Rachel

James and Tom went home and Friday night, and we got on with a few jobs while Matt and Rachel were still with us. We almost had a disaster taking them back to the airport at La Rochelle when we got a puncture, as we were cutting it a bit fine, so with only 40 minutes to go till the flight departed we were parked on the side of the road wrestling with the spare wheel which didn't want to drop down from it's hiding place under the car!
I phoned a friend and he came to our rescue (after his wife had made him change his shirt!) and took the kids to the airport while Mr F continued changing the wheel. Luckily La Rochelle is a very small airport and the staff are quite relaxed, so they were let through into security even though it was 10.30 by then, the time the plane should have departed!
We had forgotten about the 'Charentaise half hour' which means that in this region, timing is just an approximation, and most things can happen up to half an hour after they have been scheduled!
The plane departed just before 11am!
We went home suffering from emotional and physical exhaustion and didn't do much else all day!