Renovation project - How fast can I get back to the UK from France?

Renovation project - How fast can I get back to the UK from France?

I am so glad that we finished the ceiling yesterday as I received a call saying that my grans funeral will be on Thursday, that is 2 days away.

I check for flights and the only flight to the UK is today and leaves in an hour, we live 2 hours away from the airport! I then check the ferries and there is 1 leaving this afternoon, my daughter says she will drive to Plymouth to pick me up if I get this ferry.

This is the first time I have not panicked about leaving, maybe due to the fact that I only had enough time to throw something’s into a bag and set off.

I leave John at the ferry terminal and have a very sad sail over to the UK.

Getting off the ferry as a foot passenger is very different to driving through and the security is tighter than the airport, police are there with sniffer dogs checking everybody as they leave, the dog gets really excited at one man’s case and he is explaining that there may be chocolate in there, and he has to open it and now there maybe sesame seeds in a bag, I am gutted as I go through as I really wanted to stay and watch! I have no idea whether he made it past the guards or not!!!!

Once outside my daughter calls and says the weather and roads have been terrible and she is running late, no problem as I can sit in the terminal at Plymouth, but this closes soon, the staff are fabulous and leave me locked in to the terminal with the security patrolling regularly.

She arrives and I drive the car back as the journey has just taken her 6 hours, it takes the same amount of time to get back to my parents as the sat nav got us lost in Plymouth and the weather was dreadful again.

It is so nice to be back, I knew my gran didn’t have long left and I always said I would be there for my mum if she needed me, it took longer than planned but we do know now that if we need to get back the longest it will take is 12 hours.

The funeral was lovely, I won’t go in to any detail as this is private even for me, but I am sure my gran would’ve been really impressed with it.

There's a generation missing

5 generations of one family, goodbye gran

I spend a few days with my family before booking a flight home, my daughter drives me to the airport, I really don’t know what I would’ve done without her over the past few days and I cannot tell her enough how much I love her and miss her.

The death and the funeral really bring it home that we are not there for our families, this is quite difficult and we consider that in our year in France there has been a birth, a death, serious illness and our one year anniversary here, have we made the right decision, should we have left everybody and everything behind us, are we being selfish following our dreams?

These are questions you will ask yourself many times if you make a move like this and you do need to talk about it, with each other and with your family.

But we know we have made the right decision, we can get back if we need to and they can come and stay with us if they need to. We moved for a reason and if we were in the UK we wouldn’t be seeing that much more of our family as we would have to be working long hours to be able to afford to live in the UK and the stress would probably kill us off long before it is time for us to go.

So you may question yourself and your sanity but we know, as do our families that we made the right decision, even though I am in tears on the flight back over on my own, and then when I come out of customs at the airport and see John waiting for me, the flood gates open again, but I am home now.

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