Just a minute

In all these months in France we have not met any examples of the fabled French Lunatic Driver. Until today.

I was so concerned about the behaviour of the lorry driver in front of us, who was doing his best to cause an accident, that I took a photo or two to offer as evidence in the event. He straddled the solid white line and was hard up against the lorry in front of him, harrying and bullying in an effort to make him speed up I think. Eventually he performed a very hairy overtaking manoeuvre that had me wincing.

Today was a pretty poor day all round and we encountered THREE deviations on our way to and from viewing our potential new van. We travelled probably two to three times as far as we should have done and on some extremely "interesting" roads. One detour took us for miles around what turned out to be a few metres of work. It was Alston all over again. The weather was hot (28°C today) and Vincent's air con wasn't working well. Neither were his brakes. He has developed a very distressing noise too. Worst of all, the dealer would not offer a part-ex, so much as we liked the Chausson, we cannot buy it. All that trauma came to nothing.

Having left here before 9:00, we did not return until after 15:00. All very exhausting.

One day I should like to have an outing in France that does not include repetition, hesitation or deviation.

First Barbie of the year. We sat out with our sausages, watching the swallows and buzzards and imagining plans for the garden. I have added Evening Primrose to my "must have" list.