It’s the eve of the long anticipated trip to finally complete and I feel a bit nauseous. It’s taken a long time to get to this point and it’s probably a mixture of fear, excitement, grownupiness, cluelessness, being convinced that there’s both a pet cemetery and an Indian burial ground under the chicken run and who knows what else. But, we shall approach this with the same amount of relentless optimism and “what’s the worst that can happen” attitude we applied when deciding over a Nandos ( where we make all important decisions) to get a dog. Or the camper van. But I digress.

We’re really doing this. You’ll all be pleased to know that the ludicrously expensive paint is safely stowed at our in-laws, probably next to the wood burning stove Hubs spotted on Le Boncoin (think le Gumtree), and all the other crap purchased at either Carrefour or the brocante on previous trips. It’s the least we can do to come bearing gifts of Murray Mints, Yorkshire Tea bags and Oil of Ulay, like some very cheap, very British wise men. You’ve been brilliant, thanks for all you’ve done.

2 suitcases are stuffed to the gills with everything from knife blocks to pillows to the infamous chicken shaped chopping board. Plus the aperitif glasses for drinking the bottle of hazelnut liquer picked up on our trip to Brive earlier this year, when we finally have the keys!!!! I think it says a lot about us that we have no mugs, just booze glasses……

Next….. Straight off the plane….