A  bit od a sleep in, not too long as everyone else was up.  Ester who was living in our attic sneaked of early to catch her train. Andy & Helen were also leaving early.  We planned a lazy day hanging by the pool. There was a scare going around that Saturday was going to be a Black day for traffic, the worst traffic for the year because it was the first day of the school holidays and people from the north head south and people from south head north. Martin and his new family were all leaving today.  Just the Slavin’s and the Hailes remained.  Much food and alcohol to get through.  Ray’s cousin Keith & wife Kay came over for tea and Sheryn had whipped up the amazing Pasta Bake with the left-overs.  I have to say it was the best pasta meal I have had since being here.  Very very yummy,

Another hot sunny day, well into the thirties.

Sheryn, Margaret and I headed off to Alba la Romaine to visit the old Roman town.  While wandering we came across Andy and Helen and went and had a coffe in a local cafe.  It was the cafe with no food and we were directed to the Boulangerie across the road to buy food and bring it back to the cafe.  We wander up and through the old castle which was more interesting than the Chateau on Tuesday but not much.  We explored a bit more of the town before heading back to our Gite and the pool.

The wedding was 5pm at the Mayors chambers.  Time to get into our glad rags and head off.  The Mayor performed the ceremony but as it was in French it was difficult to follow.  Not sure what Martin had committed himself too but he did say oui at an appropriate time to a bit of laughter from the mayor.  Deed done and outside for some photos and mingling.  It was about this time I discovered a txt from Michael telling me I was a grandfather to a bonny wee lass which I announced to the gathering.

Back to the winery for the reception. More mingling and eating before sitting down to some French cuisine, with speeches between the servings.  Chloe’s dad went to a lot of trouble to talk about kiwi’s with his first experience being the shoe polish to having a Kiwi son in-law.  After the meal there was dancing to a disco.  We left just after one o’clock completely shattered.  I had tried to outlast Nola (nearly five) and Rita (two and a half) but I must be getting old.  It was home to bed.

Ardeche is a wine growing area deep in the middle of France between Lyon and Avignon.  We are here for the week with the Slavin’s, Ray, Martin, Blair, Callum & Sheryn and the Pellegrin’s (the New French family)  Jean Jacques (Jackie) & Andree Maria, Chloe, Nola, Julie(Chloe’s sister), Julien & Rita.  Others to arrive during the week are Rob & Leo (with kids Tom & Ella) from London, Ester (Kiwi girl from Cardiff), Andy & Helen from Cardiff.

Monday morning we head into Montelimar, we need to stock up the cupboards and we are preparing a BBQ for everyone tonight .  More supermarket fun this time with the Slavin’s and another full trolley.  Callum claims it as his best tourist attraction in France.  We head home to start the preparation.  This might not sound like we are doing much but it all takes up a lot of time and it mid afternoon before we are back at our Gite.

The BBQ appears to be a big hit with the French especially when we dished up pavlova.

Tuesday morning we are off to do the touristy things and we punch Vallon-Pont D’Arc into Tomtom.  Two minute away from our Gite turning left and heading up over the hills on this windy narrow road.  Tomtom seems to have every goat track going on it.  Ray had woken up with an unsettled stomach today so there was just the five of us and we could go in one car.  Margaret sat in the back between Blair & Callum and has a few stories to tell.  We wandered around the town and had lunch before catching a free bus to the Arc.  It was about 5km out of town, most of it beside this beautiful river that had people galore along its banks,swimming, kayaking and sunbathing.  The Arc was an impressive natural rock bridging the river.  Sheryn and the boys went swimming with the boys being embarrassed by their struggles to climb this rock that the locals were almost running up and jumping off.  They did finally make it and I will give Callum the accolades for doing the biggest bomb.

