Well a lot has happened over the last 2
weeks so where do we start!
Dogs
As we have mentioned, we have become quite
fond of Seamus and Weekly and it was a ghastly shock for Patrick when he
witnessed Weekly perform his usual escapade of chasing the 4x4 but this time it
didn’t slow down and in fact whacked the poor dog on his rump! After witnessing
this, Patrick was out of the villa like a bullet out of a gun, making off in
the direction of the dog to check it was ok and being such a wannabe detective
he also made a note of the car registration. Although Weekly was making a lot of noise,
with Seamus offering support and growling at anyone who approached his mate, he
did seem able to limp, somewhat painfully to his owner’s house.
However, Patrick was incensed that the
driver of the 4x4 did not check on the dog and set off to find out where they
lived. Needless to say, he managed to find them the next day and confronted the driver who meekly responded with a “I
thought it was ok” anyway the main thing was that a few days later the dogs
were back on the street….although their appetite for chasing 4x4’s seems
somewhat reduced.
Fines
As we were leaving Phuket, we encountered a
slight problem at the immigration counter. In our delight at staying for an
extra week and re-arranging our schedules, we had overlooked the fact that our
visa was for 30days. So we were informed that we had to pay a fine of THB 8,000
in cash to be able to leave, as we had overstayed our welcome. The excuse of
being British did not cut it and it was cash or accommodation of their choice!
Though, we felt like a complete pair of
numpties, we were able to relax over a glass of wine courtesy of Malaysia
Airlines. Yes – we chose them as they were a) available and b) cheaper than
everyone else.
The calm before the storm (or Paris)
It was an excellent set of flights to Kuala
Lumpur and then on to Paris. The Paris flight was on a new Airbus 380 (and we
were lucky enough to have seats upstairs) we had so much space, a lovely
selection of food for dinner/breakfast and free champagne, Patrick was so chuffed
I don’t think he slept at all!
Paris
6.30am on a cold Thursday morning, we
arrived and made our way to the Hertz desk to pick up our voiture. This wasn’t
quite as smooth as we had envisaged, no surprise there! They sent us off in an
upgraded car…..or rather a 7 seater bus!
This made for some interesting driving as
we exited the airport during rush hour! Unfortunately, the directions we
printed were useless and as we missed our turning, we had to rely on Ms.SatNav!
Fortunately, she knew where we were and how we should get to Beaune (for our
overnight stop).
Beaune was lovely, a very pretty town and
we enjoyed dinner in a local wine bar!
The next day we completed our journey to
Nice and whilst the bus was great on the motorway, the narrow streets and
bollards of Nice were not to its liking and this coupled with the lack of
parking spaces saw the re-emergence of Basil Meldrew!! ( Basil Fawlty meets
Victor Meldrew) which was not pleasant, so it was a relief to reach Helen’s so
she could park the bus in her very tiny garage.
Nice
It was lovely to see Helen and the boys and
our first day was spent walking around Nice under clear blue skies and 21c
which felt very pleasant.
However, the next day, we were treated to
thunderstorms and lightning and plenty of rain! Still it made for a good day as
we were able to stay with Helen and have a Raclette – which was a great way to
sample typical French cuisine!
Patrick’s birthday was on the Monday and
Helen, Thomas and Arthur had arranged a cake with a nice big 46 on, but Thomas gleefully
changed this around to 64 which he thought more apt!
After some deliberation, Patrick and Helen realized
it was the first time they had been together on his birthday for about 24 years,
so we decided that was a cue for another bottle to be uncorked!
Unfortunately, the days went very quickly
and before we knew it, time to leave, so on the 11th November – a
public holiday in France – our French adventure began for real!
No comments:
Post a Comment