Well it finally happened – we considered the rules for travel good enough to take the plunge and go back to England for the first time in 20 months. It was time to see family and catch up with friends.
It certainly felt unusual to spend a whole day in the car heading for Caen, though Hercules was definitely in his element – as was B !
At Caen we handed over a raft of paperwork – vaccination certificates, PCR test results and two 8-page passenger locator forms. The check in lady said she was now being used effectively as part of the police! After that we joined the next queue where some of us were pulled aside for a security check. We were pulled aside, but it was quickly evident that the check was cursory and then the female security officer asked if she could take a photo of the car. B jumped out and said, “even better, take your mask off and give me your phone and I will take the photo with you in it”. Amazingly she did just that – much to the amusement of others waiting to go through!
In the next queue – the preloading one – we were approached by a young lad of approx. 10 years old, with his Dad. Once he had ascertained we spoke English he also asked to take a photo… he came back 15 minutes later to show us the avatar of the car he had created for his game. So we hadn’t even left France and already had stories to tell 😉
We had a great time back in Blighty, saw the family and many friends too, and covered quite a few miles in the process. I walked most days we were in Dorchester and will post some photos taken then separately.
After a week we went to Hasland, near Chesterfield to see our lovely friends who moved there the same year we moved to Sarlat – so it was our first chance to see where they are now.
We also went to The Barrel Inn with Claire – the highest pub in Derbyshire, perched on a hill top with incredible views which we were lucky to see as its often foggy up there.
After that we went straight down to Ashburton in Devon to see my brother’s new place, which was just as special as it seemed during the long-drawn-out purchase process which involved us as Sarlat Helpline!
Two cottage style industrial units built by Brunel, with a huge chimney (now cut off and roof added), this building was used to process umber for the dyeing of military uniforms. Its now a large first floor open plan apartment with an office and yoga studio below.
We also had a short trip to Petworth for a trust meeting, something else long overdue, and that made for another great catch up with my fellow trustees and Norwegian connections. 😊 (a trip to Bergen with bestie Claire is still on the cards!).
In between all of this we did a lot of shopping (!), lots more catching up and got caught up in the ridiculous “fuel shortage” which was generated entirely by the media coverage, and I see they now continue to spark other shortages by telling everyone things will run out soon…Doh.
Five weeks and 3700km (2300 miles) after leaving home in Sarlat, we returned. We were incredibly lucky to have 3 weeks of beautiful autumn weather in England before it collapsed into something closer to what we were expecting, and now we are back in Southwest France where autumn is sunny, warm and colourful – what’s not to like?!
