Wendy Chamberlain: Another stage of my life's journey..............

This will definitely be my last blog entry until sometime after Sept 11th. Oh goodness, now that I see that date in writing, it is probably not the most auspicious day to be given for BT to do their internet connection stuff but there you have it, 11th or later. As we all need it sooner rather than later so be it.
I am now back in France until Friday. The past few days have been exhausting, interesting and well just stressful. My trip to London on Friday was quite uneventful, the first time I have travelled that far distance on my own. Got in the car at 5 am, turned on the trusty Garmin, chose 'Channel Tunnel' from the favourites and off I set. Well Megan usually travels with me and programmes the Satnav slightly differently. It was a lovely clear day and I made good time, enjoying the countryside, not getting involved in traffic backlogs until I discovered myself driving through the city of Rouen. Having travelled this route on several previous occasions I realised that this was not quite the usual way. Decided that as the Garmin was not screaming 'recalculating', must be heading in the right direction so enjoyed the sights. Rouen's main claim to fame as far as I could recall, is that it is where poor Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake! Could not help but see the magnificant cathedral and 'tho viewed from a distance, think this will now be on my list of 'must visit one day'. How I would love to be able to just drive and stop where I please just to enjoy my discoveries. The roads in France are excellent and well sign posted so after seeing 'Calais' clearly indicated I relaxed and just continued on my way, ignoring Garmin which now started to try and send me on a side tour. I arrived in Calais well ahead of my scheduled time and was able to get an earlier shuttle to the UK. Met Megan in Folkstone and headed off to London.
Spent the weekend shuttling to and fro between London and Bury moving stuff, our final trip on Monday morning with the helpful 'man with a van' taking the bigger items. Our new home is a typical English house with small bedrooms. Some adjusting will be necessary but it has been entirely gutted and redecorated with new bathroom fittings and a wonderful kitchen. The bathroom and downstairs loo are surprisingly quite large! The garden needs lot of work which I will really enjoy, there is a small storeroom for Mervyn to set up his working area and a garage for storage!
Yesterday was the long drive back to France and I must admit to being totally exhausted. Two days of thorough cleaning in this house, cats to the vet for their EU passport requirements, then on Friday afternoon we will be returning to the UK and to our new home.
The next weekend will be the Hugglets show in London so our first week in our new home will be one of busy preparation and completing bears.
To share some pictures taken over the past week, a beautiful door and carvings on an old building in Pontivy which is now an hotel ............