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| A hearty wave from Door, the Capitaine |
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| A calm day to travel. |
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| We nearly had another crew member on board, as Sammy the dog tried to come with us! |
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| Our last evening meal in Briare, on a beautiful sunny evening! |
Well on 22nd April we are still in Briare. Events have overtaken us. Friends due to vist us from 17-22 were struck down by the dreaded 'lurgy' of food poisoning. Another few days were spent making a quick dash to the Uk to visit my cousin in Newcastle who has just been given the ghastly news that the cancer in various parts of his body is untreatable. It seemed the best time to visit while we have a direct rail line from Briare to Paris, and direct flights straight to Newcastle. What should have been an easy trip to organise was disrupted by having no WiFi signal to do online bookings, and then confounded further by Air France crew going on strike on the preferred day of my flight, followed by a complete French traffic strike the following day. So I elected to travel on the Tuesday directely after Easter Sunday. Weirdly I was accompanied on the plane by many small girls dressed in various Disney character outfits. All presumably returning from Euro Disney. My return flight was equally bizarre as there were on board many hearty men coming to France to run the Paris marathon!
The weather in the Uk was kind to me and I was able to walk along the beach at Seaton Sluice with my cousins wife, Sheila. We took their dog along with their son's dog.
I was treated to a really unexpected and entertaining evening listening to young Lance singing his Country and Western songs at a local club. He has a wonderful voice, being able to sing both higher and lower notes. and sings under the stage name of Trey Jackson, advertising aptly as from "Newcastle to Nashville". I'm sure he has a bright future ahead.
We had a farewell dinner at the restaurant Petit St. Trop with Nicki and Tony, just before they set off. We are sad to see them head off in the opposite direction to us. Who knows when we will see them again. This is the down side of travelling, meeting such lovely people, but having to say "Goodbye" to them.
I braved the hairdressers again to have a 'spring chop'. This time I went to the same salon that ni visited last time. She (the lady proprietess) made such a good job of Ni's hair that I felt I would be in safe hands. Although I told her I only spoke a little French, she chatted away merrily to me regardless, and with such good humour that it was a very pleasant experience. It transpired that a friend of hers is a jockey in England, having spent 5 years racing there. Such is the variety of people we meet. After a phone call he came into the salon to say "Hello" to me.
