Thankfully, we were woken up by Helene at 8, not 6. She said
‘we are very late and have to leave immediately’. She wasn’t joking about
wanting to leave immediately. I barely had time to throw clothes on before she
was back to tell us that we had to go!
The journey was awful as ever, although finally someone had
the idea that maybe I should sit by the door and not in the smallest seat in
the entire car given that I was the 2nd biggest person in the car…
After that it was a bit more comfortable but the kids were still completely
unaware of the concept of personal space.
We arrived at a Service station to pick up some breakfast at
around 10am. My headphones were broken by Hermine (she yanked them out of my
laptop on the ferry) so when I went in to go to the toilet I made a very speedy
stop in the shop to buy some more. Helene came in to tell me that they were
very late and now they were waiting for me I was wasting their time. I tried to
hurry up but not much I could have done faster. I went back out to the car to
find everyone sat on the grass eating, and definitely not waiting for me!
At some point we went past Avignon and the famous bridge – I
meant to take a picture but I didn’t have a window seat at the time so didn’t
get a chance.
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| Cat at the Train station Car park |
At about 1.30pm Helene told me they’d changed where Alienor
would be getting the train. She was supposed to be getting a train from Bourges
(I think) which was completely the wrong direction to where we were actually
going, and instead she was dropped off at the train station in a town called
‘Beaune’. The family used to live there apparently so Helene was familiar with
the roads – just as well as we entered Beaune with apparently just 8 minutes to
go until the train, the satnav said 15 minutes, and they apparently hadn’t
bought the ticket yet…
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| View from Beaune Train Station steps |
Beaune was quite nice. Very french, naturally. Helene told me it’s a very old town
with a wall going all the way around it. When we got to the train station they
rushed in to get Alienor on the train, which must have left about a minute
after they got there but somehow I think she managed to get on it. I was left
in the car with the children – I don’t remember what they were doing exactly
but they weren’t being very nice. Helene came back about 20 mins later and
asked if I’d taken my medicine. Obviously I hadn’t as we’d left immediately in
the morning and so I hadn’t had a chance. She started shouting at me telling me
the reason she’d been gone so long was so that I would have time to take my
medicine. I tried to explain that I couldn’t just take it in the car and needed
to use a toilet. She then told me she would take the children away and I could
go and find a restaurant and use the toilet in there and that she’d be gone for
as long as I needed. When she asked how long I’d need I told her I’d need at
least an hour – I only needed about 15 mins but I was pretty fed up of her and
the kids and wanted a break!
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| More views of Beaune |
I found a little pub just opposite the train station. Helene
had suggested I go to some other restaurant over the road but it looked quite
posh and the type of place you can’t just go in to have a drink and use the
loo! The people in the pub were quite friendly. I ordered an orange juice and
then sat there having a nice time for about 40 mins, and then went to take
nasty medicine in the toilet. I’d taken the little plastic cups from the toilet
at the hostel and had ‘borrowed’ a teaspoon from the Ferry so I could mash up
tablets.
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| Lots of old buildings in Beaune |
Now that Alienor had gone I was able to sit in the front
seat! Much more room so much more comfortable! I was also able to talk to
Helene – the first time we actually had a proper conversation since I’d arrived
in Corsica. I was very annoyed to find out then that there was no internet at
the house in Vosges!
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