Rain

Last night we once again spent a large part of the time sensible people spend asleep, sitting quietly in a restaurant with Celine and Dume pondering our life in France, their life in Australia, and everything in between.

Having come tot the conclusion that we will probably not live long enough to run out of things to ponder, we reluctantly headed north, back to the boat where our plans for the cruising season were about to come to fruition, and where we had the makings of a quiet and early night before heading off in the morning.

The speed limit on the motorway is reduced by twenty percent when it's raining though, and our five hour drive was quickly turning into six, as we ploughed on through what looked like drought breaking, if not torrential rain. The first floor planter boxes in Nancy had looked brown and crisp a day or two ago, but now we wondered if there was serious danger of them being washed away.

The phone rang despite the rain, and we found ourselves taking a diversion back to Lagarde, for a "quick" bite with Jacques and Maggie.

"Quick" of course does not mean exactly the same as it does in other places, and yet again we found ourselves struggling in the pouring rain, to find our way home before the dear little rental car turned into a pumpkin.

Not to worry, it was we thought, a nice way to begin our cruising season.

Tomorrow we would be away!