All's well that ends well.

 

 
I wish that every day was Saturday and every month was October.”
― Charmaine J. Ford. I agree as it's my birthday then!

 

What happened last Saturday

 Saturday mornings here in Normandy are a bit different to how they were in South London.

Last Saturday morning a snake dropped down next to me on the patio. Sid (that’s his name) used to have a piece of trellis to slide down but we have removed it so now he has to do a Mission Impossible fall. Tim got shouted at (by me) as he went to pick it up. I know they are not dangerous (apparently anything under a metre is a Vipère and is dangerous, the rest are grass snakes).

Sid is over 4 feet long and is a light green colour so he’s a grass snake. I did not fancy starting the day at Urgence with a snake bite (not the drink!!) anyway, Sid slinked off in a huff and hide under the yucca plant and Tim did the same (but not under the yucca).

How different were my mornings in South London, where the only thing I had to pick up on a Saturday morning was an empty cider can that someone had lobbed over the garden wall. I don’t miss the South, it’s too busy for me now, if we ever go back, it would have to be somewhere quiet so we would need to go further North and I would struggle with the weather (mind you the weather here is truly grim at the moment).

Things I miss from the UK:

M&S food- I ran into a service station recently in the UK and was stopped in my tracks with the sight of an M&S food store filled to the brim with delicacies such as mini pork pies and coleslaw!

Pret a manger/Costa- the coffee here in France is good and very strong but I do miss a skinny flat white.

A good country pub- nothing beats sitting around a fire in the winter or outside in the Summer -we stayed at a lovely one recently in the New Forest but I’ll come back to that.

Skimmed milk- the milk here is so creamy, even the demi-écrémé- Notice how so far it's all been food related.

Waterstones book shop- love a mooch there, could stay all day.

Talking of Mission Impossible- we went back for a family wedding recently. It was a gorgeous event and was so lovely to catch up with my mother’s side of the family. We had a great day but the evening did not end well.

We arrived back at the pub, it was late, pitch black and raining heavily. I remembered that I had handed in our room key on the way out- don’t know what I was thinking especially as my sister and brother- in- law had changed in our room and all of their things were in there (including their room key). We tried ringing and emailing the hotel but no joy as it was all shut up (there was an emergency number apparently but that was in the room too!).

We envisaged a long, cold night ahead in the car but Tim went into Ethan Hunt mode and after doing a lot of climbing he found an unlocked door which turned out to be the Manager's bedroom- he got a bit of a surprise when Tim wandered in but he found it very amusing.

We went to see Mission Impossible at the cinema in the Casino at Bagnoles -de l'Orne and that was all about a lost key too!

Waiting for the Summer to return – feels very autumny at the moment (is that even a word?), it’s been very wet and I’ve got shutters to paint.