A week in Sussex; 20-24 April 2026

We've just spent the inside of the week staying with my 98-year-old mother, as my sister is in South Africa for a month, and looks to be having a wonderful time!  They have been on safari with friends - the son of an ex-boyfriend of my mother, and his wife - and will soon move on to Cape Town and stay with some cousins before flying home on the 6th.  We are all slightly envious!

Anyway, we had a lovely time in a very different way!  The woods are at their most glorious at this time of year, and as for the birdsong.... okay, it's mostly the usual suspects (robins, blackbirds, wrens, etc), but they are very loud and very cheerful.  It might be all about sex and turf wars, but it's still lovely.

(There was not enough room on the screen to show all the birds I heard in one photo!)

On Monday we arrived mid-morning, and the Swan Whisperer took the motorhome down to a place in Goring that does motorhome repairs, as previously arranged - it needed a couple of minor things seen to (it had had its service and MOT the previous week, in Lancing).  On the way home, he discovered that there was an art exhibition in Highdown Gardens, so in the afternoon we took my mother there, and enjoyed both the exhibition and a short walk round the accessible part of the gardens.

On Tuesday, Mum's carer said they were going kite-surfing that afternoon, and told us where, so after a visit to Tesco's  we drove down to look at the sea, but there the kite-surfers weren't!  Carer said next morning that the wind was too far offshore to be safe - they had thought it would be more to the east than it actually was.  But, apart from the wind, it was simply lovely!

On Wednesday the Swan Whisperer went on one of his very long walks, down to Goring Station, then train to Ford, walked up the Arun past Arundel, and then along the South Downs Way.   I took myself on a very much shorter, but equally enjoyable, walk in the woods, loving the spring flowers and birds (see above for the list I heard). 

Then in the afternoon we took the car south of the road, around the land there, and up to a viewpoint that I don't think I'd been to since my father died!  

On Thursday, the motorhome was ready so in the morning the SW went down to get it, and in the afternoon we drove round Clapham Woods again, up to the Oaks' Bottom (where my parents' ashes will probably eventually be scattered), although I didn't take any photos as we were in the car, and I didn't want to showcase how grubby the car windows are!  

On Friday we had to return to London in the afternoon, so the morning was spent doing the laundry and similarly necessary chores - packing everything (we had left various bits down there as we have been up and down since Easter).  It was the only day that there was a minor hiccup, as the carer who had been coming all week had had a night shift, and her replacement - who is, I gather, the other one's daughter-in-law - thought she was to come at 08:30, but she should have been there at 08:00 or just before.  This would not have mattered, but the hairdresser was due to come then - and did!  Fortunately Mum had realised what was happening, or not happening, and had got herself up, but it was a tad fraught.... Anyway, I got her breakfast ready and served it to her while she was under the dryer!

As it was our last day we went down to the village café, "The Junction" for lunch; the SW and I walking and Mum racing ahead on her scooter!  And very good it was, too.  We left about 16:30, but didn't get home until gone 19:00 as the traffic was horrible once we got to Mitcham!  My niece and nephew are staying with Mum over the weekend, and I have no idea what time they would have got there from Town, either!

A thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing week!

Early Spring Holiday, 14 March 2026

 Brixton, London

This was dawn, as seen through the window of the motor home!  I woke early, and it was a lovely morning - actually, a lovely day - although very cold.  The Swan Whisperer went to buy croissants and a tarte aux poires for lunch (much nicer than last week's!), and we had a fairly early breakfast before getting everything packed up - or as much as is feasible, of course.  Our crossing was booked for 11:50. but we were ready, and headed over to the Eurotunnel just before 10, and were delighted to be booked on the 10:20 crossing!  This meant that we arrived at No 6 just before noon, rather than the 13:30 we were scheduled to.  I was pleased, as I was aware that an early breakfast and late lunch would indubitably give me a hypo; as it was, I ate my croissant on the crossing, as intended, and survived pretty much intact until lunch.  I hadn't thought I'd really have time to cook, so lunch was kidneys in madeira sauce (an old friend) with wholegrain rice from a sachet and frozen peas.  Followed by the tarte aux poires mentioned above.

The Swan Whisperer finished transferring stuff from the WoMo to the car, and then went for a walk in the woods to enjoy the spring flowers.  The bluebells aren't yet out, he tells me, or only one or two very early ones.  We set off for home at about 4:00, and, apart from stopping for petrol, made good time.  To discover, of course, that we have left our coffee grinder and one of his earbuds in the WoMo, where they will have to stay until Easter, when we are next going down.  So when the SW nipped out to Lidl to get milk and bananas,  he also bought some ground coffee to keep us going.

