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| Villers-sur-Authie to Etaples | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 'La Bergerie' at Villers-sur-Authie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 'La Bergerie' (more info here) was another interesting find. Monsieur met us and went through the details of our accommodation - we had full access to the loft bedrooms as we were the only guests, and the rooms and decor were bright and clean. Pierre seemed to take care of everything, and I only caught a glimpse of Madame Sabine, as she emerged from her car in flowing cream, silk trouser-suit with matching wide-brimmed fedora, an image that can best be described as Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced 'bouquet', of course) meets Edna Everage! Worth a visit/stay, and, naturally, I'd love to know if you agree... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The gardens of 'La Bergerie' | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Only bed and breakfast was available here, so we had to return to Rue and 'Le Lion d'Or' hotel/restaurant for dinner. Surprisingly full, with the next table to ours consisting of ten Belgian males, who, it turned out, were also cylists. They were a little more dedicated than us, having a support van that carried their gear from stop-over to stop-over, allowing them to concentrate on speed and performance. Paul and I both agreed that we preferred to stick to our method! The next day saw us on our way again heading towards the distant and beckoning hills. Still, a few miles of flat terrain in the morning, and time for Paul to be interrupted with a work problem (hail, the mobile phone!!) |
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| Paul is a structural engineer and it wasn't that surprising to find him answering the odd call. I could tell straightaway by the exclamations of 'What?!' and ''You have to be joking!?!' coming from Paul that this one was a classic, though. A loft conversion. It was all simple enough, until the property owner decided he could hang a door himself and save time. The door was too proud for the frame by about four inches and there was this floor joist right in the way. |
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| You're never far from a mobile phone call...! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You guessed. Instead of adjusting the size of the door, he cut a large lump out of the floor joist, totally destroying the strength of this critically located beam! There wasn't much Paul could do to calculate the remedial work needed to try to restore its strength to meet structural regulations - not while he was in the middle of the French countryside, anyway. This was one where the situation would need to wait Paul's return - and the owner would therefore have ample time to reflect upon his questionnable carpentry skills! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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