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Day 240 (Holiday 11/17): Bit of a lie in to 7.30 and the sky was clear the sun shone bright and the air was cool and I woke up not drenched on sweat. Meagre brek for all (but I with my porridge) and somehow we are driving down the hill by 9.30. Stop to admire Les Orgues then into IST for cafe breakfast. Of course we looked at all of them before plonking down at the last one only to be told it was drinks only. Decided to do that and buy stuff at the marche. Waiter (owner?) did rather give the impression it was a bit odd to expect breakfast from a cafe. Toilets were fun too - gents was a small cubicle with a movie western style double louvre door. But as so often in France what seems quite open still effectively conceals The Business aspects of the job in hand. Son managed to spill his chocolate chaud by swatting a fly with it then we went to the marche and bought water and a pile of sticky pastries. Set off up the valley stopping at a few places en route to admire the stunning views. Saw the little yellow train on the way. Finally found the turn off for Les Bains a Thomas wot sit then had some scary reversing moments up hill along a very narrow lane to find the right road eventually; followed the narrow winding tight scary 2km road to a small cramped overfilled car park. I waited for a space while Wife took kids in. As I wait for them with a delicious cafe au lait I do wonder if I've parked in a space covered by the tow-away warnings but I can see it down the hill and so far so good. Well eventually I got their attention and they were ready to leave so we set off back down the scary road. It turned out to be a bit less scary on the way back though the road back to main road was a tad steep. En route to Villefranche for Slap Up Lunch stopped in a layby to snap the rail viaduct. Just as I lined up the shot the little yellow train appeared on it. Cool. Once in VF managed a hairy parking move then we were into the town. Fully enclosed by a very medieval looking wall seemed small and nice. However all the restaurants were now shut so we ended up having a snack lunch which was ok just not Slap Up. I had salad because I'm trying to be good and maybe had a bit too much "taxing" past day or so (that's where I don't have a dessert, I just have a nibble of everyone elses - and let me tell you, what Son gives me is not going to affect my blood sugar at all). I left a fair tip of 4 euros but paid meal with card so asked waiter while it was processing what forecast was (had to do in French which worked well I've clearly still got It) - after struggling to get signal on his iPhone (and *after* I tipped him, so he was just being nice!) he showed me it was thundery showers for next two days. Oh dear that could be a laugh. Once done we checked out the church which was a bit unusual as it had a variety of weird statues (not stone so much as mannequins). Seems the town was two streets plus the wall so rest of time checking out shops. The crystal shop had some quite big pieces including a huge tube of amethyst but it's main feature were lots of fountains that had rotating polished crystal spheres on them. I presume there is a motor driving these as I find it unlikely water pressure alone would keep the motion so uniform. Not a friendly shop as everything said "ne pas toucher" and photography not permitted. Stuff em. Up the road a much nicer shop which had done coloured stuff in bottles and he was very happy to let me photograph his wonderful display. Finally we returned to the car at which point I realised that in all the fun of trying to park in a ridiculously tight space, we hadn't actually paid. There was no fine/notice attached to the car so maybe nobody noticed but I bought a ticket anyway, so if it comes in the post in 6 months (like happened with the Italy traffic zone fine, even though I'm convinced I turned back before the signs) I can tell them what happened and beg for leniency (it was 2e for the whole day so maybe they don't check so often). I guess time will tell. If we did get away with it that feels like Holiday Karma is balanced after last year's travesty of justice. So down the road to IST where we did a mega shop then up the hill home. Got parked in the square again and two trips to unload later the usual evening followed: Wife bathed the kids cos they can't wash themselves, she cooked tea and the kids whinged about the fact it wasn't cheese sauce then whined so much about how spicy it was that Wife rinsed the pasta(!) then kids to bed while I washed up and delivered La Morte to les flies then I won at blokus. Slight variations tonight: I took a replacement litre of milk to the hotel but it turned out Mdm Riberre had already done so (I didn't want it so left for them anyway). Can't think how we might express further thanks unless we see her at the bar again (which wasn't open tonight). Also Wife whined like mad about me thinking during our game of blokus. It's hard being me sometimes.
Today's pic: had to include one of the train today because we did go on it later in the week (but ironically didn't get a good shot of it that day, and in any case the ones *from* the train were better.)