Summer Break, Sunday 4 August 2024

What we hope will be our final night in Saint-Junien 

This morning the Daughter came for breakfast - my brother preferred to have his in the hotel - and then he came down, too, and they had another cup of coffee.

We decided it was silly to be so near Limoges and not visit it, so we went in my brother's car. We had a lovely walk around the city, and one of the main churches,

which was not, it turned out, the Cathedral, and a cup of coffee in a random café.

Sadly, coming back along minor, rather twisty roads made the Daughter feel rather carsick, which she said sometimes happens in diesel-powered vehicles. I lent her my seabands, which I wasn't using, and we changed places, but I think she was thankful to get back to the campsite ere worse befell! A glass of cold water, a drop of peppermint oil, and a sit-down soon put her to rights.

 My brother went off to see Mum - we had agreed to stagger our visits today so as not to overwhelm her. After lunch, the Daughter went on up, and we went up about an hour later. Of course, we did end up all together for awhile, so we three came away and left my brother - who will have to leave quite early tomorrow morning - to have a last hour or so with her in private.

We came back to the campsite and used the services, and then the Daughter, who had gone back to the hotel for a bit, came and joined us, and now she and the Swan Whisperer have gone for a walk, and I am relaxing until it is time to cook dinner for us all. 

Summer Break, 3 August 2024

Quiet morning. The Swan Whisperer went for a walk and then I did a little shopping, but that was all. 

Went to the hospital early as we had to leave to go to the airport to pick up the Daughter, who has come out to relieve me. My brother has also come out for the weekend, so we all gathered in Mum's room until the uncomfortable chairs got to us!

He is treating us to supper in the hotel restaurant, which I hope will be nice. Right now having a rest and a cup of tea before heading up to the hotel.

Photo from yesterday of a peace banner in the church. 

Summer Break, 2 August 2024

Still at Saint-Junien!

Rather a dull morning, as all we did was a load of laundry (the French do wonderful laundrette in supermarket car parks) as we were going to run out of clothes else. I shopped, and then we bought gas, and that was about it for the morning.

In the afternoon we visited Mum (who is getting on very nicely now, thank you), and then, as it was a lot cooler, went for a walk around the old town, and had a long look inside the Church, which was lovely.

The Camping-Car network has gone down, which makes it very difficult to get in and out of the campsite - I gather it's a nationwide crash, so hope they get it fixed very soon! It was fine this morning when I extended our booking yet again, but had crashed by lunchtime. 

Summer Break, 1 August 2024

Much, much cooler this morning, and although it got hotter in the afternoon. We even had to turn the air-con down a bit when we went for a drive. Our first port of call was a village called Rochechouart, which had rather a lovely chateau,

but the car park firmly said No Motor homes, so we went on, first to a rather pleasant lake and then to a nearby archaeological site, whose name escapes me, but there wasn't much to see there; the Swan Whisperer thought it was a Roman temple, but hidden inside the visitor centre. Our final port of call was another chateau, at somewhere called Etignac. We think this is let out as holiday flats, as it looked lived-in, but didn't say "Private"! Photos on Facebook. 

Back to the campsite via what was supposed to be a scenic route but wasn't, very. Quite pleasant along the banks of the Vienne, though. 

Lunch, and then to the hospital; Mum still in bed, but they hope to get her up tomorrow. She seemed a bit more awake today, which was good. 

The Daughter is coming out on Saturday, which will be lovely - AND bringing my meds with her (she has just been to the flat to pick them up, bless her), and the idea is she will take over from us on Monday, probably, so we will come home on Wednesday; it's possible Mum will be able to be repatriated then, but if not my sister will probably come out. So lots of admin today, but all good stuff! 

Summer Break, 31 July 2024

St-Junien

We really haven't done much today. It rained a bit at dawn, which brought the temperature down nicely, but it didn't stay cool, alas. The Swan Whisperer went for a walk round the town

and bought us pains aux raisins for breakfast, and then we spent the rest of the morning sitting and reading, or in my case doing most of the admin you have to do when someone is in hospital abroad.

