Summer season starts here

Two manic days of unpacking the winter stuff and locating and packing camping + climbing stuff ensued. Our poor house sitter Vicky must have thought that a tornado had struck, and upended the whole house. We'd had a curry with Cath and Dave on the way home and ended up arriving back in Bristol around midnight. Sarah couldn't resist rifling through the last month's post, and discovered that we'd been slapped with a rather substantial parking fine that had rapidly escalated with a matching escalation in rhetoric - from bloody B&Q of all places. It was currently standing at £110 + legal fees, which seemed a bit harsh as we'd been in B&Q for legitimate reasons, purchasing some materials for building some bookshelves in the spare bedroom and lounge. Apparently, you may not stay any longer than 90 minutes in B&Q - and if you've ever shopped with Sarah, you know that this is bound to be tight. Sarah was fuming with frustration, and consequently couldn't sleep. Take note - never open the post on the night of arrival, as there inevitably will be some item of bad news ready to spoil your night's rest.

The next day we had a million and one little admin tasks to see to, the extra one being the B&Q issue. However, Sarah straightened that one out by a phone call and a subsequent trip out to Filton branch with a print-out of a bank statement. Apparently, they're plagued by students using their car park. We're plagued by the fact that our car insurance will run out half-way through this leg of our trip, and this needs sorting before we go. Our rode-side assistance scheme has European cover, but only for so many days. Oh, and washing. Packing for two months on the road. We took over the newly refurbished lounge as our gear central, and with everything laid out on the floor it seemed implausible that all of that stuff would actually fit in our rather modestly sized car. The boulder mat alone swallows most of the boot space. Add therma-rests, sleeping bags, tent, camping gear and our winter duvet - we camp in style & comfort - ropes, two foldable chairs (wedding present, much appreciated), a cool box, stoves, slow-cooker (top idea from Kate) and we're talking a snug fit. Yet fitted it did, and we made our Dover mid-day sailing with time to spare.

After about four hours of French open roads, this time robustly instructing the sat-nav to avoid the Paris Peripherique, which is almost as bad as the London orbital, we made it to our camp site in Boulancourt, where we have hired a static caravan for the first bit - happy not having to pitch the tent in the dark and rather chilly evening. We seem to have scored on the accommodation front so far, from the lovely, brand-new apartment in Andermatt to the spacious hytte in Rjukan, and now a well-equipped, roomy and price-wise very reasonable static here. Only drawback seems to be that the floors are absolutely freezing. I will need to invest in a pair of cosy slippers.

We've planned to hang around here and boulder for about four weeks, and then head south to Provence to clip bolts for the next four. However, our plans are flexible, and given that we had similar ideas when we were traveling around in the States a few years back, yet never managed to go anywhere beyond the bouldering Mecca of Bishop, who knows - we might not leave Font if we're going well.

Our days in the UK were totally manic, and we didn't seem to manage much sleep, so we took a long morning without an alarm set, went shopping and simply chilling, flicking through guide books over a glass of Bordeaux and forming a plan whilst the slow cooker is making us dinner.