We decided to go to a flea market in a village nearby before picking Mum up. Unfortunately on the way we had an accident with a tractor and its very long trailer. It wasn't our fault and after an angry altercation with the driver (who knew that arguing in french would be so hard?) we agreed to follow him to the farm to resolve things with the farmer. It's a small world. The farmer turned out to be the husband of a lady I had chatted to the evening before when out for a walk. It made things a little easier and eventually we sorted everything out, shook hands and left.

We decided to leave the girls at La Penderie and drove, just the two of us, to St Etienne, to pick Mum up. There she was, sitting on a bench at the station, wondering where we were. We were determined not to let the accident ruin our day and the drive back through the mountains was lovely.

Back with the girls we tucked ourselves into the hammocks and exhaled.