Pete and Nina on Tour

Chez Tim & Sue

Arriving at Tim & Sue's we discover Sue is quite unwell unfortunately, suffering badly from the effects of what appears to be a spider bite on her forehead

Tim assures us he wants us to stay but we feel terribly for poor Sue

The allergic reaction means she is quite unwell with severe facial swelling and is confined to bed for most of our stay on doctors orders but mainly because it has knocked her off her feet

We stay for two days and she bravely puts in several appearances which help we think with fresh air and light bites bless her

Whilst Sue sleeps the boys go about today's task which is to build a winter cover for the pool

Tim supervising…

A well earned break Hughie!

Les Onions

Lulu in search of lizards…

You very brave man!

Pool lizards..

Christopher (their son in England) sends get well flowers

Hughie le chef

RV with Pat & Jane

Before we go to Tim & Sue's we hook up with Pat & Jane and 'Cis' , their large motorhome at Le Cheix sur Morge near Vichy

Their intention was to spend a week on the Med coast after our RV at the aire and having travelled down from the UK for some R & R in the sun

Utilising the spare grass at the side of the aire and not taking up any designated spaces we settle in to an afternoon, evening and ultimately late night feast of wine, beer, food and chat

These are predominately the stars of the show and soon Pat has me well lubricated after having pleaded with me to start drinking as early as possible on arrival (some of that's not true! )

This guy (with relaxed abdomen) has actually lost 3 stone recently and I am gobsmacked for most of the day as it seems to me he did not lose it this way!

Not supposed to talk about women and weight loss but well done Jane for also losing an equally impressive amount

No hope for me and Nina!

Sensible Blondies….

Crazy Pat….

The stars take an encore before doing a gig at the recycle bin

Always a drama……this was todays:

After many beers and after 6pm we are aware the aire designed for 6 now has 14 residents squeezed in all over the place, hardly relaxing for them

So as the last French guy to arrive decides he's going to confront the Brits who are nicely quiet in the corner to move, yours truly lurches forward with Pat as rearguard and firmly explains to the late arrival (in French) that he should have got here at midday like us and in fact we are not on any designated spaces, so basically, TOUGH!

He retreats, (quel surprise) to wedge himself in next to the hedge over yonder after I told him to go seek another aire as that is normal etiquette

Had he have approached us in a friendly calm manner I'm sure Pat & I would have created some room for him somehow. For the record we were parked at an angle either side of a tree with no real access for another. We stressed about this episode for a full minute or so then cracked some more Leffe beers

Jeux Sans Frontiers as Eddie Waring used to say!

Southwards along the Loire

For the next few days we amble southwards roughly following the course of the Loire upstream

Carefully selected aires bring great rewards as they are really peaceful and located nicely for us to get our bikes out and really make an effort to improve our fitness

Gradually increasing the distance and being out most days in the glorious sunshine sees us reach 50km one day which is great

What follows are randoms shots taken whist mainly out biking or walking the banks of the Canal Lateral a la Loire from the aires close by

Fruit picking season

So much timber and all my tools in storage...

A lot of the side canal and waterways are now just nature trails and passable on the bikes with care although Nina's front brake cable snapped, thankfully as we got back to the van