Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Went for a final walk in the lovely French country-side, the birds singing and the cattle lowing. Rounded a corner on a gravel road and came face to face with a female deer at about 30 meters - after a bit of staring into each other's eyes, she bounded away before I could draw the camera. Packed up, coffee and toast for breaky and then we said our farewells. We feel very honoured to have stayed with Brent and Rosemary in their indylic abode in the Bugey Mountains - they are fantastics hosts and we thank them very much and look forward to spending time with them when they are next in Australia (but what to cook??). We drove down the narrow winding road through the villages (tractors parked outside houses just like cars) on a road which by now had become fairly familiar to us. Missed the autoroute entry, double back and picked it up and arrived near Lyon airport at 11.30am and after a phone call found the drop-off yard for the Peugeot. It was a mixture of sadness and relief when we handed over the keys - our 24 day driving trip through some fantastic parts of Europe had come to an end (4,250 Ks) but at least it was without mishap (not counting hitting the odd kerb, driving on the wrong side a couple of times and being abused by drivers using words we did not understand (maybe they were just exchanging pleasantaries). Our marraige has survived many interesting discussions ("I told you that was the third exit") but steorotypes largely hold - men do not ask directions and women..... - no I will quit while I am ahead. The GPS was a mixed blessing - maybe we should not have chosen the voice with an Australian accent - leads to some interesting pronunciations of French road names. A nice man drove us to the airport (now that is how you drive in France) and we arrived at an non-airconditioned tarted up tin shed to check in for our easyJet flight to London (now there is an oxymoron) - not recommended when you are wearing multiple layers of clothes to save on weight because "someone" has done an Imelda Marcos in the Italian and French shoe stores (not to mention handbags and scarves). The flight was somewhat inevitably delayed, also not good when there was no floor space for sitting, let alone seats. Landed at Stanstead Airport about 4.00pm, booked on a bus into London, waited, then a slow trip in, arriving at Victoria Station about 6.45pm. Then made a somewhat curious decision to take the tube the three stops to Gloucester Road with all our luggage - BIG mistake. Eventually struggled into our B & B in Harrington Gardens just off Gloucester Road at around 7.30pm. Went for a drink at a great pub, the Hereford Arms, just down Gloucester Road and also had dinner there - excellent food.