Bumper to bumper

Ste Cécile
Yesterday's weather: mild, mixed sun and cloud

We took the 'pretty route' down to Toulouse yesterday. It took far longer than it should have but we saw a lot of scenery and travelled many roads that we wouldn't normally need to take. Traffic was almost non-existent. We were surprised at the change in landscape from limestone to woodland to chalky vineyards then heath then rolling fertile hillsides and then we hit the outskirts of Toulouse - yuk.

For the first time in many months we found ourselves crawling along in queues of traffic. It was 5.30pm and people were leaving work to head home. The volume of traffic was no doubt increased because of the transport workers strike, but we found it very tiresome. Did we really used to do that every day? It seems like a lifetime ago sitting in the queue waiting to get out of Guildford, or trudging along the busy road to stand on a crowded platform and catch a train.

We are so looking forward to making a visit back to the UK to see the grandchildren.

Well, I'm sure that without the M25, M40 and M42 it would be very pleasant.