Sheryn had made some threats about what she would do if she didn’t get to go through a castle or a chateau. She would do unspeakable things.  We set Chateau de Vogue into Tomtom,  about an hour away and towards home.  It was quite an impressive building from the outside but not very exciting to go through. Sheryn, Margaret and I did that while the boys headed out to find a drink.  We weren’t that far behind them.  It was then off home for swim in the pool.  Callum discovered that he had left his man bag at the restaurant where we had the drinks so him and I did a quick trip back where fortunately they had his bag.  The girls went out on a hens night and the boys were left to fend for themselves.  Not a problem and I was in bed sound asleep when Margaret arrived home.

Wednesday Ester arrived early, Martin had picked her up from the train at Montelimar We headed back into Montelimar to do some dress shopping but also have a look around and pick up more beer and groceries. Back home to our Gite and the pool and another BBQ.  A relaxing day with a few beers and wines.  We also did a degustation at the winery where we were staying sampling around nine or ten wines.

We were supposed to go out for a Bucks night with Martin but he wasn’t allowed.  I don’t think Chloe trusted Martin’s brothers and tomorrow is the WEDDING DAY.

Late out of bed again today.  No need to rush,we are meeting up with the French contingent at 10:30 to go to an open air market at Alba-la-Romaine.  Cornflakes and toast for breakfast as there is just Margaret & I, that’s is all going to change late as the Kiwi contingency arrive. The Gite has beds for 10 but only one Bathroom and toilet so it may get interesting.  The market is busy but has lots of interesting stuff.  We buy melons, cheese, wine, sausage and bread all of which we sample first and are pretty yummy.  On the way back Margaret and I stop in the village to check out where the wedding ceremony will be and have a drink at the one resturant in town.  We head back out to the Gite and find that Martin , Ray, Blair & Callum have just arrived.  Chloe and Sheryn arrive a short time later.  They have all driven down from Lyon.  Shops shut here on a Sunday afternoon so they arrive without any supply’s so just as well we had a few cold ones in the fridge.  Dinner tonight is going to be back at the village resturant.  An interesting menu,  not many options, simple food cooked with care I am told.  I have a pork entree and Capaci, uncooked super thin slices of beef along with a selection of vegetables.  A nice raspberry ice cream for dessert.  All pretty good.

We have a big sleep-in, no reason to rush anywhere.  Head down to breakfast just before it closes and have a very nice continental brunch.  We get on the road and head for Valence where we want to stock up with supplies for our Gite (holiday home). This is to be home for the next week. We are learning that the centre of town is not the place to buy essentials.  They are preserved as historic tourist traps with expensive boutique shops.  We did find a huge outdoor market and brought veggies, cheeses and olives.  Traffic is reasonably busy and not knowing where we are going and where/how we can park is a bit of a challenge.  

We get a street address for a Commercial Centre (mall) and Tomtom gets us there.  We found the biggest supermarket we have ever been in but it was worse than that, we couldn’t read the bloody labels.  I think we were in there a couple of hours. Simple things like French for tea towel gave us a real challenge and a big laugh when they work out what we are after.  Good fun but it was great to get out of the place. Valvignere’s was a very small place, a church, smallest shop ever which doubled as the Post Office, an agricultural shop and a Resturant. I believe there is also the Mayoral office where the wedding is to take place on Thursday.

Our Gite is about 3km out of town at the vineyard where we are having the reception.  It is a good friend of Chloe. We arrive there about 5 o’clock. Chloe’s mum & dad, sister Jackie, here daughter Rita and Martin & Chloe’s daughter Nola were already at their Gite, 500 metres down the road.  They had invited us down for dinner.  Our first time to meet nearly five year old Nola. It is good when she recognses me from our odd Skype calls.

We purchase a new Peugeot to tour Europe.  As sleak black 308 station wagon just in case we can’t find any accomodation and have to sleep in the back.  Haha.  1.6l diesel automatic (not the norm here), It’s a Eurolease so we have a guaranteed buy back, an alternative to a rental.  We pick it up at Lyon Airport and are dropping it back at Paris airport in 50 days.  

