68:29

Today began as badly as it possibly could have done.

We had to wait for the postie, who comes around midday, so we thought that we had plenty of time. The weather was insufferably hot and I was careful not to rush at things.

We locked the cat flaps when Dusty popped in for a light snack. He complained bitterly about not being able to go out again. We have a lean to out back and can use the porch as a cat lock, closing the inner door before opening the outer and vice versa when coming back in. It works well...

I went to fetch my lemon chunks from the freezer to put them in the van and that was when we found out that the freezer had failed.

Mr L did his best with the aid of the manual and a translation engine but was unable to get it running. Eventually I got through to him and he agreed that the only thing to do was to empty it.

We double bagged the contents and walked them up to the bins. That's a really antisocial thing to have done but we couldn't come up with a better idea given that we were going away for a week. The Dechetterie is open Tuesday and Thursday but not Wednesday. I am not sure whether the rubbish is collected on Thursday afternoon late, or early on Friday. Either way, with this heat, things are not going to be pleasant. Our name will be mud.

Onward. Postie came and we did the last minute things such as packing the dog's water bowl and the WiFi router. I was spraying the house for flies (don't want to come home to a hatch) and Dusty finally capitulated and began to scratch in his tray. Mr L came in, grabbed something else and as he went out of the kitchen door, the cat shot past him... just as he realised that he had left the outer door open.

So then we had to catch the cat.

Cat secured, we finally got off. Just as it began to rain. Dusty was very unhappy and I realised that I hadn't sprayed with Feliway. A quick revisit of the car park in Bussière Poitevine soon put that right and we were on our way again.

We hadn't even got out of town before we saw that our intended route was closed at Le Dorat.

Now we are on the scenic route, bouncing all over the place and Dusty is more annoyed than ever.

I hope that tonight's dinner proves to have been worth it!

We're running a bit late now