After lunch, we went to the hospital to see Mum, then we went to Lidl, came back to the campsite, used the services and are now sitting and reading or blogging or (about to) watch videos. It is trying to thunder! 

Summer Break, 30 July 2024

Saint-Junien, Nouelle-Aquitaine

Which is Limousin, really, of course. 

We both slept as one stunned last night - I did get bad cramp at one stage, and had to walk up and down the WoMo until it wore off, but after that, I didn't stir until 5:30 am, and after that, not until nearly 8!

The Swan Whisperer would have liked to have gone for a run, but quite understood when I asked him not to, as I really couldn't cope if he had a bad fall! So he agreed, but instead went out for a short walk. He went out for a longer one after breakfast, and I sat and did my anti-senility puzzles!

When he came back he had his coffee before we went to the local E Leclerc, where I was able to score a new toothbrush, although not as posh as my dead one. Still, it will do the job more than adequately, and was a lot cheaper. Yes, I could have used the Swan Whisperer's (swapping brush heads, of course), until I got home, but his is even older than mine was.... 

Anyway, we drove to the hospital car park and had lunch there, as rather more salubrious than the supermarket car park! Mum was okay - no better than you would expect the day after such a serious operation. I have seen the x-rays, but she says I am NOT to publish them, so I won't; family only! However, I gather my GP cousin says it was a classic neck of femur fracture, and they have done a good job of screwing her up! She was able to sit out of bed, but spent most of her time asleep, and, although she knew perfectly well who we were, where he was, and why, she was a bit "wandery" and not totally with it. Only to be expected.

We sat with her for awhile, and I went to the Office to wrestle with insurance forms, which I have filled in but need signed - we couldn't get them in a format where the hospital could print them off, alas. Anyway, I hope it will be all right, and I hope to speak to the insurers tomorrow.

Best case scenario, from our point of view, would be for them to arrange an air ambulance to our local hospital on Friday, but whether that can happen, I don't know. 

She was very sleepy, so we came away and left her to sleep - best thing for her at this stage, of course.

We drove a bit round the town, but it was still too hot to want to walk round the big church.

The photos have blurry marks from the WoMo window on them! And I forgot Blogger only looked sideways photos. Oh well ! 

Back to the campsite, we have been sitting outside, catching up with things. The SW is getting supper, and then I expect we will do what we did last night, which was sit and read until the midges and darkness and late hour drove us in! 

Summer Break, 29 July 2024

Saint-Junien, Limousin

My mother was more cheerful this morning, and had stopped moaning in pain, thankfully. She said she was still in really bad pain, though, "Worse than having a baby". 

We stayed with her all morning, interrupted by various doctors, nurses, almoners, etc, and then went back to the WoMo to do some shopping and have lunch. Too hot to eat, really. It's about 35 C here!

When we got back to the hospital, no Mum! She had gone down to theatre about 5 minutes earlier. We were told we should ring up about 6:30 or 7:00 pm, so we decided to go to Oradour-sur-Glane and visit the memorial village there, where the Nazis had murdered 643 people in June 1944.

Sadly, it was too hot to really enjoy it; I ended up standing in the shade where there was a lovely breeze while the Swan Whisperer did a very quick explore. We went back to where we had parked the WoMo, but there his keys weren't! He went to retrace his steps and to ask if they had been handed in, which luckily they had, but that was a nasty few minutes there! I do have a spare set, but even still!

So we went back to the campsite  and sat in the shade and dozed until it was time to ring the hospital. Who said Mum was back on the ward and all had gone well, and we could visit her this evening if we wanted to. Which we did, but we didn't stay long, preferring to let her rest. It was suggested that we not go in before official visiting hours start at 13:00, as the mornings get busy with treatments, washings, X-rays, etc. I was quite relieved, as had the staff been worried, they would have let us in any time! 

We came back to the campsite, used the services, and are soon going to eat. Oh, and I bought some more nectarines, and of course, the missing ones promptly turned up! 

Is it really still only Monday?