G’s off at 8 tomorrow to make the 13.30 ferry (our time)  from Calais. Why are we ransacking the boat? We can’t find any Stirling for the Dartford tunnel toll. We arrived in Belgium on the 14th April and there is no way we would have arrived here penniless! This is absolutely absurd, but we can’t think of anywhere else to look. How can you lose so much stuff in such a small space? Oh well, I expect he’ll be able to get some Stirling on the ferry.

So this morning was a day of getting everything shipshape before he left – a trip to Aldi to make sure I had enough food for me, Daisy and the boys and a check on keys for the bike, gas bottles, water connectors, MiFi codes,TV, etc., etc., (please don’t go off with them in your pockets). 

We stopped at cafe Renee for a beer and a coffee on the way back from the Match supermarket at Charleville (couldn’t get fresh milk at Aldi) and their daughter was there with her French/English dictionary. She’s about 10 and painfully shy, but she’s learning English at school and slowly getting more confident with both us and the dogs. Interestingly, she’s trying to pick up on our English (between ourselves) and then coming back to us in French. The whole family now seem completely engaged with their new, eccentric, English loonies and were pleased to report today that they were taking a day trip to Calais in August from where they would be able to see England. Much scrabbling in the dictionary produced a translation for ‘the white cliffs of Dover’.

 the WiFi speed is dire again tonight so have given up on trying to load photos – it’s just not going to happen.