Month: May 2026

The 2026 trip was officially put into operation a month or so ago with the booking of the ferry to France. The plans were considered in the shadow of the Trump & Netanyahu and their governments’-induced needless loss of hundreds if not thousands of innocent lives from illegal bombings & targeting of civilians in Iran & Lebanon, reciprocal shelling on sites in the Gulf states, shortages of resources with impact for food production across the world, and other significant impact on global economies and the person in the street arising from this and the diesel price instability and hikes and fuel shortages, adding to the continuing Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank, and of course Ukraine still fighting off the other tyrant. I’ll record these unprecedented, at least in my lifetime, sufferings whose responsibility falls according to my study on those 3 war criminals and their sycophantic, greedy and power-addicted enablers, for when I may look back from however my near-future unfolds.

At the moment this minion is fortunate and thankful to be many steps removed from all this. Since last writing, two grandsons have been born to my daughter and youngest son and their partners. I was struck on visiting to give them all a last hug before this grand depart, by how much I will miss the little ones. I am able to enjoy spending alot of time with them, and other little great nieces and nephew who also live locally, which is such a joy despite being knackering. My granddaughter who is now almost 3, loves coming into ‘Nanavan’ and when I opened the bathroom door to remind her of what was behind it, she again caused such a laugh with her main  expression of toilet expertise – namely “is that a soft-close lid?” My little shower room equipment doesn’t thankfully extend to a hand dryer, of which she is pathologically scared.

My choice of day to drive towards the south coast avoiding bank holiday Monday traffic proved wise as once again I entered into a very nostalgia-evoking memory lane with Heart 70s radio. A lovely journey break and stop over with relatives near Oxford and then the ferry with a calm sea and bright day heading for Le Havre, France from Portsmouth. No reservations initially but just target places on my travel list to Carcassone and then upto Germany & the Netherlands.

Off the ferry and we were not put through any Schengen border new requirements. The 2-hour journey to the planned first night stopover at the free motorhome parking provided by Giverny, worked. How fantastic to be on the continent where the philosophy hasn’t been to monetise every blade of grass or parking space. What would have been the overnight cost was able to be spent on the entrance fee for the Monet museum, house and garden. Very busy it has to be said, causing me not to want to join the big queue to get into the house from the gardens, but I got the picture! 🙂 Heavy overnight rain had dissipated and it’s been a really pleasant day. Am so happy in this free setting that I’m staying another night, and then will head to a site closer towards Paris for a day of train plus cycle tomorrow. Just one minor annoyance in that there’s a known problem with my TV aerial which needed fixing and I had forgotten about it. This realisation was prompted by the concept of trying to see if PSG vs Bayern Munich might be available this evening so that I could watch some good football and see who Arsenal will meet in the Champions League final.