Heading Home

Best laid plans.... We got up and at it as planned, car packed, checked out and on the road by 2am. Not 20 killometers down the road we ran into construction and promptly came to a complete halt. After 15 minutes or so, Rick flagged down a road worker and asked if he had any idea how long this might take. He shook his head and shrugged. "Got a whole lorry burning up there and the fire trucks are stuck on the other side of the motorway so it's gonna have to burn out. Could take hours."I kid you not.
We sat there for at least an hour. Then traffic started to move from somewhere behind us. Apparently they had figured out a bypass but we were stuck within the construction and were past the bypass access. Trying our best to ignore our frustrations, we tried to doze, but with the construction guys laying down new barrier walls with fork lifts right next to us Sophie and I had a tough time of it. Not Rick. We looked at him snoozing through the dropping of fifteen foot long metal traffic walls and the beeping of forklifts zipping around and had to chuckle. The best laugh came later on though, when he woke up and squinted out the window at the new wall. "Didn't that lane used to be a lot wider?"
Four and a half hours later (I still kid you not) we remained in no man's land with traffic running by us just the other side of a barrier. Daylight had arrived by now though and someone started thinking. The trucks in our little lane were stuck, but cars could make two or three point turns and get back to the bypass access. We flipped our little Renault around and got moving again. The "lorry" (a large semi) was indeed completely burned down to a still smoking truck skeleton.
Obviously we missed our 5:05 ferry. The good news was traffic was still light and we made good time getting to Dover about 8:30 and after paying the additional 25 pounds for the later, more prime time ferry which we had gotten up at one am to avoid, we boarded immediately.
The rest of our trip went smoothly and quickly with Sophie on familiar soil. We were all glad to be back in France. Bernard's apartment was once again the perfect place to sort out our stuff and pack the bikes. We also enjoyed the rare luxury of doing a load of clothes and drying them in a dryer!
We tried to break our routine by going to a different restaurant but all of the good ones close by that Sophie and Bernard (the latter via texting) could think of were closed for the August holidays so we went back to the same Indian restaurant that we had been to a couple of times when last here. While a change would have been nice, the restaurant is good, only a couple of blocks away and we all like Indian food. It was a familiar and sort of nostalgic place to have our farewell dinner together. Sophie ordered a nice bottle of Sancerre and we toasted to a great trip. We were all having trouble realizing that we had actually pulled off such a plan in the first place, and of course, sad that it was nearing an end.
The August holiday thing in France takes a bit of getting used to. Not all, but many shops and restaurants close up. This tradition affected Sophie's bike issues when her weld broke after REV. She wanted prompt action for many reasons, but mostly becuase she has a big ride planned for September. Since her bike shop would be closed during August, she needed to get the broken frame to them before August so they could get it shipped out to LiteSpeed and start working on a possible loaner for her. Her planned return to Carces at the end of this trip would have been too late for anything to happen before September. Well, bikes got packed and morning came. Sophie took us to the airport and had a last cup of tea and chocolate croissant with us before saying our goodbyes and going our separate ways. Our flight went smoothly and I watched the movie "Elizabeth" which was set for the most part in the Palace at the Tower of London. Fun to watch them bring Elizabeth in through the "traitor gates" also known as the "Water gates."
Back at the ranch my garden is full of lillies, phlox, crocosmia, and huge weeds. The lawn looks pretty good though, thanks to the watering brigade of Rick's aunts. Possibly more important is the way the damp earth and green lawn keeps the house a few degrees cooler. We missed most of the heat wave, but it's still warmer here than anywhere on our recent travels, except the first couple of days in Provence.
Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!