The last few days

Friday 11 January

As we have decided that we leave the car at home, we're staying put too! :-)  By now we've seen enough I would say, and what we haven't seen will still be there if we ever decide to come back...  All good things come to and end, although we both agree, it would be lovely to come back in summer time some day.  Who knows.  There might be someone willing to exchange in the area or some other nice spot near the mountains.

Anyway, today we're staying home.  I have started to do the final washing and ironing, have to update the blog, which is quite a substantial job every time (what will I do with my time when we're back home???) and there is still the matter of the next house exchange.  So far all requests meet with negative responses, but we plod on...

I don't do much on the computer at night, because that's Frank's time.  He's watched all episodes of Flodder (a Dutch series for those who're not familiar with it), which doesn't really take my fancy, so in the meantime I read or keep myself occupied playing wordfeud.  Since Frank's finished the series a bit early he also catches up with the movies that I've seen, but happen to be on the laptop still: Cabaret and Fairy Tale - A True Story.  Both movies worthwhile watching.  I still have a few left for next time, but it's time I go and talk with somebody to see if we can get a few more... ;-)

Saturday 12 January

We're up early and wake up to a white world again.  No, no snow unfortunately, but frost.  Not very good, because the plan was to go to the car wash today to leave a sparkling clean car for René, but no such luck.  After the baker has been and we have said our goodbyes, we drive to St Siméon de Bressieux and fill up the car.  Alas, when Frank enquires after the car wash the lady says it's doubtful that it will work today, and she's right.  It's a no go.

So, we do our shopping so that we can re-stock the pantry and fridge and go back home.  It's lunch time, so we're going to have a quick bite to eat and then Frank will go out and wash the car by hand while the sun is still shining.  In the meantime Kevin appears on skype and we have a nice last chat before we see each other again next week.  They are planning to drop by on Saturday, so it will be great to see the family again.

After lunch Frank tackle's the car.  It's not an easy job, because there is ice on top of the water in the concrete 'pond' outside, meaning it's very, very cold!  There is no hose (or rather, the tap doesn't work), so the job needs to be done by hand.  Ah well, in the end the car sparkles in the sun.  He's done a nice job.

While Frank is cleaning the car I start with the packing and that part of the cleaning which can be done a day or two before we leave.  There is always last minute stuff, but we'll tackle that on Monday morning before we leave.

At the end of the afternoon the car and upstairs are done, as well as the major work in the bathroom. We can finally sit down and relax a bit with a glass and some nibbles.  We leave downstairs for tomorrow.   We spend some time again sorting through the home exchange site and see if there is anything else on offer that takes our fancy.  That's all so far.  This will probably the last update before we are leaving.  The next one I may do once we're back home, and that will be the final one till our next exchange, or.... I don't know yet, I may make this into a joint travelling and geocaching blog.  We'll see.  I'll let you know either way.