Hmmm. This post should have been describing a day spent making our way from Angoulême in France to San Sebastián in Spain but life has a habit of throwing curveballs when one least suspects it.

Dorothy has been experiencing a few odd symptoms which really should be checked out by the GP at home and ideally fairly soon so we’ve curtailed the drive south and we’ve driven east instead to meet up with Cecile, once upon a time our incredibly wonderful au pair and now a very good friend. We’ve stopped in a small hotel in Pierre Buffiere which as it turned out is normally closed tonight but they’ve kindly offered us a bed for the night.

Cecile has a 97 hectare farm close by which runs children’s hands-on events throughout the summer and school excursions the rest of the year. Together with sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, horses and rabbits she also had has these gorgeous donkeys, Hercule and Scott.

Hercule has an incredibly loud voice which completely overawed Gamin, twice his height and eight times his weight. Sadly Gamin died last year, an irreplaceable loss 😢.

I’ve been testing out (again) the automatic macro setting on my snazzy new iPhone 14 Pro …

We’ve charged in the relatively nearby Carrefour where you can see Tal and Perro checking out a rather blue cow.

We’re going to pop into a vet’s practice close to Carrefour first thing tomorrow to get Tal and Perro wormed under inspection (a requirement in order to be allowed back into the UK) before retracing our steps to Rouen where we’ll stay the night and charge before reaching Calais around lunch time. We’ll pick up an afternoon train and should be back in Oxford early evening.

It’s disappointing not to see Andalucía in the spring but maybe next year.

Bon voyage