Crossing continents

I must say, good weather really helps.  It’s a long drive, and dull, wet conditions make it into something of an ordeal.  But apart from some fog in Kent and a few spots of rain in the central plains, we had fine weather until we were past Béziers.  We entered the tunnel half an hour earlier than planned, and both weather and road conditions were really pretty good all the way.  We were glad to be going in the direction we were as we went round NW Paris: the Renault employees were protesting about something along the quai at Boulogne-Billancourt, and the traffic on the road up from the Pont de Sèvres was backed up to Meudon-la-Forêt (of blessed memory).  The rain stopped long enough for us to unload the car, but we’re having heavy showers this afternoon.  We huddled round the wood-burner at lunch time, eating Madame Donnet’s ewes’ milk tommette, a bit of cantal vieux, some nice boiled ham hewn from the solid at the local shop, local bread and a glass of pink wine from Mèze, trying to convince ourselves that summer’s on the way.

A couple of oddities on the drive south.  About half an hour after  we left Issoire, four late-model VW Golfs zipped out of a feed-in lane in front of us, only to leave the motorway in orderly, well-spaced line astern at the next aire.  It wasn’t long before they all overtook us again, only to leave at the next junction, and rejoin the motorway at the next one, overtaking us again.  The last we saw of them was at Sévérac-le-Château, where they left the motorway again, following us on the parallel ex-RN9.  We paused to change over at the aire just north of the magnificent Viaduc de Millau, so it may be that they had rejoined and overtaken us again.  I wonder what that was about?  The next funny was a convoi exceptionnel: a tractor with a very long trailer transporting what we assume was a sail for a wind turbine.  It made for fully three times the length of your average HGV, which might account for two motorcycle outriders and a pilot van in front and two pilot vans at the rear.  That was one blade: the next two followed close behind, each with a similar entourage.  We were glad we weren’t following them when they ascended the tortuous pas d’Escalette.

And while we’re on motor transport, it has been interesting to notice the make-up of the HGVs we have passed on the way.  On the last stretch, we’ve seen plenty of Spanish tractors and trailers, of course.  But we’ve also seen some odd mixtures: Bulgarian tractor with Belgian trailer; Romanian tractor and Dutch trailer.  And shortly after we started this morning, we were overtaken by a Dutch registered M-class Benz that must have been doing close to 200 kph.  Martyn picked up the last watch at the wheel today, which meant the A9, where driving is about as undisciplined as on the approaches to Paris or on the Toulouse ring road.  Well, we made it here safely.

We left Forges-L’Evêque less than twelve hours after re-connecting the cloakroom WC, not without anxiety on the part of yr. obed. servt.  I hate plumbing, and am somewhat squeamish about the southern end of the usual offices, so was glad to see the job finished, all but for a bit of plaster and paint.  We’ve isolated the supply to the cistern, since we’d like to be nearby during the first week or so of the new installations.  But the overall impression is good – we like the pale terracotta walls, our terracotta tiles with grey edging, and the fact that the WC is now something more nearly approaching flush (pun intended) to the wall.  I’ll finish the grouting round the waste pipe once we’re satisfied that everything as it should be.

The tiling and grouting of the floor followed by a day and a half in the car have left the old back complaining a bit, so once the weather has improved we’ll need to take some long walks to loosen thing up again.