In The Morning

Eeeek! That's a while since the last post.
Ne'er mind, who's counting.

Well, posting now en France.
I picked Nat and friend (Fox "don't call me Foxicles") up on Thursday afternoon. We all headed off for an early night (after some medicinal alcohol to help us sleep) ready for an early start.
Friday morning and my alarm went off at 4am. I had been beaten to the bathroom by the Fox (she's 18 and supposed to have lie ins! What's that all about?). Myself and H decided it might be a good time to start packing. On the road by 5.10.
Torrential rain in England yesterday, but we missed the most of it by arriving at the Chunnel by about 7.45. So that got us on an earlier shuttle at 8.23.
If you've never been on this crossing, it really is very good (says he, who's only done it twice). You barely know it's moving, it's that smooth. It's also very quick, we were hitting the French motorways by just after 9 (stick an hour on for the time difference).
Good old Tom Tom comes to the rescue at driving in a different country. Totally takes the stress out of driving leaving you to remember to drive on the right.
We were making good progress, but hit quite a bit of traffic on the outskirts of Paris. That cost us about 50 minutes, but it really wasn't that bad. In the UK, you can crack along nicely at 15 mph over the limit (not that I do of course). They do say that the French police are a little keen, so I didn't take so many chances, sitting not much more than 140 kph.
So we arrived at les parents at about 6pm local time.
For those who don't know, here's a link to where they are...

CLICK ME!

So that was yesterday.
Today, after a much needed early night, we got up and wished the old man Happy Birthday.
I the spent the next couple of hours sorting out Father's wi-fi connection. For the past 6 months, he's had a wireless router and still used his laptop wedged in the corner of the kitchen with an ethernet cable stretched across a table. Not anymore!
We then headed out to the Cheval Blanc, a really nice restaurant about 20 minutes away. What we had was a fixed five course meal. As I'm a food buff, and want to make you jealous, read on...

Aperitif to start was a juicy number with lots of fruit.
1st course, vegetable soup with warm bread rolls
2nd course, tomato cakes with jambon slices
3rd course, sliced steak with roast potato and stuffed tomato
4th course, cheese*
5th course, apricot with cream and pastry

* French cheese is just awesome. We're not talking a few lumps of cheddar and some Jacobs crackers. The cheese trolley had about 30 different cheeses on it. You have these as a separate course. No biscuits unless you specifically ask for them.

We got there at about 12.10 and left after about 3.5 hours.
Back home and the temperature had improved somewhat. Now hitting about 24, but feeling a lot warmer. The youngsters (only here, can I call myself a youngster!) hit the sunchairs and took in some rays. Nat and Fox braved the pool, but not for long.

So here we sit, out in the veranda at 8.25, blue skies, very warm, drinks in hand, typing a blog, 50m from the, now working, wireless router.
I've earned my keep already.
More tomorrow. Did I mention that it's going to hit 30+ degrees?

Photos...