud and puddles and got back about 11 pm. The Groves family really enjoyed the event as did Toni although I am not sure Gerry liked it as much as us. This was Gerry's first outdoor rock concert and so to go and sit in the pouring rain was not the best start. A really great evening and well worth the cost of returning to London
We parked the car in the undercover long stay car park, four nights at an airport for less than £ 35 is not bad at all. The flight was very full but whilst waiting for the the departure across the runway about one mile away you could see all the Airbus Aircraft, some with livery, waiting for completion or delivery. I guess we could see about 40 aeroplanes and it was an impressive sight including two Guppies which they use for transporting wings and also two Super A 380 aircraft. We arrived at Gatwick and met the taxi and headed home. Noel had a number of phone calls to make re the house including a legal discussion with regard to his complaints with Ashley Flooring. A quick visit to Do-it-all for some wire wool and wet and dry sand paper to clean the paint of the new tow ball and then some food shopping. The prices in Waitrose seem to be escalating at an alarming fashion. We had a quiet evening watching TV and an early night as we know that tomorrow will be busy as we expect workmen to appear in the morning and then an evening with Elton J
The sun was shining at last and Mike came over to look at the front of our caravan and also looked at the tow bar and after some quick measuring it looks like that I have the wrong tow ball head fitted to the two bar and this does not allow the caravan to move left and right without the Base of the Alko head from rubbing. I was given when I collected the van last year an Alko tow bar ball but the guy said the one I had fitted was fine. Anyway this will be changed when I get back to site. We left Larnagol around midday and took a long drive through the country lanes but went in to Montauban as we had missed a turning. This is a lovely old city but on the outskirts are the American style road with all the major supermarket and store chains on it.Shame really. It was begining to get quite hot and the car outside temperature gauge was showing 33 degrees centigrade and as we had the air con on we did not notice how warm it had got outside. By the time we reached our Hotel at Toulouse Blagnac Airport the temp had reached 35 degrees. We had a short stop to check in and have a quick shower before heading down town for a walk. The centre of Toulouse is a great place with plenty of large and small piazza's where the bars and restaurants operate. We ducked in to a Internet shop to check in on line for our BA flights and then headed for the bar as it was still very hot. The restaurants in this town do not open before 8pm and then they are suddenly packed . At a previous visit to Toulouse some years ago we had come across a fabulous local restaurant where the Chef comes and sits at your table and tells you whats on for the night and then told us to ignore the menu as he would like to arrange our meal himself. It was a great meal, one of the best we have had in years. However it was so hot tonight that we were not that hungry to have a four course meal and so we found a little but active restaurant who made excellent pizzas. We had a great dinner and watched a couple of young ladies who obviously worked in the worlds oldest profession (plumbing and bricklaying) plying for trade (picture to be added next week when I get back to Larnagol) Using the Sat Nav to find the Hotel again we headed back. We had been asleep for about an hour and there was this large bang from the bathroom which we investigated and it turned out to be the soap holder falling off and bouncing around the bath. Great
