From Barbados to Avignon via Abersoch and....Miss England

The long night flight from Barbados was tempered by being upgraded to a Traveller World Plus seat which meant a little more room...but sleep still avoided us. We arrived at Gatwick ‘knackered’, looking like we hadn’t had a wash in our entire 6 weeks away in the Caribbean. MOG was still dressed in sandals and shorts not quite suitable for a crisp early spring morning taxi drive to Ockley. Undeterred by some surprised looks we drove back to Cheshire in a daze, only to ‘face’ eleven nights of socialising and catching up with old friends, family and found ourselves busy sorting out a few problems at our home, shopping and of course trying to plan the next section of OGGY.

This was interrupted by a ‘holiday’ at a friend’s cottage in Abersoch. Our elder son joined us at Chester and the drive down with an already heavily loaded car must have looked comical as the exhaust system sat barely above the tarmac. FOG loved his company but what a shame the younger one couldn’t come...he then turned up that evening unannounced! Naturally the provisions dried up within a few hours but a happy FOG was first to bed with a smile only a contented mother can muster.

The two boys cooking breakfast

The last of the food was devoured in the morning and was followed by one of those special days walking down beaches followed by tea and clotted cream scones, (have gone soft in the head)! Despite a whole day of continual catching up on everyone’s recent events; many stories remained half told, if at all.

FOG & offspring on beach



The weekend ‘break’ rushed by and we found ourselves preparing for the journey or more accurately ‘tour’ to Sardinia, Sicily and then back to Rome for Mid-June. On our last morning in Cheshire a call from a neighbour, who owns the farm next door, saw MOG dash back for a champagne breakfast…it was ladies day at Chester Races. There he stumbled upon Miss England, dressed resplendent for the occasion. She was not however prepared for the ignominy of being photographed with the one of the OGGY’s...she clearly had not heard of us... and didn’t really comprehend my request for her to become FOG2!

Miss England, or FOG2, meets an ‘unknown’ celebrity...






Rushing back and chatting about my recent encounter, to the somewhat stony faced FOG1; we drove back to France. Then MOG had a spate of forgetful moments. Maps and notes for the forth coming trip were packed away, never to be found; overnight bags left in hotels and MOG found staring aimlessly at the car wondering where he had put a certain vital document. Was this age playing a nasty game or had Miss England bewitched him…

Once again the Channel Tunnel was a dream and we arrived in Troyes with no hotel booking...a bit of an experiment for us... yes, yes, yes we did finally find a tiny annex to sleep in but we weren’t to know it was a French Bank Holiday weekend. This was then compounded by our experience in Avignon. FOG still has a lot more sympathy for the Frogs..., sorry French, than MOG, but for our cousins across the channel that was all about to change.

The next day we arrived in Avignon a lot earlier only to be sucked into the one way system of this delightfully attractive and ancient walled town...for over an hour. We had that afternoon established a hotel right in the heart of the city that did have rooms available at a ‘fair’ rate...well fair for the robbing French b******ds…, sorry, no more insults. Stuck in a one way street the wrong way, but with the hotel frustratingly in sight, FOG leaps out of the car to book-in and ask for help in parking the car. At reception she was informed the room rate had effectively doubled and when she protested she received the Gallic shrug...she returned to the car in a fury; her comments are unprintable. By this time our car had managed to cause almost total gridlock but undeterred MOG called and speaking his best Italian, booked a room at the original rate! MOG then leapt out of the car and ran to the hotel leaving FOG to try and placate several irate French drivers. MOG managed to charm the reception staff telling them all about OGGY and was promptly up-graded to a superior room! However the atmosphere did change when FOG entered the reception…, now if she had been Miss England!

The ancient city of Avignon




Avignon is actually a stunningly beautiful old city and the hotel in question was, in the end, first class...but the lasting memory for MOG was two men kissing, not once, not twice but three times as they met in a bar...will this ever catch on in Cheshire? I HOPE NOT…

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