Renovation Project - The mice have eaten my shoes!

Renovation Project - The mice have eaten my shoes!

We don’t get chance to sort out the tax d’habitation before we leave, but that can wait, the bill is paid. A big word of advice is to pay the bill and then to sort out any problem afterwards, In France it is not advisable to question it first.

We set off for the morning ferry, this time with no hiccups, no delays and no problems. I can’t wait to see my daughter and grandbaby.

We travel on the morning ferry and take advantage of the discount available on the crossing and book the best cabin, wow are we glad we did that, we have the equivalent of a pent house compared to my little metal coffin, there is a table and chairs, TV and a knock on the door asking f we would like room service breakfast, I have to check if it is in included and it is, this was definitely worth the extra money, we even have a fruit basket and a pack of macarons (obviously everything goes into my bag as we leave the ferry, including the gift set toiletries!)

We arrive in Plymouth and drive straight to Cheshire, we are going to spend time with my parents first. It is so lovely to see everybody again. Living so far from family makes the time you spend together so much more special.

I have a meeting with Stockport NHS this week, I’m looking forward to using my brain again after spending so long scrubbing floors, I just hope it goes well.

Many days are spent shopping, we had bought a lot of presents in France but the car is not big enough to bring a present for everybody, so there’s plenty left to do. We also get to baby sit for my grandbaby and we take her shopping as well, she looked so cute in the shopping trolley and we get to spin her all over, shopping trolleys are so much more fun when you have kids with you, without the kids you just get funny looks off other shoppers.

We try to arrange the sleeping and visiting arrangements for Christmas day, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning are all sorted, but it’s what order we do the rest of the day in.

We spend the morning with my parents, my daughter and her partner and my grandbaby, and my brother and his family, it really is a proper family Christmas, and Poppy gets to try her first Panettone, she’s also not for letting it go!

All goes very smoothly with a visit to friends, Johns bother and his family and John’s daughter we topped off with the night at Johns parents. It’s just wonderful to see everybody happy.

It feels strange not having to fit everybody into just one day as we are not leaving on Boxing day this year so the whole trip is a lot more relaxed with time to visit everybody.

Saying our goodbyes is as difficult as ever and it is so hard to say goodbye to my daughter and granddaughter, but she knows who we are and loves us, so that is the best present ever!

We head over to our friends on the farm and have a wonderful evening and then spend the night in the mobile home that they have, not such a good idea with the terrible weather and it rocks for most of the night, and not in a good way!

The following day we go through our stuff in the barn only to find that the mice and rats went through it first! There will be the most glittery and sparkly nests ever in their barns as I look at my Christmas decorations and find they have eaten them! The mini mirror baubles are bald and I can just imagine the mice having Christmas parties.

The most upsetting bit is that some of our photo’s have also been eaten and our bag of shoes and boots that we couldn’t take with us have also been had, but for some reasons they have only had a go at one of each pair, my beautiful yellow boots are a mess (my daughter was over the moon when I told her and told me it was an opportunity to get rid of my horrible stuff and start again, we do have different taste in clothes) but the one positive and all you women out there will understand this, is that the bag of clothes that were too small for me, but too nice to throw away were untouched and now fit me! So it’s like taking a whole new wardrobe back to France.

We take two boxes with us with some ornaments and our canteen of cutlery, so at least we can invite people round to dinner now without having to borrow knives and forks and it’s almost time to head back to France.