Yes - that's true - it's more the £££ than the time spent isn't it?

Yep. 

Well, first Wednesday leaving early.... didn't feel good! Leaving tomorrow early will be welcome though, as I am going to France on Thursday for a week, so the additional time to get sorted on Wednesday will make things easier to get sorted and less chance of forgetting things!

Heck... whereabouts in France?  I was in Paris from Monday until lunchtime today...!!!

Wouldn't it be funny if we'd passed each other in the Metro / RER somewhere  and neither of us recognised the other...?!

Well I travelled from Paris airport to Les Îles Ménéfrier, which is a small neighbourhood in Quarré-les-Tombes.

It went well btw, but going to all the remembrance ceremonies and French resistance museums, along with some private museums was kinda tiring.

Btw, the inscription on the monument in the back reads as so:

"ICI TOMBERENT SEPT MAQUISARDS DE RETOUR D’UNE MISSION DE PARACHUTAGE PRIS DANS GUET-APENS NAZI LE 15.6.1944"

Which translates to:

"Here fell seven Ressistance fighters returning from a parachute mission caught in a Nazi ambush on 15.6.1944"

That's not too far down from Paris is it?

The train there is from Paris Bercy, if I remember correctly?

We used hire cars 😉

It's a few hours drive, but no, not too far!

Driving?!  I bet that was fun exiting the Paris area.....?!

Wasn't too bad actually, just took my cousin a little while to get used to how they drive in France, being on the wrong side of the road an' all. Though overall, the traffic was OK, only had to slow down a few times for any congestion, which didn't go on for very long, so no complaints about that!

The built-in SatNav however, this is where things went wrong.... tried taking us down dead-end roads or down private roads, but we got to where we wanted to go in the end!

My cousins will be going back this month, though they will be driving there from the Wirral and going over on the ferry, as they are collecting some relics from one of the people who lived there and saw the crash that night! We wanted to bring some things back, but as we were travelling by plane, we didn't want to risk getting them getting confiscated by customs. So we'll be getting the compass that was used on the plane, as well as some other scraps from the plane, which was a Halifax btw! My great-uncle was the rear gunner for the mission!

First time you've mentioned a wartime plance wreck... and really interesting about the personal connection.

Yes, you'd have had issues at CDG for sure trying to bring bits like that through.

Make sure any bits they do recover are obviously not weapon like; they do screen all cars at the ferry terminals ( you won't notice it, but they do... not as thoroughly as on the Euroshuttle though* )

*If their ferry back is cancelled and they get offered a choice of the Euroshuttle or waiting for a later boat - they should opt for the later boat even if it's several hours... they'll almost certainly get taken apart at Coquelles...

PS This is the half snipe...

You'll have to post some photos of what they do manage to recover.

As to the other bit... objection, m'lud... far too early to discuss that!!!

In a similar vein, did you see the Guy Martin documentary last night about Lancaster ED603?

Unfortunately no, I don't have any of my TV's hooked up to any aerials, plus, I have not had a TV licence since I moved into my house back at the end of 2017, so I can't watch TV anyways! 😅

Oh.... well... I wasn't expecting that!!

Just like no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!!

And now for something completely different...

Wondering if you managed to observe ant noctilucenbt clouds recently?  There's been some impressive displays... 

Unfortunately not, I've been fast asleep before nightfall in the last few days, which is messing up the ol' internal clock!

Hopefully I'll see some good cloudage when I'm in Scotland on Saturday!

Hopefully not the wrong sorts of clouds!!