Wednesday – If it wasn’t so pitiful I’d be laughing –
oh go on then.

We ate what should have been our end of holiday treat-feast on a park bench in the drizzle, much to the bemusement of passing joggers.
Kings for the day, more like “Down and Out in Paris”.

No amount of vaseline on the lens can glamorise this

But an adult otter swum up for a closer look as another and two pups stayed on the other side of the ornamental lake

Not that we haven’t tried to embrace more usual tourism. At the Paris camping, 50€ got us a “battery-hen” pitch, which along with the ubiquitous pizza saw us packed-up and driving away five minutes after waking up.

You see yesterday, just before dawn, our sleep ended in the roar of gas burners inflating two hot air balloons on the Loire floodplain.

They rose gracefully, before being taken by the early morning breeze across the river and over the medieval town of D’Amboise.

D’amboise (sur Loire) – magnifique

It was majestic, and as the river’s swift current carried me downstream, I imagined floating with them .

Max is learning to drive and took the wheel on the empty B roads. He also made his debut in the bear pit of the supermarket car park.

Nicely done, now for the chocolate milk.

We’ve been treated to both earthly and ethereal experiences, and returning  to civilisation will take some adjustment. Tomorrow we’ll visit the Louvre.