So Clive Nunn and I have returned from yet another episode of our adventure in the Languedoc.
This time I am glad to relate we managed to avoid most of the health problems of the last time and had some excellent experiences with suppliers and tradesmen in particular.

I already said how the custom’s police in Cherbourg had melted into a large beam when he discovered we were carrying a kitchen south.

We spent some time comparing him with the customs lady who has sourly greeted us on our last arrival to Rosslare, demanded that we had receipts for the wine we carried and generally made us feel like naughty school boys.

As we left France, with a large haul of wine again (purely for home consumption)we were again asked by French customs what we were doing, and again when I said we had been making a kitchen, we were greeted with beams and waved on.

As we got off the boat in Rosslare we were expecting another sour interregation from the customs official and had all our documentation at the ready, our politest faces on and a profound hope that they were not going to take another dislike to us and maybe even force us to unload the van, they would have found no contraband but our journeys home to our wives would have been much delayed.

The customs man in the event couldn’t have been more pleasant.
Took one look at the two ol’ fellows attempting dignified expressons and said
“Back again lads with more Lourdes Water” gave us a huge grin and waved us through.
We cheered him all the way home.