August 2017
Franck and Lise had set off that morning. Their aim was to arrive mid-afternoon to pick up the keys at the agreed place and get to the gîte in time to explore the surroundings before nightfall. With a bit of luck, they might even be able to get back down to do some shopping, if they could find a town, and the shops didn’t close too early. They were confident that at the height of summer there would be something open after seven o’clock.
Yet, from the very beginning, nothing had gone to plan, starting with the traffic jams on the way out of Paris. It was the first time they had had to leave in peak holiday traffic on a Saturday at the beginning of August, and they got caught up in the big rush. Then at lunchtime there was the endless wait at the service-station restaurant, followed by a problem starting the huge hired Audi 4×4, driven poorly by Franck. It was as complicated as it was cumbersome, but it was all they could find to rent.
After the motorway, there was a main