Angouleme

Hit the road at 8am a couple of days ago (St. Valentine's Day). Headed for Angouleme. Planned 1pm rendez-vous at the Géant supermarché to check out a 1993 1.9 Citroen BX with only 60000kms and virtually just one elderly owner who'd recently passed away. Gloriously sunny day and a fairly simple route. Missed the supermarché turning and continued completely unaware of our mistook. The Angouleme ring road is no fun when sandwiched between various mahoosive lorries. Eventually twigged we'd missed the turning so headed back. Arrived early so noshed at the McDonald's restaurant. Seller of said BX turned up bang on time. Inspected the car and had a test run as passenger. Stifling a bout of Toad enthusiasm I decided to delay making a decision about buying until that evening. A rarely seen act of being Captain Sensible.

Car viewing over, I was all for heading back home. But Georgie wanted to do stuff. Like having a good old schoofty round that giant Géant supermarché. Or maybe doing the tourist thing and looking at some of Angouleme's historical buildings while munching an ice cream. Hmm, but leaving dog in car on sunny day while wandering around a supermarket wasn't a good thing, said I. And we dont really have time for finding somewhere to park near a touristy hot spot building or three, muttered I. And we still have a 225 kilometres drive to get back home. Anyways..., we sort of compromised. Attacked the local LeClerq supermarché instead. Dog left in shady car with windows open, so he just might survive. And off we went.

Impressive emporium. I always judge a supermarché by whether or not it has a selection of Patak's curry sauces. And LeClerq's came up trumps. Mind you they were well hidden down the dark end of a faraway aisle. Georgie was rather impressed too. Eventually met up about 45 minutes later at the checkout (we tend to shop separately so we don't argue in public). She looked rather chuffed with her main trophies, a pillow and a frying pan lid, plus various other items. Shopping done, we did a quick dogwalk and gave the mutt a bowl of water which he flatly refused to touch. Probably sulking for being left in the car for so long. Och well, suit yersel', Hamish. Then headed for home. Interestingly, or maybe remarkably would be a more appropriate word, we were headed east so the sun was behind us, just as it had been ce matin when we headed west.

Arrived home at around sundown. Rang the seller and said sorry, but I won't be buying. Shall give Angouleme another go come spring or summer. Looks an interesting place.