Wednesday 29th July 2026

Some of us are born delicious.

That's a fact.

And its fair to say that the flies and mosquitoes at the mill found both Jools and I delicious.

More bites showed themselves during the night, so that by morning it looked like we both had measels.

And the bites itched to buggary.

I slept poorly, a combination of the bites, and I think the litre of builder's coffee I had for breakfast.

But no matter, we only had 30 miles to drive this day, and we could take our time to check out, as the possibly planned trip to Lyon Cathedral was scrubbed due to the high temperatures of about 38 degrees forecasted.

We showered, treated the bites, then packed. Out of the window there was a modern boulangerie, so after loading the car, we walked through the security gate instead of the plastic food on offer at the hotel, and found they sold the best baguettes in the WORLD. I had a ham and cheese one, Jools had creamy chicken, and both too big for us to finish, though we did find room for a madeine.

We decided to drive to the hotel airport, we we were to meet the group for the orchid tour.

We had hoped to see something interesting on the way, somewhere where we might want to spend an hour or so.

But there was nowhere, other than to sit at a service station to eat an ice cream and listen to a podcast, until it became too hot.

I programmed our hotel into the car sat nav, and it took us there, to the small regional one. The international one was twenty minutes away, but it whiles away another forty minutes.

We arrived at the airport, and found the hotel. We were the first to arrive, we checked in, but our room wasn't ready, so we sat down to look out of the window and surf the net on our phones.

One by one tour members and guides arrived, acquaintances renewed, and new ones forged.

We had beers, tales were swapped, and life was even better.

For us early arrivals, the chance to begin the tour a day early, with a bus trip out to a small reserve beside a freight railway beside the river, half an hour's drive away.

It was hot and humid. We walked down the track, and after half an hour's searching, two weedy plants of a hugely rare endemic orchid to the valley were found, recorded and enjoyed.

Then back to the hotel via a busy motorway, traffic jams and bad driving.

To the hotel where all of the members of the tour had arrived, we met in the bar for a drink, and after introductions, we sat down for dinner.

Let the madness begin!