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| Pretty village stopover at Fyé in France |
One of the exciting things about going away is the couple of weeks before you go, you start loading the van, making lists, buying those last minute essentials (i.e. plenty of teabags) and generally feeling that buzz of anticipation. But this time, just a few days before we were due to travel we had a call in the middle of the night from my sister in France to say my brother-in-law had died suddenly. Our plans were thrown into disarray at this tragic news, but we knew we had to get to my sister in France just as soon as we could. I managed to get an earlier crossing on the Eurotunnel and we quickly finished our preparations, setting out on the afternoon of the14th September. We headed for an Aire we had visited before at Mesniere-en-Bray (near Neufchâtel) only to find that at the late hour we arrived it was almost full, one space left but it was occupied by two cars. We discovered that the owners of the cars were in the hall next door playing Lotto -the French equivalent of Bingo. They won't be late we thought, it's just bingo - Humph! Big Mistake!! We decided to block the cars and wait for that last space on the Aire - it was 1.20am when the car owners returned and we could eventually move into the space - we were somewhat bleary eyed and not very happy, to say the least! Lesson learned the French take their Lotto game very seriously.....
The next day we continued our journey across France to St Georges de Didonne where my sister lives, fortunately her son had been able to fly out to be with her, so she at least had one of the family with her. When we arrived we found a fabulous place to stay at Medis just a few miles away adjacent to the Royan-Medis Aerodrome, we had electricity and water on pitch, the use of showers and toilets as well as daily entertainment of watching the planes and parachutists - all for in incredible 8€ a night. From here we were able to cycle easily to my sisters house. The family and friends gathered from France and the uk for the sad day of the funeral- a day to celebrate the life of Terry, the sun shone and we all wore our casual summer clothes, the coffin was draped in beach towels. A fitting send off for a much loved man.
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| Plenty of cycling on the Cycle path from St Georges to Royan |
We headed off on Friday knowing that my sister was doing well and was supported by her step-daughter who was staying with her.
Our next destination was back to our favourite haunt - Castellon de la Plana in Spain.
Viva España!!
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| RIP Terry Stevens |
