The Long and Winding Road...

...that finally brought us home after two weeks of travel, research and socialising.  And it was lovely just to sit down on footstools at our round table, in front of the wood-burning stove, and feast on a selection of cheeses and fruit, paté marbled with magret, crunchy Scandinavian oatcakes, thinly sliced French brown bread and a nice bottle of well-chilled Chablis.  Not to mention the truffle salt!

Our last night on the road, in the Paris, saw us dining at the home of a French TV producer and an award-winning movie director, good friends who live in a wonderful apartment in Montmartre, from which you can actually see the church, the moulin and the Eiffel Tower.  What was intended as an early night, ended with us not getting to bed much before two.

Then it was train south this morning to where our car awaited us in the station car park at Brive la Gaillard.  The ticket machine wasn't playing ball, though, and told me my ticket was unreadable.  There then ensued a tricky conversation with someone through a speaker in the machine, before it finally spat out a new ticket and I was forced to cough up 90€.

Never mind, we're home!!  And now begins an intensive three weeks of storylining before heading back to Spain to write the book.