Dunelm1's Blog

Ferry booked for Tues. May 22nd at 8.00 am from Plymouth to Roscoff. One night in Roscoff – drive 400 miles, one night in St Amand- Montrond, drive 400 miles to our place in the sun.

Regular readers will be relieved to know that we did arrive last Thursday but lack of internet connection has delayed news. First proper stay in our new house – it’s better than we remember and keep finding new things – fortunately everything works.

The weather was good on the drive down and even had time for a beer outside although the patio was under reconstruction.

Went for our first 10K walk with a bottle of water at Croix Valmer

Most important was to transform the garden from desert to Chelsea with the many plants that I managed to pack into the car.

Entrance to Petite Dunelm

Weather is warm but we have had showers and thunder every evening and more tonight we are told.

Preparations for the Jubilee are in full swing and we have a street party on Sunday and lunch in the clubhouse on Monday.

Slight setback with a knee problem for Geoff – too much gardening? – managed to get some Voltarol from the local chemist – Jim please note that it was 3 euros for 50 50mg tabs! Much better today and Lyn Challis came up with a very professional knee support bandage complete with sporting logo!

Friday 1st June

Weather warming up and Jubilee W/E should be fine for our celebrations. Knee improving helped by the support bandage (see pic) and plenty of lubricants. 2 miles this a.m. albeit more slowly than usual.

With the exchange rate at 1.25 things are cheaper this year. Our diesel fuel for the car for instance, already cheaper here because of the  smaller percentage of tax, is around £1.07 per litre if one shops around as in UK. In general things are about 13% cheaper than 2011.

The pool

Thurs June 7th

Nearly 2 weeks here now and plenty of action thanks to the patriotic residents here. We had a Jubilee street party on Sun. and a Jubilee Lunch on Monday. Weather is great but as you will see from the pics it rained in the middle of our street party. No worries it made it a really British occasion. Knee now mended so we have got back to our long walks morning and evening. Still can’t get over the amount of space we have in our new home – Petite Dunelm – and the TV to watch all the celebrations in London and around the world. Busy few days as we have remodelled some of the garden and I have an OU exam due in on Friday.

Monday 11th June

We can’t help noticing the weather in UK – cricket ruined, floods in Wales, flood warning in London today. Don’t think it’s much better in France  but it’s certainly OK here. Notice the French rugby semi finals and final were played in rain and mud – not one try in the 3 games. Our area being near Toulon is mad on rugby and the paper at the weekend had 12 out of 28 pages on the final. Unfortunately they lost but local favourite our Jonny W kicked all his penalties.

More pics showing where we walk each morning

Cavalaire harbour

Coast path from Gigaro

Sunday 17th June.  Internet now fixed here so I can update. Weather fantastic but getting a bit hot in the afternoons. Had a great trip  to St Tropez last week and walked the coastal path, went to the market and then saw 191 ocean going yachts lining up for a race to Corsica. Pic below.

Had dinner party for 6 last night – outside under the stars – magic! No walking this morning due to very late night but we will go this evening. Water in  Pool 25 degrees today so we’re going for a swim before lunch.

coastal path from St Tropez

beach bar on coastal path

breakfast at the market

drinks and dinner al fresco

getting ready for race

Sunday 1st July Not long to go and making final preparations to leave house in good order for the future family visitors and do any lastminute trips eg buy wine for return to England. If all goes to plan we should be home Thursday late. Had a very musical w/e as there is a local music festival in full swing – treated to a superb concert from the New York Wind Symphony including a dramatic Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue. All out of doors of course and it finished at 11.45 – was due to start at 9 but in true relaxed French style it started at 9.30. Julie (Jean’s sister) has been staying for a week so we have done lots of visits and sightseeing as well as consuming lots of food and wine. Found excellent rose wine at £1.93 a bottle (at Lidl of course!) Bad news was we had to leave at 4.45 this morning to take Julie to Nice Airport to fly to Bordeaux to visit Matt. Weather for the last 3 or 4 weeks has been incredible with wall to wall sun but also very high temperatures – hit 36 one day although others claim it was 38. A bit of cloud this morning has come as a bit of relief. Few pics of our latest jaunts:

view from Swimming pool

Meal at Pescadou, Gassin

Drinks with our neighbours Arlette and Jose from Brussels

July 5th   Waiting for boat at Roscoff in the rain – first for 5 weeks for us.  Shook dust off anoraks and stepping out for walk at the seaside. Filled up with diesel at £1.03 – wish tank was bigger! Back home at midnight hopefully.