Back to reality

We awoke to grey skies and rain this morning, which meant tumble drying the mounds of washing we had to do! Keith was already up when I came down, and Sophie was having a cuddle-fest with the cats who had taken over her bed. I think they were delighted we were back!

By 9am, the house was in chaos as we unpacked the car and the cases. There were mounds of washing everywhere, and the contents of the cases were piled up all over the living room and up the stairs. We found bottles of wine we'd forgotten about, and I couldn't believe we had so much stuff!

However, by 10.30am, we had finished unpacking, everything was where it belonged, and the washing machine was churning away. Keith turned TNT Sports on at about 11am, and we saw a very wet and dismal Tour de France taking place. We think we had definitely made the right decision! People were sheltering under umbrellas and macs; we hadn't taken any umbrellas or jackets, and Sophie had been planning to wear a flimsy dress today!

As a treat, we'd booked a table for lunch at the pub in the village and we managed to get our outfits washed, dried and ironed. It was still warm and a bit muggy from the rain, but so much cooler than the high temperatures we'd experienced in Spain and France. The gardens need the rain, and we were shocked to see our lawn when we arrived home yesterday. It looked like straw!

Lunch was delicious, and we enjoyed two starters of falafel and chicken goujons to share, followed by roast chicken with potatoes, vegetables, stuffing balls, cauliflower cheese and Yorkshire puddings! Sophie and I shared a bottle of South African Chenin Blanc, and we managed to find room for puds - chocolate brownie and crème brulée. Sophie paid the bill as a thank you for my driving and Keith for keeping us on track with his navigation skills!

Back at home, we had naps and in the evening settled down to watch the Tour de France in full (although we did skip a few bits). The weather was atrocious first thing, and I suspected that we would have had difficulty accessing some of the roads. One route we travelled on yesterday had warning signs saying it was closed, and we saw huge advertising hoardings in place that we hadn't seen on our way out of Montreuil-sur-Mer.

It was great to see the places we'd visited, though, and follow the route on the printout of timings. Everything looked so familiar!