Leaving Perth on 3 May 2011 at 14.25 with Malaysian Airlines and meeting up with Richard at Kuala Lumpur as he is flying direct from Melbourne. Together we then resume our journey with Malaysian Airlines and arrive at Heathrow at 5.05 am on 4 May.
We are staying 2 nights at the Elwood Hotel which is alleged to be 3 minutes walk from Kings Cross St Pancras station to which we will take the tube from Heathrow. We will of course not be permitted access to our rooms until 2pm, but hopefully they will store our luggage whilst we stagger off exhausted but excited to do some exploring.
On 6 May we meet up with Myles, Elspeth, Thomas and Alice at St Pancras to Eurostar to Paris at 11.32, arriving in Paris at 14.47 having lunched on the journey. We will be met by a minibus to take us to our apartment for 7 nights at 14 rue Charles Nodier, 75108 which is in Montmartre and next to Sacre Coeur. We all have our plans for this week - in particular Thomas to go to Euro Disney which party will definitely not include me.
On 13 May we are collected again at 9.30 at the apartment by our mini bus to take us to Orly airport to fly to Toulouse. We arrive there at 1.pm and collect our car which I have leased for a month. This is a Renault estate which is licensed to carry five adults and 3 children so we should squeeze in with our luggage, but just in case, I will take some ocky straps to use on the roof rack.
We then drive north to our next home - 1 Place de la Jougario in the village of St Antonin Noble Val which is a medieval village in the midi pyrenes which has some very old, beautiful buildings and an interesting history of conquest and religeous intolerance from the English, the French and the Papists. The area is very rural and noted for its production of duck and walnuts. I am meeting the owner of the house on Saturday morning to collect the key and next Tuesday having lunch with a woman who lives in the next village. I shall know more following both of those encounters.
Myles, Elspeth, Richard, Thomas and Alice will remain with me until 27 May and then we drive back to Toulouse and deposit them to make their way home to London and eventually Perth and Melbourne. I will be picking up Lyn Sherwood and her partner Angela that day as well as Wendy Treasure and her mum Claire from Toulouse airport and we then return to St Antonin. The five of us will remain for another 2 weeks exploring before we all depart for home on 10 June. Wendy and her mum to fly back to London, Lyn and Angela to fly on to Rome and I am training solo back to London having a lovely 5.5 hour journey through the countryside. I am really looking forward to that trip alone after 5 weeks of being with a houseful!
Upon arriving back from Paris via Eurostar on 10 June at 10.34 I return to the Elwood hotel for one last night and then fly home via Malaysian Airlines at 10pm on 11th June, arriving home at a little after midnight on 13 June.
I am setting up this blog so that I dont have to email everyone and can keep you up to date whilst I am away with photos etc.
If I do need to be contacted while away - I have a different email address which is margaret.madge.jordan@gmail.com and I have a different mobile phone number which is
0011 44 4478 72277620.
