Sunday 16 September 2018

My Week in Review to the 16th September

I am linking up with The Sunday Post hosted by Kimberly at The Caffeinated Reviewer.

I'm also linking up (if I remember this time!) with What Are You Reading at The Book Date: Right now I am reading the new Carlos Ruiz Zafon novel, Labyrinth Of The Spirits which is the fourth in his Shadow Of The Wind series. Of course although I loved the first book, that was read so long ago that I can't really remember it now and I missed out the middle two, but so far that hasn't caused me any problems with Labyrinth - or not that I've noticed anyway!

It's been a somewhat manic week, again with far less internet time than I am accustomed to. We did get a couple of days relaxing after our guests departed, however Tuesday saw us loading up the car for a three day excursion from Chef Boutonne in France to Torroella de Montgri in Spain and back in order retrieve our caravan from its storage there. It was a lot of driving which is always surprisingly tiring. Simply sitting in a car for six hours shouldn't be exhausting, but the concentration needed for driving always makes it so. At least French roads are much easier to travel along than their southern English equivalents - they're in far better condition too!

We stayed one night in a lovely Airbnb at Castelnaudry before we got to the caravan. If you ever need somewhere to stay in between Toulouse and Carcassonne, I can recommend Philippe's house. It's a traditional old French house with delightful period features and furniture. There's also a somewhat neglected 'potager' kitchen garden from which I was allowed to glean tomatoes, aubergines, a tiny courgette, sweet grapes and lots of delicious figs. September is a great time to stay at this property!

On Wednesday we were reunited with our Bailey caravan and nearly ended up with an inquisitive kitten stowaway too - fortunately he was spotted and shooed away before we drove off! Then we drove to Toulouse for a night at one of our regular stopover campsites, Les Violettes. The site has changed somewhat since we last visited - perhaps a change of ownership? There's now a covered swimming pool and the sanitary block has been beautifully revamped. I loved the red and silver decor around the washing up sinks!

We had thought we'd stay a second night somewhere en route too, but as it turned out, a longer drive got us home to Chef for the early evening on Thursday. Now our caravan is temporarily next to our static, all cleaned and ready to set out for the UK on Friday. It's all go at the moment!

Giveaways closing soon:
16/9 : $20 Amazon gift card
17/9 : Curtain Call by C H Clepitt ebook
18/9 : Dark Paradise by Gene Desrochers books
20/9 : Signed original Emma Haines illustration
22/9 : $10 Amazon gift card and A Penny Lost by Aspen Bassett books

Posts on my blogs this week were:
My Week in Review to the 9th September
#ReadingWomen - September 2018
Stephanie Jane's #Giveaway and #FreeBooks Linkup

Hunter's Revenge by Val Penny + Excerpt
Waiting For Monsieur Bellivier by Britta Rostlund review + #Giveaway
Dark Paradise by Gene Desrochers review + #Giveaway
The Pretender by Katie Ward + #Giveaway + Excerpt
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith review
A Penny Lost by Aspen Bassett + #Giveaway
The Beast Of Kukuyo by Kevin Jared Hosein review

Around the blogosphere:
Ova at Excuse My Reading visited several bookshops in Saffron Walden
Sophia at Delighted Reader talks Escape for her Blog All About It Challenge
Daniela at Bookiverse plays temptress suggesting new additions for our TBR piles

Have a great week :-)

20 comments:

  1. My husband is the driver of the family (it's a control thing), so on long trips I spend all my time entertaining the kids. As you say, driving is exhausting. :)

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    1. I think entertaining kids would be exhausting too!

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  2. I've always found driving long distances to be tiring too.

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  3. Your excursion sounds wonderful! Great photo, too. Enjoy the new week, and thanks for visiting my blog.

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  4. Driving just riding in the car for long periods is exhausting. I was in the car with my husband for 3-4 hours yesterday and it wore me out. You should have let the kitten stay :) I hope you have a great week!

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  5. Long drives are tiring, I agree. That airbnb sounds like a great option though! And aww that's funny about the kitten. :)

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  6. The Shadow of the Wind series sounds fascinating. I'm going to have to check the library for it now.

    Too long in the car makes me fidgety. I used to do okay, but the older I get the less I like it!

    My list!

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    1. The Shadow of the Wind series is incredible! I hope you find them at the library :-)

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  7. That does sound like quite a long drive. Driving doesn't make me tired but just riding does. I think it might be the boredom of having nothing to do. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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    1. I can be quite a nervous passenger so that's tiring too!

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  8. I don't drive so my dad has to drive us down to our holiday destination and it's over four hours each way which isn't ideal. We might need to switch to train or bus in future!

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    1. That sounds like a brave journey to attempt by bus!

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  9. Sounds like a wonderful trip (albeit with some exhausting parts). I have Shadow on the Wind somewhere in my TBR. It's probably in storage. Thanks for the reminder that I want to read the book and get started with the series. My weekly updates

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    1. I hope you get to read Shadow of the Wind soon!

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  10. I have the first Shadow of the Wind book sitting on my shelf. I’m determined to read it before the end of the year. That house looks so small and cute. I’m glad it was nice. Have a great week.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. Absolutely get to Shadow of the Wind as soon as you can. It's fab!

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