FAREWELL – LA BELLE FRANCE

28^TH November:

LAST NIGHT ABROAD – A SPOILER – RUDE STAFF

After our lunch we charged on for Coquelles, to find our Kyriad – cheap, and only 10 minutes from the Channel tunnel.

We arrived in a snowstorm at minus 2 degrees Celsius.  The ‘lady’ receptionist was indifferent to the point of rudeness.  She said we could not have a fresh coffee from the dining room – only one from the machine in the hall.  We said ‘Please – We will pay.  We have driven all the way from the other side of Poitiers.’  She reluctantly poured us each a small cup from the pod machine, charging €1.25 each, which was very expensive at that time.

I wished we’d opted for the evening meal there.  The starters looked temptingly good, but we had declined, sight-unseen.  In the event, after travelling some further miles, we could find nowhere.  Our last night in France ended in the hotel room, nibbling a stale baguette end and drinking water.  Serve us right for being such snobs…

In the morning there was an equally terse young man on the front desk, who reluctantly offered us a tiny cup of coffee for €2.50 each.  Gerroff!

FOLKESTONE – AND HOME!

29^th November.

It was minus 2°C when we scraped the ice off the windscreen of our car, and we left with totally empty bellies for the EuroShuttle entrance ten minutes away. We were lucky, and grateful, to be able to drive straight onto the train standing ready – an hour earlier than we’d booked.

THE FULL BRITISH

Emerging at the other end we turned into Folkestone High Street and discovered ‘Dawn’s Delight’.  There we enjoyed enormous Full English breakfasts with steaming mugs of tea for the amazing price of (if I remember aright) of £2.95 each – such a refreshing departure from most of Rip-Off Britain!

And after that we had a ride through frosty scenery all the way back to Cousin Clive and Marion’s house in Somerset.  We gave some of Claude’s precious woods to a happy Clive.  We called Marion in and invited both to pick ‘first choice’ of the Christmas presents we had bought.  We also unloaded some Basilicatan and French goodies for them; but all this only after a cup of tea!

They live on the Somerset Levels and as so often, kindly fed us and put us up for two nights.

We returned home late in the afternoon on December 1^{st.  2016.}

WE HAVE OUR MEMORIES TO ENJOY – WILL WE MANAGE TO GO SO FAR AGAIN?

We experienced amazing scenery; majestic mountains and lovely lakes: warm seas, hot sands – and in both France and Italy lots and lots of history, both ancient and renaissance.

BUT WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE,

THE GREATEST REWARDS IN TRAVELLING ARE THE PEOPLE!

We have made so many good friends through travelling.  Since that holiday we have had invitations to stay as personal houseguests from four of our B&B hosts, and have enjoyed boundless hospitality.   Others, as stated, have nursed us and been very generous.  The family from Thiers (now firm friends) stayed with us in early May 2019.  They were intrigued by the mirrors we judiciously placed to ‘enhance’ the space in our tiny courtyard garden.

We hope we will be visited by the other friends we made – and that their bookings will always be full.