28 July 2006

We arrived at the house about 9pm and were delighted yet dismayed to see new front doors… Delighted, because new front doors had been fitted; dismayed because we had old front door keys! A fruitless hunt around just in case our builder had left a key under a stone (in the dark, of course, but so much nicer to admire the almost fluorescent flowers on the evening primroses – oenothera biennis & oenothera glaziomana erythrosepaia, I think?), before calling a hotel in the nearby town. We’d decided to stop going there (enough small niggles, like not being able to turn off the heating/air-conditioning, I can’t remember what else & 80€ a night) and haven’t been for well over a year (18 months?), but boy were we glad when they said they had one room left, with 2 double beds! A dash to get there before reception shut (this part of the world is not somewhere that will wait if you are late; possibly part of the charm?), seemed small beer in comparison to the last 48 hours (see earlier post about mum’s journey down!).

Equally delighted that the Iron Horse was still serving once we’d checked in: Leffe for him & her; kir for m-i-l. And a refill to be on the safe side. Mum delighted next morning because she got the swim she’d missed out on in Brixton (she says she really will curb her appetite for excitement!).

I know they say you should always take a change of clothes in your hand luggage (we virtually only travel with hand luggage, so don’t usually worry about that), but it seems a little unnecessary when you are travelling to your own home… How wrong can a girl be?!

Needless to say, when we called the menuisier and the builder (both of whom must have known our doors had changed; Dominique B made & installed them & Dominique D must have been there/lent him the keys!) all we got was answer machines, so we were wondering if they were both off on their holidays – this weekend is when France goes on holiday. The hotel was full on the Saturday night, so we would have had to either abandon the furniture in the barn & hope no-one stole it (couldn’t leave the plants – they would die without water) or take a whole vanful back to England, unload & do it all again later (I’m guessing we’d have left the furniture to take its chances!!), if we could get a tunnel crossing without paying an extra (full?) fare…

Delight again, then, when Dominique B’s daughter called when we were at the bar to say her father had keys & we could collect them the next day. After the stress of thinking my holiday was off, a 90 (100?) mile round trip seemed like the answer to a prayer.

We were nearly at Troyes the next day (in yesterday’s [sweaty] travelling clothes) when Dominique D called to say he’d left a key under a brick in the barn & Dominique B had emailed David to let him know! Too late to turn back, we carried on!

That’ll teach David to leave the office before we go on hols! Or to leave his out-of-office in 2 languages! When we finally got to the house (did a shop in Troyes & had lunch), we found the key DD had left – under a brick David had looked under on Friday night! It was covered in dust & he hadn’t seen it by torchlight; it was only just visible in broad daylight & by then we knew where to look.

At least we appreciate staying in our house a lot more now.

Angelus starting… (I’m writing this on Sunday 30th).

I’m getting writer’s cramp – p.c. at home, but I still want to blog, so handwriting this (and now copy typing; much more fun!); not used to it!