Dad says:

Sadly, I had to get up early on Saturday morning. I drove down to Barcelona (2h 45m) to pick up our friends, Kevin and Michelle, who will be visiting here for 3 weeks. Part way down I realized I did not have any flight info, I did not have my home phone number, nor did I have my passport with me. Not exactly prepared for a multi country journey. Fortunately, my GPS took me to the correct terminal (perhaps by fluke) and there they were waiting for me. Whew !
On our return journey we decided to head to the coast and check out the top bit of Spain and into France on our way back to Perpignan. It’s an absolutely stunning coastline with a crazy road that snakes along the coast line like a trail would out in East Sooke Park. Amazingly blue water in contrast with the red roofs and the green hills. The vegetation in Spain was surprisingly different from our part of France, as there was corn, wheat, sunflowers and very treed mountain sides. We’re a one crop town around here …grapes.

We stopped for lunch and a swim at Banyuls by the Sea. The beach was smooth gravel opposed to sand, but the water was perfect. My first good swim here. I’m usually a sinker, so it’s cool to be able to float effortlessly in the sea. The rest of the drive was nice, but a little more boring, as my jet-lagged friends were passed out for most of the ride.

Upon our return home, I met Jacqui in the house who was a little frazzled by the neighbour children (Romain and his twin sisters Manon and Anise) who were in her face constantly and returning every three minutes when she asked them to give her half an hour. I think we’re going to have to start using the teacher voices with them, like their scary mother does, in order to get our point across. I should be videoing this Romain boy because he’s so over the top. Nothing frazzles him – takes it all in stide with a smile on his face. He knocked on our door and was waving a big American flag on a pole at us for some strange reason I could not understand…maybe you had to be there to fully enjoy the oddness of it ?
We’ve met most of the people here in Borde-Neuve now, and everyone is very nice. Romain’s mom is nothing like her yelling suggests. It’s just what she has to do with her kids !

We did take all the kids of Borde-Neuve to the little swimming hole down the path about 300 meters. Maybe their parents don’t take them very often, as their eyes popped out of their heads when they heard that we were going. It’s actually a pretty nice little place to swim and we had a good time. *Regarde moi, Madame* was the catch-phrase of the swim as kids were vying for our attention to watch tem jump, or float, or splash. They call me monsieur.
A nice meal with K&M and early to bed at midnight. My best sleep of the trip !!
Here is a picture of the breadman who comes everyday.