Published at 19:33, Thursday, 03 September 2009

THE rain started as we entered Cumbria. Still, we were nearly home and that was all that mattered.

Our week away ended early on Saturday morning as we departed the gite, that had been our home, at the unearthly hour of 02:30 GMT.

We just made the ferry, delayed by a nasty accident involving four French cows and a couple of cars.

Knowing that the weather here had been dreadful, we felt lucky to have been able to get a bit sunburned, to have sat on a warm sandy beach beside a blue sea (a bit too much French flesh on view!), to have eaten regional crepes in a pavement cafe or two, and walked through medieval streets and seen chateaux.

We’ve conversed a little with the locals, stood solemnly on the wide beaches of the unimaginable events of June 6, 1944, and dreamed of buying a place of our own across the channel.

I brought some fiddly, prickly artichokes back to cook, along with some other Breton delicacies.

But now we’ve got the heating on, are cuddling the long-abandoned - well-tended by the neighbour- cat, and we’re preparing the back to school uniforms (two of them are starting new educational establishments this week – quite momentous).

There’s rain and soon we’ll be backing exercise books and doing homework; purse-strings tightly drawn in and economies to consider.

Summer is really over.

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk