We left Fuerteventura on Sunday 25th April (nervously bidding farewell to Chloe and Charlie who were ash-stranded until the next day). Our flight to Barcelona was completely unaffected, but the airport had plenty of anxious and angry Brits. In parrticular it seems that Thomas Cook locally had made a desperate mess of repatriating the stranded, so that seats were empty whilst flight-only customers were being dumped. We got a rundown on this from our insider, and it did sound bad! So interesting in fact that we had to run for the plane and were last on!
The journey from Barcelona airport to Girona airport was tedious: shuttle bus, two trains and a coach, but it all worked and the sun was shining as brightly as it had been in the Canaries. The train station at Barcelona Nord bus terminal is a mess and has no lift. We had been dreading carting all our belongings up the two flights of stairs, but a British party jumped in and helped, and in getting the coach, which runs every 15 minutes we saw shades of ash-chaos with pushing and shoving to get on. At the airport hotel we came across an Irish couple that had just discovered the theft - in the Reception area - of 2000 euros in cash plus all cards. What can you say?
In the morning we rang Yvette's winter guardian and he was with us in five minutes, taking us to their new off-site barn. A truly wonderful service! She started first time and although there were a few electical and other glitches all was well.
We had very few fixed points in planning the itinerary. This how it panned out:- Girona
- Canet-en-Roussillon: 8 nights
- Carcassonne: overnight
- Brive: 2 nights
- Perigueux: 2 nights
- Le Queroy with George and Gregory: 2 nights
- Royan: 7 nights
- Orleans: 2 nights
- Metz: overnight
- Karlstadt, Bavaria
.. and the details!
In beautiful weather we crossed the Pyrenees and headed for Le Brasilia in Canet, but we had already decided it was not yet tent conditions, so we took a brand new mobile home instead. This was slightly over-budget as the cheap deal we used last year was not yet operational. In fact the site had only been open five days. The staff remembered us and were very friendly and proud of their new water park. (see artist's impression!) It is supposed to evoke the Seychelles. By the time we were ready to risk our still cold- and cough-ridden bodies in the water the weather had changed - dramatically - and we saw no more of that feature!The first hint that all was not well on the meteo front came when we took the bikes in for annual service on the promenade. We had a minimal discussion with the owner about the wind and he said there was some heavy rain on the way by Friday. There certainly was, and it turned very cold. We rummaged out warm clothes we had not expected to need, took to eating inside and worked our way through accumulated TV programmes. This included our take on watching the final UK leaders' debate: taking the laptop to a free WiFi cafe on the cold sea-front, downloading it with our special VPN deal over a beer, taking it back to the campsite and watching it in their huge deserted bar area over a pichet of red wine whilst the rain pelted down and 100kph winds blew. By Sunday there was some let-up and we managed a short ride along the prom where there was a huge brocante (car boot sale without the cars) along its entire entire 2 km length. We got back to the site just before the storm. This time it was even worse and by now the ground was sodden, so mud was added to the list! Nor did the meteo indicate that it would stop soon or that anywhere else in France was much better. By Tuesday morning we wondered if it was even safe to drive as planned. We waited and finally decided it had improved slightly and we would go some of the way towards the Dordogne. It was hard-going but we got to Carcassonne looking forward to the (very) simple comfort of the Premiere Classe hotel, only to find the credit card automated booking machine was having a bad day too! In a supermarket car park we finally admitted defeat and Bob looked out jeans, socks and trainers before racing inside to kill time over a hot chocolate. We re-acquainted ourselves with the delights of Campanile buffet dinners (although we think they have become a little meaner since last year). Next morning it had stopped raining so we set off for Brive. It was cold but OK for the main drive, but 20 or 30 km south of Brive we turned off to look at pretty riverside towns. The rain started, then the SNOW! Admittedly this was at some height, but it was shocking and quite frightening. Brive is not an interesting plaace, but we stayed two nights and did a lot of looking round for places that might be good for camping and or canoes in better weather. It was here - in one of Premiere Classe's disabled-friendly rooms that we passed UK Election Night - with the BBC radio commentary and the web-site. There is nothing to add about the outcome!
