Dordogne

We spent 5 days in the Loire and have now headed south to the Dordogne. We loved the Loire valley and could have spent a lot longer there. We spent 2 days cycling around the villages and visited the Chateau at Chenonceaux. We also enjoyed a market day in Amboise.

We are now in Brantome (the Venice of Perigord) in the Dordogne and have visited caves and a truffle museum. Today we are moving further south to see prehistoric cave dwellings then on to the medieval town of Sarlat for a few days.

'allo, 'allo!

Pardonez ma francais, s'il vous plait. Nous arrivons en France. Maintenant, nous sommes dans le Pays de La Loire, a Chenonceaux. Le chateau est manifique! Le camp est pres du fleuve Cher.
Ce matin nous allons a Amboise, au marche. Demain, nous marchons a chateau et le village.
Au revoir.

First Camp

We spent our first official camp at Charmouth in Devon. We thoroughly enjoyed our hike through fields and meadows covered in daffodils and primroses to Lyme Regis. Our first night however was cold but this could have been prevented if we had remembered to shut the driver's window!

Today we are going to the local horse racing with the family - all 23 of us. Tomorrow we set sail for France (18 April).

The Van

Well here we are in the van at last. We took delivery on Friday and spent our first night in it on Saturday parked in Bill and Viv's drive. Now we're off to Stephen's Mum then a few days in Dorset to try out all the options and make sure they work.

My Mum

On Sunday we went to Bournemouth to see my mother. She is 83 and well, though has trouble walking. We took her out to lunch in a pub by the sea. She enjoyed it, as you can see from the picture.

Arsenal 5, Aston Villa 0

Surprise ticket to the match - very fast train to London - very crowded Tube across London to Highbury - stadium full with 38,183 people - 2 goals to Thierry Henry - 5-0 to Arsenal - I was there - Priceless!

We have bought the van!

We arrived in the UK Wednesday morning after an uneventful but not unpleasant flight on BA. We picked up a hire car from Europcar and are now staying with relatives about 40 miles south of London.
On Thursday we found the van we wanted to buy, and on Friday we took it for a test drive and signed on the dotted line! Its a new one, the picture is from the brochure. More photos after we pick it up late next week. There are literally thousands for sale in the UK and we could have looked for months. We decided on a new one after looking at many second hand. It is not too far over our budget (!) but we like the benefits of buying new.
Something I hadn't counted on was the difficulty of getting the van insured. Most insurance companies would not touch us because we are not UK residents. Approaching desperation I phoned the AA (Automobile Association, not Alcholics Anonymous!), and they were very helpful and arranged the insurance.
Now we have five days to see the family and get organised before we pick up the van and head off for a test camp!