On the road and back to France

Bridge at BOA

A big thank you to all our friends who made our visit to the UK such a fun time. Our BOA visit was the longest since we've moved to France. Usually we have two or three days there,  but a week was lovely. As well as people, we dropped in to see the exhibition about the historic core zone that is being proposed. Traffic through the town and associated environmental issues are a major problem. Very difficult to find a solution, and probably there isn't one that can resolve all the issues.  We think the current plan is as good as any. We've seen a number of such schemes in place over here, of differing scales and complexity, and know first-hand the transformation they can engender.  Emailed a few messages of support to local councillors who we know. Keeping fingers crossed that the money spent so far isn't going to be chucked down the pan, as has happened with other key projects in the town.

Our final morning having got packed-up, met some of the girls for coffee at the Fat Fowl, where we'd virtually taken up residence since we arrived, with all the coffees, lunches and diners. Good to see owners Arlene and Mark again. We'd had a superb dinner there with friends the night before. Saturday morning as we left, the place was buzzing. Mike had moved the car up to the top of town, before picking me up on the way for a final visit to see our long-time friend John Salvat. Had a light bite there with him before heading off to Shoreham to stay overnight with more long-time friends, June and John, who we hadn't seen for about two years.

Harbour at Shoreham

Lovely to see them, their son Simon, daughter-in-law Julie and grand-daughter, Robyn. A great catch-up. Sunday, late morning we all went for a walk into town over the rather superb glass bridge, which gives great views up and downstream. Perfect day with gorgeous light. Lots of activity in the harbour and plenty of families out walking, on this beautiful first Sunday of the new year. We went to a lovely Italian restaurant for lunch.Then headed back for tea and cake at Simon and Julie's place that she  had made for June and John's 40th wedding anniversary. I'm not a great cake lover normally, but this was really good.

Eventually we had to leave for Portsmouth and the ferry home. A reasonable number of vehicles on board. No lorries though. Set sail on time at 22.45pm and arrived in France on time at 6.45 am (French time). Time on board is always British and there's an hour's difference. We were up at 4.30 British time., breakfast at 5 and off the boat by 6am or 7am French time. Driving in the dark for about an hour before dawn began to break. Good journey with a stop, and back in through our front door by 10.30am, feeling slightly weary. But a cup of coffee soon sorted that out.

A really good visit. Useful as well as good fun. Thanks and much love everyone - you know who you are.