Semaine 15-21 juin

A week of getting some important jobs done – buying another suitcase, for all those things we have to get home. It was cheaper than sending another box! Also needed to get train tickets and of course plotting our journey for the next few weeks and booking crossings across the channel to London. The hardest part and most time consuming is finding somewhere to park the campervan while in London. I am still searching….part of the problem is the Low Emission Zone that surrounds London and we have no idea if the campervan will comply!
But get this……went to book the train tickets to Paris to come home and ….NO trains that week because of the new train line they are putting in. So…we have no choice but to spend 3 days in Paris before coming home. What a cost…3 nights in a hotel in the middle of summer! It also means we can’t get the train direct to the airport and now have to try and catch metro’s with 8 suitcases, 4 backpacks, computer and handbags! Not an easy task!
Luckily I didn’t wait until closer to book the tickets as this would have sent us into a major panic!

Friday night we went out to a village for a free event – music and a long spectacle of a fire troupe. It was amazing the calibre of performers for a small village and the food and drink was really cheap. A great atmosphere! We ended up getting home at midnight.
Saturday morning the girls were picked up at 9:00am to go to a birthday party, the family lives 40 mins away and they very kindly collected the girls for the whole weekend! Returning them for school on Monday morning!
What to do with a whole weekend to ourselves….first stop, straight into town to the King’s Park Café (very French) to watch the All Blacks play France. In we walked with our Kiwi flag draped around Nev’s shoulders. A few ardent French supporters were up and about to watch the game with their minute sized coffees and mini croissant! Luckily we scraped through but it was a very weird feeling being in a place where everyone is against you – after a lot of butterflies in the stomach the final whistle blew! Whew!!!
Amazingly that night the rugby didn’t make the headlines, unlike the week before and there was only the briefest mention near the end. Luckily for NZ public relations I have seen no mention of the awful way some Dunedin spectators treated the team with their throwing antics nor of the assault in Wellington. New Zealand does not need this bad publicity and surely good sportsmanship is the priority.
After the rugby we met up with Ghislaine and Simon for lunch. We went to a lovely French restaurant that specialises in local cuisine. The wine is all matched to the dishes and they even wouldn’t (strongly advised against) serve us an aperitif as it would spoil the taste for the main meal. In the end Nev and I both chose different duck dishes. Nev's Duck and Potato dish. My duck kebab and quiche.Simon's beef and brain terrine.

We had a great time and hope we can see our dear friends again sometime. It really is hitting home that we are in our final 2 weeks here and is very sad. I wasn’t prepared really for this, I thought I would be so excited to go home and feeling so sad wasn’t in my plans.
Nev and I then went and completed jobs, walked around a bit and headed home to a very quiet house.
Sunday – Fete des Peres
No need to get up, a bit of a lie in and a few chapters read before breakfast.
In the afternoon we then wandered into town for the Music Festival. A bit like Music in the streets, everywhere there were bands playing all different kinds of music, people just wandered from place to place. I must say, in some instances I would hesitate to call it ‘music’. Anyone heard of 'death slammer' as a type of music? Yes..it is a bad as it sounds.

A great atmosphere that was occasionally hampered by a shower. The events were scheduled to go until 1am but Nev and I finally got home at 10pm. We had had enough!