61. Gassed again in France

Salles - France

Bag of Amazon and eBay goodies arrived today that I have been purchasing over the last month and sending to Elizabeth & Tony. The plan was for Jacqueline to bring the goodies from the UK with her as an extra checked bag when she flew to France however I am green when it comes to European airline rorts. 

1. Bordeaux is under two hours from Heathrow however direct flights are charged at an incredible premium 
2. Cheaper offerings typically taking up to ten to sixteen hours with transfers through Munich or Bastardstan or something
3. Checked in luggage can be over one hundred pounds per bag so my purchases would have been expensive indeed

New secure door lock

The answer was the excellent train system and I was able to book a ticket from Maidenhead to Bordeaux online at a reasonable price with as much luggage as Jacqueline could carry. National Rail to Paddington, a quick tube, Paddington to Kings Cross for the Eurostar to Paris Nord and then Metro, Paris Nord to Gare Montparnasse for the TGV to Bordeaux. The lovely legs sported by Parisian women is directly, in my opinion, related to the relative absence of escalators and the thousands of stairs within the Metro. Not ideal for anybody wanting to transfer across Paris with two suitcases. Wisely, Jacqueline couriered my treasures from Holyport, to the campsite, and traveled with one modest wheelie bag.

The day started with us all hiding in bed as the A/c heater is playing up and, as I discovered at day break, we had run out of gas for the central heating during the night. While the family sheltered in their bunks I ventured into Salles, filled the gas bottle purchasing Pain au chocolat and a small fan heater with a one kilowatt setting for the limited power supply we are on. On my return the family decided to give the wee heater a fair go and waited an hour before appearing, some longer.

Normally, Roman's face is buried in a cushion as protection

Thanks to the couriered box, I have now darned my socks, fitted a secure door lock (breaking two hex drive bits in the process), found favour with the children by producing slingshot rubber and bluetooth mice for the new laptops plus excellent broadband thanks to Jago sending his wifi Hotspot and provided myself with a host of handyman jobs for the next few days.

Tonight the children watched Garfield II (thanks Bryan) and at the end when I foresaw romantic interest blooming between Jon and Liz I had the camera ready as Roman always hides whenever the silver screen gets romantic.