We plug in Valvignere’s into the GPS, find a petrol station and viola we are off driving on the right hand side of the road.  Valvignere’s is only a couple of hours away but we don’t have to be there until Saturday so we intend to spend a night  somewhere along the way.  We try to keep off the motorways and it is not that long before we are driving along beside the Rhone’ a huge river but surprisingly very little river traffic, almost nil.  At about 2 we started looking for a hotel but weren’t very successful.  Either full or far too expensive.  After running all over the place we decided to drive for another hour and try again which worked.  We stopped at Tain L’Hermitage, a really nice little wine village on the Rhone and found a nice hotel straight off and with free parking. Went for a stroll over to the old city across a pedestrian only bridge.  Just as we were getting back to the hotel the sky’s opened.  It wasn’t cold though and after a bit it eased off and we made it back reasonably dry.  Later we walked into the town square for dinner.

A 5 am alarm, up with the larks. No time for breakfast, well it  didn’t open until 6:30 and we were off at 6:15.  They did pack a breakfast for us.  A cab to St Pancras and we joined a big crowd of people trying to get through immigration.  They had just had the terrorist drive his truck through the crowd at Nice so the French were on high alert.  It was all very much like an international airport departure but once (as I guess you might expect) we get on the train (EuroStar) it is all very peaceful, cool and pleasant.  The hostesses were lovely and with only one stop on the five hour trip to Lyon it was a great way to travel and view the country side.  We reached speeds of 299 kph although mostly it was slower.  We were given breakfast and lunch and with our hotel lunch again we had eaten well.

  We arrived in Lyon at 1:00 And went looking for our hotel.  The cabbie thought it was funny when we were asking him to take us to a hotel which was almost the building above where we were standing.  Got settled in the hotel and we’re off to explore Lyon.  We checked out where we needed to catch our train to the airport the next morning and then brought a 24 hour ticket for the underground.  It cost 11E for the pair of us but the ticket machine would not take notes.  Off to find some change which of course shops don’t like giving, especially to some foreign sounding Kiwi’s with brand new 50E notes.  Perseverance brings reward and we get our tickets and head for the old town.  Our tickets allow us to catch the funicular up to the basilica.  Time for a bit of relaxation and a drink in the shade, a great view from up there and we get an idea about how big Lyon actually is. 

 A very large city.  A quick look around the basilica and we head down and up a second funicular which takes us up to a very quiet suburb in the hills.  We head down to the old city and wander through the very narrow streets of expensive little shops and places to eat.  We grabbed pizza to share.  

It’s always the easy option and we like pizza especially with a couple of glasses of red wine.  We notice they tend to chill the red wine over here.  We head over to the new city and surface in a huge square with Louis 14th sitting on a horse. 

 John & TA had mentioned the square but it was raining  and not much going on.  We wandered through the new town which was pretty quiet.  We were feeling jaded so jumped on the underground back to the station and sat  down for an ice cream before calling it a day.

Wednesday and we are now on our own, leaving all the rallies behind.  We have a dream run up to London on the M5 & M6.  Tomtom said 3 hours and that’s what it took, well until we reached London and got around by Euston Road.  We then began to crawl very slowly.  Another nice hot day and we got to the hotel around 1:30, I dropped Margaret off there and went to drop the car off at St Pancras Station.  Back into the crawl and the first time around I missed the bloody place.  No signage at all and nearly an hour for another loop.  I had a bit of discussion about some damage to the wheels but got away with only a 5 pound surcharge because he didn’t know how to remove it.  I searched out the Eurostar departure point and a 20 minute walk back to the hotel.

