Phew! What a summer 😎

This morning we took our time with breakfast, walking the dogs, popping into the village and carrying out the usual engine checks before leaving our berth.  After all, we have less than an hour before we get there!  Our lock keeper joined us as we arrived at the first of 2 locks and he happily discussed the weather and how he hoped it would continue so he didn’t have to put the heating on!

As we entered the last lock it struck us both that not only had we been through this lock 16 years ago heading in the opposite direction towards the Med, but also that we had walked to this lock on numerous occasions over the past 3 years.  We’re on home turf.

Passing the house was brilliant – a perspective we have never seen before and when we saw Arnaud’s van parked next door we sounded the horn until eventually he came out to see what all the fuss was about.  We were past him by then but I waved frantically back at him.  It was just after midday and by the time we’d turned in the port to come back to the house he’d gone home for lunch.  After we’d settled the boat and opened the house up, he and Sarah arrived back with a trailer full of wood for their current project of getting their house finished and ready to move in.  It was lovely to see them and it’ll be great getting to know them and their family even better through this winter.

And so, that’s it for the year.  The winter will see us turn our little house into a home and we’ll spend the entire time planning what we’ll do next year, no doubt.

For now it is a bientôt from us.  Thank you to everyone who have followed our journey from Maldon to Diou.  We hope to see you soon xx

Ps – there are bound to be endless disasters to share as we change the house around, so watch this space!