We had some lovely friends that not only did we enjoy their company, but they also helped tidy the house of the party debris, and left promptly on the sunday, allowing us to do final packing and set off.
We were v v lucky! we had an easy run of it down to the chunnel, and drove straight through with no queueing straight onto the train which set of nearly immediately as only one more high vehicle loaded after us! and so we got to our B+B v quickly. Having now eaten at McD once, BB keen to do so again, so frites for tea! we had thought of nipping to the beach. A dvd and then all to sleep after a fairly decent shower each. we did cause the fuse to go out by spilling coffee on laptop cable tho…
then a relatively easy but very long drive to the loire where we met up with Zoe and family 
. I have to say, i really do like the aires in france. make things so much nicer to picnic, and the weather . Even BB was relatively easy on the long drive, aided by travel sick pills no doubt . Lovely to see le ciel rouge family altogether again, as they have been travelling for quite a while, and caught up with their news, goings on and plans.we spent the first day at a lovely nearly lake at argentan with them all, we geocached and then the girls all had a fab time on a 4 person pedalo – on the way back we could hear the screeches 
BB had been jumping off frequently and quite soaked. we adults had a nice long drink on the cafe veranda which overlooked the lake. When all back together a bit of a play in the water for the girls and then return back.
The following day we debated what to do, but ended up with BB choice, which was a visit to the utterly fab zoo in Doue. Well worth a visit, highly recommended, and tho it was far too hot for at least one of us we all were v glad we had gone, and spent most of the day there. I will add photos when I can, but partic highlights were the south american bird bit and also the giraffes for me. but the set up is fab, and clearly a lot of thought has gone into it.
Back for a last evening [of craziness] with zoe and co, and were sad to wave them goodbye the next day, and not a little bit nervous, as we were off to a town just outside of Lyon, to meet SB’s new family…