Our 2018 travels

We have has many more visits to Broadstairs this year than usual. We have been keeping an e ye in our new house which is being in In Broadstairs.  The original completion month was Ferbruary and this is May. Completion estimates keep changing and are currently May. The good point is that we have been able to have a lot of input into the details. We have been back to view progress on a regular basis but the flat that we had rented for 4+ months is no longer available to us. This was the state on our last visit

From time to time, the oldies of the village go for a day away.  This always includes a meal and sometimes a shopping trip to a Spanish supermarket. This trip was to cruise down the Canal du Midi. We set off in the direction of the Med.  There we found our boat and headed inland. Essentially, we looping round from one of bit of the Canal to another, going under bridges and through locks to reach the Greek town of Agde. From there, we visited a bull farm where we ate lunch and the visited the stock which included a now retired bull which had been the Champion of France. This are not fighting bulls, but there are play versions of bull fighting, piscine corredots which we have not seen. Selling the meat is another reason for the farm. 

We have been away with the village choir several times. It is always around the feast of the ascension and alwayss in France. This year we are off to the area around La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast. The trip starts early in the morning when we all board a bus, drive for a while and then stop for a picnic breakfast while our driver takes bus compulsary break.  This year it was a little on the cool side, so the coffee (with tea for me) was welcome. We then continued for a lunch stop, which was a picnic organised by the choir, which started with aperos in the dual way.  Again we boarded the bus, this time for a siesta.   We arrived at our destination, île d’Olereron with time for a rest before dinner.  As always on the choir trip, we were staying in a holiday camp.  We always stay with the same chain which once was part of the post office. The camp sites were intended for post office employees and their families and are basic but adequate. ...