What a week! After a slow start with two days of calm, the
fun and games began. It had been arranged that we would drive down to collect
Leigh and the two girls from Toulouse, with Andre’s main suitcase coming back
with us while he flew on to London for a business meeting. Apart from the fact
that their plane was due in Toulouse at 9.40 am, which meant an early start for
us, it sounded very simple. So we set the alarm for 6.30 am and quickly woke up
and had a cup of coffee. For some reason I looked at my cell phone which is set
to ‘Silent’ during the night time hours, and saw that there was a message from
Andre. Their plane had been delayed in Cape Town and had missed their take-off
slot which delayed them even further, and this meant that they missed their
landing slot in Istanbul, and that meant that they missed their connection to
Toulouse so there was no reason to go rushing off in the frosty morning to
fetch them. Of course, this also meant that Andre had missed his connection to
London and was now only flying on at 9.45pm that night. My goodness! The endless
complications! They finally arrived from Istanbul at 6.30 pm and we were there
to meet them, and then we stayed until about 8 with Andre. This meant that the
lovely scenic drive home that we had planned was now all in the dark. Andre got
to London Heathrow at about midnight only to find that all the trains into the
city were standing because the crews were on strike, so he had to take a wildly
expensive taxi to his hotel. After a short sleep, he found that his troubles
were not yet over as the meeting that he was attending had been scheduled for 9.30
but was, in actual fact at 8.30! His return flight to Toulouse the following morning
was also delayed but only by ten minutes – just enough for him to miss the 1pm
train to Villefranche. So he had another long wait until the next train at 5 pm.
There was great celebration when he finally arrived but once again the drive
home was all in the dark.
In the meantime, while we waited for him to arrive, we
walked around the village with Cassy snapping away madly at everything. I have
to admit that the sunset was rather spectacular and even I was prompted to take
a few pictures. That evening the girls decorated our mini Christmas tree and we
found a place for it to stand which is not too much in the way.
The next day, the first real day of their holiday together,
we all squashed into the car and went into Villefranche where we made our way
to the square in the centre admiring all the old buildings along the way. We
found a lunch spot with tables set out on a sunny veranda and enjoyed the
wintry sun until the shops all opened again at 2 pm and then they hit the shops
as if they had been starved of clothing stores at home. Not true of course, but
stores in a new country are always exciting. Even supermarkets!
The idea for Sunday was to go to the village market in
Villeneuve but as usual things ran a bit late in the morning so it was quite
late when it was time to go. We gave Andre the keys to the car and let him
venture onto the country roads alone, on the wrong side of the road. Needless
to say he managed perfectly well, and they came back for lunch loaded with
goods.
Due to a mix-up, mainly caused by language difficulties, we
found that we had ordered a special French Christmas time cake, un buche de Noel, or Yule log, but that it
was for a week too early. So when we came back from our trundling around town,
there were two baguettes waiting for us as well as a large box containing two
cakes, one with chocolate and one without. Oops! That was supposed to be our Christmas
dinner dessert! However, they looked so delicious that we just had to taste,
and in a few moments nearly half of each cake had disappeared. And they
certainly were delicious! I can see that we will have to order more for next
Saturday.
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