FRANCE!

A day out in France! St Malo, to be precise. The ferry from Jersey took just over an hour - just time for a freshly baked croissant and coffee going, and a snooze coming back.

Beautiful day - warm and calm. We'd been to St Malo many moons ago when travelling round in Eric, our Combi van. It's a beautiful old town, with a city wall around it. Completely rebuilt after being heavily bombed by the Allies during WW2.

We found a wee cafe and spent a pleasant hour sitting in the sun, listening to the French voices, breathing in the cigarette smoke... JR went off for a look around the shops, but came back fairly soon, as they were all closed for lunch!

But she had spotted a suitable wee quirky cafe for lunch. The charming waiter sat down and explained the menu, describing the three cheese quiche as 'funny', then corrected himself, as he meant 'fun'. Cute.

Spent quite a wee while there, with a carafe of rosé. Then the biggest ice cream I’ve ever had (they do big doubles here!) before having a walk around the city wall.

It was while we were on the wall, that I glanced at the time - 4 o’clock! We had to be back at the boat by 4.30!! And it was a LONG WALK. Panic stations.

We rushed out the main gate, and headed off to the pier. Fast. There were no other folk wending the same way... nothing seemed familiar... doubt set in... I asked a chap. No, this was not the way to the Jersey ferry. We had, of course, come out a different gate than what we'd entered! Even more panic stations. JR set off in the correct direction at a fast pace, but I just can’t go fast. I was fair puggled and steaming and gasping. By the time we got to the gate, they said we were late. In fact, we had just sat down, and the engines started up. It left 15 minutes early. But I think that must have been because everyone was on board. They had been waiting for us.

I slept the whole the way back to Jersey. What a grand day out!