I'm back!

Well back in the UK after a fantastic break in France for nearly 3 weeks. It all started pretty badly, with the clutch failing on our tow car the day before we were going to leave. After speaking to a varied amount of people (some cowbows and some who obviously knew what they were on about), it appears that our car is known for getting through clutches. I rang the caravan club to see if they could offer any advice. As we'd taken out some comprehensive travel cover with them, they could supply a hire car equivalent if they couldn't get it fixed. By 4pm (16 hours until we wanted to set off), we had decided that it was not possible to repair the car in time, so a hire car was arranged, but it was coming from London over night and wouldn't get to us until 10am at the earliest. This news was both a relief (that we were going to get away) and also a frustration, as we wanted to leave at 8.30. We checked that we could change our ferry if we needed to and then waited. Practical the hire company were brilliant, and they delivered the car, a very luxurious Nissan Pathfinder and we got it loaded up, hitched and we were on our way just before mid-day. That meant we had 4 hours to get to Dover, which in turn meant no stopping on route, if we were to meet our ferry.

We made it (with minutes to spare), and as we sat and had our first French beer that evening, Tasha's dad said "Well, you are here, on the ferry that you booked as planned". It was true, although it had been stressful.

The rest of the holiday was a breeze in comparison. There was a lot of long day driving, to get to the Dordogne, but it was all worth it - and the in-car DVD player that we bought helped no end with the boredom for the children. Straight back into work yesterday was a shock to the system, but a little French wine on the return home, just made the holiday feeling trickle back into the system for a while.

Of course now the taks of getting our original car repaired is upon us!

We were all very grateful to Simon at Practical in Leicester, and Will at the CC Travel line for getting us on hoiliday.