Le Duc - Cavagnac, SW France

We travelled from Bristol to Dover on very quiet roads and took the evening ferry over to Calais. We were able to stand on the deck for the whole trip in the warm sun.

We were almost at the front of the boat, so we were able to watch the big doors of the ferry open on arrival. There was only one car between us and french soil. When we returned to our cars the driver in front noticed that he had a flat tyre, but he still drove off of the ferry so he didn't hold everyone else up.

We drove a short distance to the outskirts of Calais, to an Ibis hotel. We tried out our satnav which came with the car, which promptly took us through some dodgy looking streets, so we used the directions from the Ibis brochure, much safer!

Not the best hotel we've stayed in, and we managed to totally confuse the waitress so we had an interesting mix of starters and main courses, ordering far too much, although it was all very tasty.

The following day we started out early and had a good run down, apart from a small hiccup around Paris, (Tracy was map reading, and the Satnav was also chipping in her two pennith, and between them we went out of our way)

Soon back on the right track and we had an event free journey all the way to Cavagnac, arriving at about 8pm.

John, Julie and Rosie, our hosts were awaiting us, and after a brief greeting we went to a local restaurant for a lovely meal. We met John's mum, June and her partner Tony who had been staying at le Duc for the past few weeks, making a lovely job of the gardens and preparing the gites ready for the first visiters.

The following day we were taken around the property and the surrounding area to familiarise ourselves with everything.

John, Julie and Rosie had to leave in the afternoon to get a flight, and June & Tony left the following day to drive home.

We had the opportunity to settle ourselves into our new home, unpacking our belongings.

Le Duc Website