To Ronnie's and Beyond!!!

As we pulled into the hidden away back entrance to Ronnies spacious garden, parking just behind their new visitors camper-van, there were no barked questions from the dogs as to who we were or what we were doing there.

This time we were welcomed back as if we were well and truly family as the animals promptly moved into Lady Sage!!

The extra dog that now bounded around the garden, belonged to friends who had travelled down from Harrogate where Ronnie and Jan used to live . 

Via various adventures of their own they had called in for a catch up and to reacquaint Bruce (their dog) with his parents, Chester and Buffy (Ronnie and Jan's dogs) plus his sister Sweetpea.

Although Chester Buffy and Sweetpea were fine with the cats Bruce was not and a lot of chasing was had over the next 24 hours until the poor boy was remanded to the van or tied firmly to the front bumper!!

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Despite all the drinking, star watching, amazing food consumption and the awesome BBQ on Friday and Saturday night, Peter and I decided we should leave on the Sunday if we wanted enough time to spend three days leisurely driving back to Callis.

We awoke Sunday morning quite late (nothing to do with the night before Emily!!) only to find the boys doing somersaults into the pool! 

Well to be accurate Billy was doing somersaults while Oliver worked his way up to it.

We decided to stay until Oliver completed his first full flip.

Well an Aunt has to do what an Aunt has to do doesn't she!!

Then we had to stay while he perfected it!!

By 1pm he was growing in confidence but as we were about to pack up, Jan pointed out that lunch would be ready in 20 minutes and we just had to stay for that!!

By 2.30pm we were still sitting in the garden working our way through a fabulous selection of cheese!

And by 3.30 we were encouraging Oliver to do a full twist spring into the pool!

By 4.30 once the twist flip had been completed, I abandoned all pretence of leaving and opened a bottle of wine!!!

As the afternoon proceeded into dusk I reasoned it wasn't everyday I got to hang out with my brother and even though I had promised to visit again in 2018 a lot could happen in a year!!

In fact a lot can happen in a night if you leave Ronnie to organise things!!

My claim to fame that evening is that I am as bad as my brother when it comes to playing 'Who am I' as I have/had no idea who Ziggy Top was until someone in pure desperation told me who I was!!

We finished the night with a few hours of star watching around the fire pit and I am very proud to say I went to bed not long after midnight.....

...... the following morning, as I jumped on my brothers bed to say goodbye, I discovered that Ronnie had not been so fortunate! 

Blurry eyes tried to focus and failed miserably!!

Goodbyes were eventually said, promised were made to meet again soon and once more Peter and I hit the road!

Having lost a day of travel we spent most of the next day on the motorway. 

All motorways are free in Brittany due to the fact that Brittany was the first to take up arms to defend their county during the war years.

We stopped briefly at Genets as we had missed staying there after I had persuaded Peter to sleep in the lorry park on the way down and decided that although it was nice, we hadn't missed much.

We drove and drove chatting happily and making plans until we reached the Hornfleur Bridge once more. 

Again the sheer size and steepness of this bridge amazed us.

The second bridge curved at an alarming angle but the views were once again amazing!

As we entered Normandy we left the motorways and headed towards Fecamp passing the most exquisite chateaux ever!

Beautiful wrought iron railings with spiked barbs guarded the entrance although from the look of the place no one was home!

At Fecamp itself all camper-vans were made to park in the designated charged camping ground so, having had a quick look around and finding that the only cool place didn't allow camper-vans, we headed up the road (and out of the sea mist!!) only to find a picnic area with hard standing parking next to picnic tables and no signs that said No Overnight Parking!

We pulled up at a vacant picnic table unloaded the wine and the cheese and set up the back gammon. 

It had been a long drive but we were back on schedule.

We still had two more days in France and we planned to make the most of it!!