Day 11           Friday 9th June 2017.         Mileage:    49     Total: 402

From:             Le Becs                                  To:      La Tranche sur Mer

Weather:       Sunny. Hot 25’C

Depart Les Becs Aire. Jackie drives. It is only 50 miles to La Tranche.

We are both looking forward to seeing La Tranche again as we have such pleasant memories of our villa stay here last September. Amongst other things, whilst here we considered our future and made plans. We had recently lost Dad. That was a hammer blow. Everyone in the family believed he was the original Peter Pan and invincible. Illness seldom touched him, he was a friend to one and all and a solid rock to Mother during these last few years of her illness. He was an inspiration to all who met him and all enjoyed his company.

Losing a parent suddenly makes one realise that our time on this planet is finite. One, especially at our age, now in our early sixties begins to think we ought to

“Get busy living or busy dying. That’s God’s honest truth.”

We sat on the terrace at La Tranche one night last September, enjoying the last of the sun’s rays with a rather fine bottle of red and decided on my return to work I would hand in my notice. The date agreed for discharge when I returned was Thursday 27^th April 2017.

The country side we are passing through is flat, green and very pleasant. Crops are growing in the wide-open fields. As most of this area is, or once was marsh land, mini dykes and canals form the fields boundaries. We take the occasional wrong turn. I blame my 2013 France road map, or rather myself. I should have bought the latest edition. The French will put in a bypass, half a dozen roundabouts and renumber the roads in a flash. Soon the sign for La Phare is displayed and within a few more minutes we are at our desired Aire.

1200 hrs. Thank goodness there are spaces. Jackie swings into the parking area, selects reverse and commands me to jump out and see her reverse in. Superb driving. If I had a Yorkie Bar I’d present it to her.

 

We decide to walk onto the beach for a quick recce. The tide is well out something we had not experienced on this coast before. Before us we can see the old mussel beds, well below the sandy beach. Locals are out taking advantage of this and are collecting Muelles. We walk along the beach to a small beach bar. Sounds rather more glamourous than it was but it sold cold beers, wine and paninis. We ordered and sat in lovely cosy plush chairs for an hour and wriggled our toes in the sand. We ordered another round. Looking out over the beach it was all but deserted. The sun was well up and it was hot. We paid our E25 bill and returned to the van to collect our swimmies.

We were back on the beach by 1330hrs and left at 1800hrs. The local restaurant across the road from our Aire had still not opened for the season. We decided on beans on toast for scran but first Jackie insisted we opened Suzie’s bubbly and take a photo to send to her and Tim.

The popping of the cork caught a couple of guys attention and they wandered over to chat. They were Germans who both spoke perfect English. They had questions about the height of our van and did we have to pay extra on the “peage” What layout did it have and quite a few other questions. I invited them on-board and they were surprised how in many respects things differed from their German made unit. They thought it was custom built for us. The questions now turned to the recent elections at home and the hung Parliament. 

It was the first time this am that we had tuned into Radio 4 and we were as shocked as much as Terresa May, when we heard the result. It didn’t seem possible. Immigration was of great concern to these guys with all the “foreigners” in Germany. Briefly I thought, well your past record isn’t that good in that area. I suggested many in the UK too were concerned and had also had enough of EU directives affecting us which, we being good Europeans adopted when far too many other countries, especially France and Spain chose whether they would or not adopt. They agreed, then said “Vat about Greece?” I said we were in Greece on holiday a few weeks ago and they make lovely Moussaka! Who says the Krauts don’t have a sense of humour! “Ah but ve are not as rich as you British siting on holiday in France drinking champagne!”  “That may well be the case" I said "but remember not everything is at it appears.” I smiled back. We promised to chat again tomorrow.