We headed out for a walk around, stopping for drinks and just enjoying the ambiance.  All the pubs are chocker and spilling out over the footpaths.  It was still very warm.  We ended up down along the Thames.  Caught the Underground back up to Euston and had something to eat at “All Bar One” where we had a drink earlier and headed back to the hotel feeling very tired.  The Alarm was set for 5am

Friday and it was time to head back south to Taunton. We left in the rain again, filled up with diesel and headed out onto the M6 for what should have been a 4 hour journey. Not to be, as we progressed, lots of traffic and eventually got into a stop start pattern. It’s turned into nearly a 7 hour trip to cousin Jane’s and Ned’s (and his boys George & Joe). It was finally starting to feel like summer and we walked into town to another very homely type Italian Resturant. Margaret had been to this one on a previous trip and was looking forward to it. We were not disappointed having lovely pizza’s which were far too much and we took some home in a doggy bag. 

Saturday was a lazy day, summer had really arrived, I went down with Jane to the supermarket in her MX5 with the top down. We had lunch with Uncle Keith and Aunty Janet, sitting in the back yard amongst the flowers.  

Jane was on afternoon tea duty for Ned’s team and we spent the afternoon at the Monkton Green watching Ned play.  It’s been a while since I had watch a live cricket game, very relaxing and enjoyable even though our team lost.  The perfect end to the day was dinner and a few beers at the Monkton pub.

A sleep-in Sunday and prep for a BBQ. I managed to spend the whole day in Janes backyard soaking up the sun. Uncle Keith & Aunty Janet and Jackie and Colin came over. It was a wonderful day.

Jackie and Colin had taken a couple of days off to spend with us which was fantastic.  We moved to their place in Bishops Lydeard 20 kilometres up the road.   Jackie and Colin had a huge veggie garden with heaps of raspberries and strawberries all coming ripe.  I was in heaven. Monday was to be the hottest day of the year so far with the temperature up over 34 degrees.   We were off to the beach stopping off at Dunster for lunch in the old village below the castle.  Went for a stroll around which included Jackie’s first school.  It was after 5 before we arrived at Porlock Weir and still very warm.  This was a very small and quaint spot. Very stony beach and obviously a weir.  We sat on the rocks watching across the Severn to South Wales.  We had a very nice pub meal (lovely fish) and then went and watched the sun sink below the horizon.  It was well dark as we drove home.

Tuesday was to be a lazy day.  I made some raspberry jam to go with the scones and clotted cream that Jackie was making.  We had a very late Thai lunch at a Resturant which had been converted from an old church,  It didn’t look much like a Thai restaurant but they had done an amazing job on it.  It was called the Chapel, and I had a very nice Pad Thai.  We were all pretty full but Jackie had already made a lasagne for tea so we we sitting out under the pagoda late into the night eating and drinking.  Summerset would have to be my pick if I was forced to live in the UK

Woke up this morning to rain. Everyone was blaming us. Not sure why. Breakfast,  packed and away by 10, heading up the M5. Big trucks lots of traffic but fortunately in our direction it kept rolling.  They weren’t so lucky on the other side down to a stop which appeared to go for miles.  They use miles over here.  About lunch time we take a left and end up in a little town called Penkridge, in a little tea shop eating a cheese and onion toasted sandwich.  Locals were asking us what brought us to Penkridge where we had admit we just made a left turn because we were hungry.  Back onto the M5 which then changed to the M6.  It was beginning to dry up and the wipers were not working anywhere near as hard.  We arrived at Aunty Anne & Uncle Jimmy’s in Wigan around two thirty. 

Wigan was all about meeting the rallies.  As well as Anne & Jimmy we caught up with cousin Alan, Sarah & Eliza (Pommy born Kiwi made) 

and new boy friend John.  Cousin Josie & John. Aunty Margaret, cousin Christine & Alan & Emily (cousin Kevin’s daughter).  Aunty Josie & Alan, cousin Stephen,  and Aunty Mary.

Later Thursday afternoon we went with Anne & Jimmy over to cousin Catherine & Chris (with daughters Isobel & Abigail) in Chester where we all went out to an Itialian Resturant.  We both had pasta meals.