For Friday and Saturday nights we were based in Perigueux. We made some long car excursions out into beautiful countryside, but it was far too cold and potentially wet for cycling. We also made a list of pretty and small towns that were worth a visit in better weather, and we spent a few hours in Perigueux itself- a gastronome's paradise! Fortunately for those of us "not on holiday" - the restaurants were mostly closed!
Then we continued further North to visit George and son Gregory at the fishing enterprise near Poitiers. It was the first time we had seen them in person since Penny died in September, so the visit was tinged with sadness, but they are coping together, and we had some long conversations - not least about the on-going coalition negotiations :- George being lukewarm about the Lib Dems, to say the least. The foul weather continued! We saw nothing of the estate this time (no clients that week in any case), but did have several sightings of the hoopoe that lives in the lodge. In spite of it being the national bird of Israel we were very taken with it!
In Confolens several restaurants have closed and we found it very quiet, and in the village of Abzac there is now no source of fresh bread other than what is ordered and distributed from the residential home there. All rather depressing in terms of French social life! Anyway we ate at home on both nights, and spent time looking on-line for a part of France that might have better weather for our next phase. Nowhere looked good, so we were persuaded by G&G to try Royan - south of the Vendeee - a place that interests them in terms of relocation. We decided to take a whole week as we had not confirmed our proposed trip to Germany. It wasn't easy to find accommodation with the long weekend coming up. (There were 4 bank holidays in May in France this year!) After a struggle and a phone call by George we found Camping Le Royan with a mobile home for a fair price. 
We drove down during the day through rain (again!). G&G followed later in the day and missed it, but it was very cold, windy and often wet during the time we were all there. Bob did some cycling with Gregory (and a little with George), we all attempted to fly a kite on the beach, and got a sense of the area. The town suffered badly from wartime bombardment, and was rebuilt to a regular street layout and with striking buildings such as the church. It was busy with French tourists for the long weekend. Very close is St George de Dindonne ("Ding-dong")
- much quieter and verdant and with a wide beach. On our first visit we saw the local strolling band with clowns. Unfortunately all our activities were curtailed by the bitter weather, and we had to take shelter in bars and cafes. G&G had to leave after three nights, but before we saw them off we went to the local GoKart track. We stayed for the rest of the week , and the weather did improve somewhat! On the Sunday we took the bikes up the coast and undertook a (largely) published cycle ride with both coastal and forest parts. It was very busy with cyclists of all ages and many nationalities. Bob saw a teenage girl in an organised group stop twice in short succession to re-do her make-up
After a busy weekend things returned to a quiet normality for our remaining time - and so did the weather - dull, cold and windy! On Tuesday we set off for Germany. First stop was to be Orleans - straight up the A10. As we drove the sun came out. We stopped for a quick lunch in a service staion north of Poitiers, and as we got into the car someone pointed to a rear tyre and we saw it was flat. Panic! We didn't think we could change the wheel ourselves and indeed were not sure where the relevant tools were, so we rang the number for our (Spanish-based) breakdown service. 
There was alot of to-ing and fro-ing with the phone calls, and the eventual discover that a service station is counted as equivalent to the motorway itself, so not covered! However the employee suggested we speak to a service-station person, and we found a man who was happy to do it for a modest tip. We had already emptied out the back of the car:- not a trivial task with all our life within it (including for camping). The spare tyre on this Doblo is an emergency-only affair stored underneath the car. We had to leave the motorway at the next junction and use intutition to find a tyre shop in Chateaulereut. This we managed and paid just 3 euros for a new valve and re-fitting of the original tyre. We had lost a couple of hours and added a few miles, but made it to Orleans. We stayed two nights there and made some trips around the Loire, finding quiet towns and villages. Then a long uneventful drive to the final stop at Metz. We were within spitting distance of the German border.