Arrived at Calais

8 hours from south!

Au revoir

After a night of shivering then the shits then sweating like a maniac with no sleep at all, it's time to say goodbye south west France.

Au revoir

The best meal we have ever had

Today is my real birthday. Natalie booked us into the local restaurant "L'Auberge de Bardigues", its a 2min drive / 10minute walk from where we are staying. Visit their website at http://www.aubergedebardigues.com/

It was the most amazing meal I have ever eaten - every course perfectly presented, cooked and so tasty. We ate in their open air terrace, high up above the village of Bardigues (see last photo for view!) Here are some pics :

Amuse-bouche

Starter - Natalie - Scallops

Starter - Darren - Duck three ways

Main - Both - Fillet of Beef. I have to say, that this dish alone has rekindled my joy of proper filleted beef, after a few recent disappointments back home, I was leaving beef for a while. However, the french know how to prepare a proper fillet. This was amazing. Perfectly cooked, melt in the mouth, beautiful sauce, not one bit of fat, lovely presentation. I cannot say it again - the best I have ever eaten and probably the last time ill eat this well (unless I come back here)

Desert - Both - A selection of  five!!! deserts.

The coffee was superb too!

Finally the view from our table

New Knife

Picked up a knife today, nice quality, 440 SS blade.

Mr Dragonfly

Very happy how this handheld shot came out!

Homemade Toulouse sausage cassoulet

Lovely!

I'll pass on this bottle

Vaping in France

Images from Toulouse

Excellent chef recommendation

Filet time tonto! - Updated!

Before...

During...

After :-)

Horse meat

Will be cooking this up later!

Sunflowers

Here are a few pics of my visit to a sunflower field today.

I am a Queen

The queen has two birthdays, so do I.

Today is my unofficial birthday!

We have visited Moissac, a roman french town, had a lovely lunch out. Been to the supermarket and stocked up on food for tonight (including horse fillet steak).

Its 36C today, Natalie encouraged (told) me to photograph a sunflower field  while she stayed at home and "prepared" for the queens birthday.

I returned to a lovely treasure hunt for presents in the grounds, decorations and wine!

All excellent surprises  lots of chilli related items, a nice "smart" watch and a lot of the good old amazonian vouchers from a famous rapper - thanks M&M.

My official birthday is the 11th July - I have more to open then!

Happy Birthday to me!

Stars

View of sky from villa, not handheld!

Plane in sky

Not too bad for handheld, high ISO has made it a bit grainy though

Glow worm

Had to take handheld, so a bit blurred unfortunately

Power station!

They have tours - we will visit.

No excuse for a dirty car

Snakes

A 1meter + bad ass motherfucker snake just slithered past me as I got out of the pool. 

I've now discovered the one animal I'm shit scared of - bad ass snakes.

I run like a bitch

Heat

11:35 am. In the 30's. 

Super BBQ!

Can't beat a real open fireplace

Clever supermarket price tags

Digital price tags!

Broadband speed test

Better than I expected.

Lets liven up south west France!

McDonalds in France - Genius

Avoid the language barrier using this

Be afraid of my big pink gun

We love you OutRun

Arrived!

Arrived a few hours back! Checked
out villa, cleaners not finished on villa (which is the most charming French villa ever!!) so in an ibis having a well deserved drink! Score! 1 1/4 tanks of petrol, average 110kmp/h average 51.4 miles per gallon. Very good trip. Two stop offs.

The blue dot is us.

Time for a break!

Thanks My Ferry link

Needed

First disaster (and were still in England)

Arrived at Dover, all good so far. However upon checking in for the ferry - I'm sorry Sir, your booked for tomorrow.

The ferry fairies were on our side though - managed to fit us on and refunded us £16. Bonus!

Disaster avoided.

Bungee

Bungee nets are great. Nothing's gonna move in there.

Preparing car for the drive

A good wash, full wax, oil and fluid top up!

Packing has begun :-(

Time to start charging, backing up data and packing cameras, tablets, laptops tripods & all the other holiday essentials. Going well. So much data to transfer off. HD camcorder is still full from our honey moon!

Last day of work!

It's dress down day and also my last day of work before holidays. How exciting!