On the road again

To be in Italy into November to pick our olives meant we could not return to the Schengen area until 21 September so we decided to make the journey to Kent, stay overnight and take an early tunnel crossing next morning to drive to Dijon.  Best laid plans.  

We decided to include in our journey a return visit for me, first for MrFF, to Sissinghurst, my favourite ever garden.  That was wonderful, as lovely as I remembered.  We got to our hotel the Holiday Inn at Ashford late afternoon.  I suggested we fill the car with fuel then rather than wait till next morning but MrFF has sussed there was cheaper fuel en route, ever the Yorkshireman.  

Our evening meal and breakfast were excellent, our room was spacious and comfortable, it was going so well.  We got lost sourcing the cheaper petrol and despite expectations of getting an earlier crossing we ended up missing the one we’d booked.  The crossing we were now on was delayed.  In Calais there were diversions that involved travelling away from the port then back again.  We arrived at our accommodation around 7.30 pm.

We were booked for 2 nights and spent a pleasant day in Dijon using the local bus.  The city has a wonderful food market, interesting buildings and a walking route marked by little brass owls embedded in the pavement.  We went off piste a few times and covered over 5 miles, it was a relaxing day.

We left next morning but hadn’t got very far when we had a call from our accommodation. MrFF had left his computer bag in reception, it contains his wallet, our passports, iPad and house keys. We were so grateful to the receptionist for contacting us so quickly, imagine if we’d got all the way into Italy to discover the loss.  In fact when we pulled up in the car park the receptionist rushed out with our bag, we couldn’t thank her enough.   

We enjoyed our stay in Aosta before the final day on the autostrada.  In fact we had time to drive up to Pila the ski resort above Aosta that was a stage finish on this years Giro d’Italia. 

Our final day wasn’t as bad as we expected, definitely less lorries than usual, we wondered if it was a holiday in the north.  We finally exited the autostrada, I put our ticket into the toll machine, nothing happened.  I pressed the help button several times and MrFF went to apologise to the several drivers who were waiting behind us. One man came to help me, I explained the situation and he asked me where we had come from.  Aosta I said, Rome Sud he replied, that is just up the road and costs a few euros.  No Aosta I said, in the north, in the mountains, we left this morning. Then the help line came on, my helper took control and told them we’d come from Aosta, the screen showed 82 euros and some cents which I paid and the barrier opened.  

MrFF returned to the car,  my helper turned back to his, Aosta he said to MrFF smiling, I would have preferred Roma Sud said the Yorkshireman who then asked me why I hadn’t agree to Roma Sud and saved a lot of money.   

We picked milk bread and pizza in the village and were soon at our house to be greeted by Olive our cat.  I was so happy to see her and for the journey to be over, let’s not think about having to do it in reverse in a few weeks time.

We’ve had friends here for a week, time mostly spent in the sun on our terrace, chatting and reading with some gardening.  Now they’ve left we need to think about the olive harvest.  The mills have opened earlier than usual,  people are picking. Our olives are very small but the ones I cut open seemed to have plenty of oil. Friends who started harvest at the weekend said it’s a nightmare with such small olives that are hard to detach from tree, it’s taking an age.  We will hang on a bit longer and hope our crop does too.