Today marks the start of the annual Fête des Lumières and therefore also the start of the annual visite de la belle-mère. Drove out to the airport to collect her at lunch-time in glorious, almost spring-like weather. Unfortunately the forecast for the rest of the weekend is threatening a repeat of last year's weather conditions which gave us driving rain and wind for most of the 4-day event.
I retrieved la voiture from our friendly local mechanic before heading off to the airport, swooning at the size of the bill for the service. Not, I hasten to add, because garages here overcharge any more than their counterparts across La Manche. In fact I'd say our jolly garage owner is a particularly friendly, helpful and honest example of his breed. The size of the bill owed rather more to the age of the car. As we're driving to the UK for les vacances de Noël we decided we'd better get it serviced first.
Bad decision. Or good decision, depending on how you look at it. Clutch on the point of failure, bald front tyres, leaking radiator. All needed replacing. Total bill: erm, rather a lot. Let's hope it lasts another few years while we console ourselves that, having been given the chance to buy the garage we currently rent, we still have a car to put in it.
