Wednesday 28th June

Not a bad start to the day, the morning mist just floating across the lake, another half an hour and I think I’ll swim to the other side and that will set me up for the day!

Its so peaceful swimming across the lake first thing in the morning, the only sound you hear is the church clock as it strikes the quarter hour.

Not sure if Jane has set her chair up so she can admire my athletic swimming style, or watching in case she needs to call the emergency services.

Thursday 29th June

Charlotte has arrived for a week with us, Jane is so excited and has been talking of nothing else for a couple of weeks! The flight arrived on time, without any problems, so all was well.

Charlotte was over the moon with the suggestion that we stop off at the hypermarket to get some provisions, as whilst we were there she got enough wine to see her through the weekend!

Just as well we had got some wine in as Fridays weather was terrible……..

……..so there wasn’t much else to do other than play cards and have a little drink (the girls declined this photo opportunity as they said they weren’t looking their best!)

However, at the end of the day the sun did make a brief appearance.

Saturdays weather wasn’t looking too good either, so we decided on a drive out for lunch followed by a visit to a couple of vineyards. Both Jane and Charlotte thought this was an excellent idea!

Whilst visiting the charming riverside village of Chanaz, Kevin tried to ingratiate himself with the locals by performing his own tribute to the anglo-french building of Concorde!

Chanaz was a lovely place for lunch, the service was unhurried and this gave Kev time to fine-tune his route for the afternoon trip to buy some wine ………

……. although I wasn’t so sure that this short cut was going to pan out exactly as expected!

I can only imagine how the conversation was going with Steve and Josie in the car behind.  If it was anything like what Val was saying to Kev, I dread to think!

After 20 minutes and at an inconvenient fork in the track, I spoke to Steve and we decided that the best thing to do was turn back. At least we had 4x4s and it wasn’t too bad, in fact I actually enjoyed it (but don’t tell Kev!)

We finally made it to the vineyard unscathed, and celebrated that we were still alive by buying a couple of crates of wine!

I think Kev felt a little guilty about the state of our cars after the trip!!!!

Sunday 2nd July

Jane and Charlotte were both excited about a trip to the market even though it was raining.

Charlotte got a new pair of trousers, and I was excited because we got a roasted chicken (I’m easily pleased)

In the afternoon we visited the site of a Second World War Jewish orphanage, where on the 6th April 1944 three vehicles pulled up and forcibly removed forty four children and their seven adult supervisors. They were all murdered at Auschwitz with the exception of one. It was heart breaking to read the letters that the children had written and it would be fair to say that I had a tear in my eye at the end of the visit.  It is so important that places like this survive so that other generations are aware of the terrible things that have happened in the not too distant past.

Monday 3rd July

The sun has returned and a chilled day by the lake is in order…….

…….and everybody else agreed !