I am annoyed as I bought a new tablet from Amazon to replace mine, which I thought had died.  It arrived, so I switched on my current one to try to do a factory reset before recycling it, only to find it was behaving perfectly!  I suppose I'd better return the new one, but feel I don't trust mine just now.... Sigh!

So that's it for now until May, when we go to Oberstdorf; if diesel is still as horrendously expensive as it is now, we may have to make it a two-centre holiday, rather than a touring-and-one-centre one.  I hope there will be some outings between now and then, though.

And here are some of the amaryllises I bought my mother for her birthday.  To cut a long story short, I thought I'd ben scammed, and bought her something else, but then these arrived and have actually grown!

Early Spring Holiday, 13 March 2026

Blériot-Plage, Pas-de-Calais

Wouldn't you have thought my tablet could have waited until tomorrow before deciding to die on me? It will no longer find any WiFi, and although I suspect I can do my non-WiFi puzzles, I do hope most of them are saved in the Cloud, so I don't lose too much. I know the NYT puzzles are, and I can do them on my phone until I get another tablet, but not all of them. Well, we shall see. 

Anyway, the weather was atrocious again this morning, and the drive from Riqueval pretty nerve-wracking! We stopped at a Carrefour outside Cambrai for me to do a Last Shop in France, and then at the Auchan near Dunkerque, where we had lunch and I did another Last Shop as I'd forgotten to buy Easter chocolate (so much nicer here).

Then we drove to the aire in Blériot-Plage and had a cup of tea, at least, I had a cup of tea and the Swan Whisperer went for a run, and had a cup of tea and a shower when he got back. I spent the afternoon finishing the sleeve of the sweater I'm knitting, and attaching it to the main body. I haven't taken any photos today, so here is one from yesterday's walk. 

Early Spring Holiday, 10 March 2026

Plombières-Les-Dijon, Côte d'Or

The weather this morning was not conducive to an enjoyable walk round Chalon-sur-Saône.  The Swan Whisperer did go for a short run, but didn't enjoy it very much, and after breakfast we decided that the prospect of a healthy walk in the rain was not one that filled either of our hearts with joy.  

So instead we decided to spend the morning doing a load of laundry.  Many French supermarkets have self-service laundries in their car parks, which include detergent and fabric softener, so we found where the nearest one was and made good use of it. 

I was intrigued by the dog-washing facility next door, and wonder how many poor pooches are subjected to its rigors!  Anyway, I shopped and the SW got diesel and coffee while it was happening, and when it had finished, we put away our clean clothes (I am annoyed that I forgot to put my jumpers in there - they are acrylic and can go on a 40° wash - but we will have far less washing than usual when we get home.  And I do have enough jumpers to do me until then - and, at that, the others are pretty much still wearable!

By the time we had done all that, it was gone lunch-time, and there was a restaurant in the complex, so we decided to go and see what it was like.  We decided against a starter, so the Swan Whisperer had chicken breast in a Roquefort sauce, and I had white fish in a lemon sauce. 

He had chips and I had vegetables (the choice was chips, vegetables or rice), and we both had chocolate mousse to follow, which was rather much but it would have been a pity to waste it.  And coffee.  As we had had cordial while we were putting away our washing (I had the French elderflower, which isn't nearly as nice as the English, and the SW had raspberry-and-rhubarb which I had bought him this morning because I Am Nice Like That), we just drank water.

After that, it was time to head on, but we hadn't very far to go today, only as far as Dijon.  We went the pretty way - and it really was pretty, up the Ouche valley.  The rain went on and off, and at one stage there was a rainbow.  

Early Spring Holiday, 5 March 2026

Bellegarde, Gard

Winter decided it wasn't quite ready to depart just yet, and today was very wintry!  It started off wet, and pretty much stayed that way.  The SW didn't want to go for a run, as it was so wet, but did get a 15-minute leg-stretch before breakfast and between showers!

{Antique-looking tractor in the barn at Mas Alart. The Swan Whisperer was fascinated!) 

We are a day ahead of ourselves, and spent a long time this morning trying to work out where we would like to spend the night before heading up to La Cavallerie tomorrow and getting back on track. Eventually we gave up, and went into the shop to say goodbye to Madame, who was on duty.  She showed us the relief map of the area which we hadn't really seen before, and pointed out that their particular area of France - they are between Perpignan and the coast - was once an independent Catalonia, but was divided between France and Spain in the 17th century.  I hadn't realised it came so far north!  The French Catalans, if Madame is typical, are proud of being Catalan, but quite happy to belong to France as well, unlike their Spanish cohorts, who would really rather be independent.

(Vines and olive tree at Mas Alart) 

Anyway, once we had made our farewells, we headed off to the local Lidl, where I did a shopping (we always go to that Lidl when we go to Mas Alart, it's one of our things!) while the SW had coffee, and when I came out, he said he had asked the Satnav to take us to the coast where we could park up, have lunch and make a final decision.  I was not very impressed by the sight of the Mediterranean today - all grey and very rough! 

