Bridges and Tunnels

Last day today. It's gone so fast!!
Mrs N's good influence meant that we did a lot of packing up last night rather than our usual hours of faffing and panic packing at the last minute.
There was still a fair bit of faffing but less than usual!!
We made it out of the house by 10am and headed off to Bénouville and the Café Gondrée on Pegasus Bridge. 
We had the usual fun and games getting four children, four adults, a dog and a pushchair squashed in round a table but once we were settled in it was fine!
Breakfast was delicious pains aux raisins, croissants, pains au chocolat, tea and orange juice. Lovely!!
Mme Gondrée was there which was good to see. We didn't see her last year and as she was there in that very house on D-Day you have to wonder how many years we'll be seeing her.
After breakfast we said our goodbyes to Mr P, Mrs N, Miss S and Baby S. We've had such a lovely holiday with them. Too short sadly!
Five minutes after they'd left my mum and dad turned up and we had more pains aux raisins, tea, coffee and lemonade. Well we wouldn't want to starve!!
We went back to the camper with them so Mr K could have a decent cup of coffee because truth be told the coffee is disgusting at the Cafe Gondrée!!! We sat on the picnic tables where we'd tried to have a picnic in the pouring rain last year. It was lovely to be able to sit there in the sunshine this morning. And eat the remaining rice puddings and chocolate mousses we'd  brought from the gite. Well they weren't going to survive a seven hour car journey on a hot day were they?!!!!
Then it was time to set off. Back across the spectacular Pont de Normandie and to Calais.
I counted out coins at every toll on the way and managed to get rid of most of our leftover small coins. Very satisfying!!
At the Eurotunnel terminal we went to the pet check in and rather than parking up to go inside the building we went through the drive-thru which struck me as funny! Archie was scanned, had his passport checked and was given the all clear to travel. All without leaving the comfort of his bed in the boot!!
There was just time to get tea and coffee from Starbucks before boarding the train and half an hour later we were back in England. 
We stopped at Services for Archie to have a run and for us all to have a healthy McDonalds dinner. There are woods at Rochester services and the Little Misses had a happy half hour climbing trees and playing hide and seek before cleaning their teeth and being squashed back into the car.
By the time we got home at 9.30pm we'd been travelling for over nine hours. All without a complaint from Little Misses, dogs or husbands. Brilliant!!
This is the first time we've come back to this house from a holiday and it was lovely to be home! And a lovely feeling to be pleased to be home!
I was also secretly relieved to see that the house hadn't burnt down because I was pretty convinced I'd left the oven on from heating up Miss E's brioche when we left at 5am on Wednesday morning. Thankfully I had not!!