We ummed and aahed - lots of places we would have liked to have gone, but this one was too expensive, especially as it didn't offer electricity; that one was much too expensive in the off-season; the other one was either full or closed.... Finally we settled on Bellegarde, where we have been before - the aire is beside the river port, and really rather pleasant, although nowhere to go for a walk without having to come back on yourself.  

We arrived about 17:30, and had a cup of tea, and then the SW went for a walk and I did a tai chi practice (my usual habit if I haven't had enough exercise), and then I made a butternut squash and mushroom risotto for supper, and very good it was, too!

Early Spring Holiday, 1 March 2026

Verteillac, Dordogne

The Swan Whisperer went for a run round Lac Saint-Cyr this morning - only about 5k, but he enjoyed it.  Look at the daisies on the grass, not a very good photo, but they really were daisies!  

After a rather late breakfast, we headed on to the nearest supermarket - not that I needed much, but we like to treat ourselves to patisseries for lunch pudding on a Sunday (these were apple tarts, and very good they were, too) when we are travelling.  By the time we had done all that, it was noon, and we tried to listen to our church service while driving on, but the sound quality was dreadful - I don't think it would have been had we been listening on a laptop or even a phone via headphones, but on a phone which was then Bluetoothed to the car radio.... Not good!  Still, we enjoyed the hymns.

We stopped for lunch soon after the service had finished, and then continued on down to this tiny village of Verteillac, which is really rather nice.  After a cup of tea, we went round it to see what we could see.  The Sunday market was just finishing when we arrived, but really by the time it had spread itself over two squares and the car park, that was basically the end of the village!  Nice church, though!

It is very nice here; there are services, although you have to pay for water and/or an hour's electricity (useful for charging up a recalcitrant battery, but I don't think we'll need it); emptying services are free. 

We are basically a day ahead of ourselves, as I tried to send us down a route that What's Halfway suggested for the four nights we had changed plans, but the first place was in the middle of the Aquitaine floods, and thus closed out of use.  And the Swan Whisperer pointed out that this place was the exact same distance from Lac Saint-Cyr as the place I'd chosen, and it was two sides of a triangle.  So we will either get to Mas Alart a day early, or spend two nights at one of the two stopping-places en route.  We shall see..... We decided that going up into the Pyrenees and spending the night in a non-winterised motor home was seriously not a plan!  

Meanwhile the hab door is playing sillybuggers again; the Swan Whisperer has tried to fix it, but no joy so far.  We will ring our motorhome place in Sussex to see what they recommend, or there might, of course, be a repair place locally.  On verra.

P.S. Am rather annoyed - I bought a new set of pill-dispensers because they were rather lovely and I need a new set anyway, only to find that two of the lids broke as I was taking them off to fill with my week's pills!  Dreadful quality!

Brittany Christmas Markets, 26-27 November 2025

La Mesnière-en-Bray, Normandy

Our annual visit to various Christmas markets (probably only 2 this trip) actually began yesterday.  Wonderfully, with a text from the opticians saying my new glasses were ready - since I had cataracts and other impedimenta to my vision removed, I have been managing without glasses, but the operations did not correct my astigmatism, so I still need them most of the time, especially for computer work, which was being very difficult.  So that was delightful, and I rushed up to get them, and then to the second half of my bi-weekly tai chi class, while the Swan Whisperer loaded the car and came down to meet me.  We headed straight to Sussex, stopping at Tesco's in Sutton to buy a sandwich lunch, and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with my mother and sister, except for an  hour spent participating in the first Advent Bible Study on Zoom.

We slept in the motor home and were up long before dawn; we showered in the house, and then slipped away to start our journey; it must have been about 07:00 when we left.  First stop was Clackett Lane Services, where we cooked breakfast, and then a straight run to the Channel Tunnel, where we got a crossing 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.  It felt odd not having unpacking or bedmaking to do during the crossing, but I did various anti-senility puzzles and was actually surprised when we came out into daylight again.

Next stop was Cité Europe, where I did a quick shop in Carrefour while the SW got diesel, and then we had lunch.  We then discovered that our beloved coffee grinder had broken, in that  the charging socket seems to have died.  So we will have to get another one when we return to the UK; meanwhile I dashed back into Carrefour to get some ground coffee instead.  

We had planned to spend the night at Neufchatel-en-Bray, but when we got there, we found that the motorhome parking was closed for the winter, which neither of us had realised it was going to be.  However, the SW remembered that we had recently stayed here, at Mesnière-en-Bray, only a few minutes' drive away.  The only problem is that it doesn't have electricity, but we can manage without, especially as we now have a new leisure battery!

I don't seem to have taken any photos today, so here is one of me yesterday with my new specs.