A couple of hours after we got back from the lighthouse, there was a knocking at our door. It was Gerard to let us know that Bridget had collapsed and they were taking her into the hospital. We asked if there was anything we could do to help, but he said no and he'd let us know in the morning what was going on. Neil was very upset and we were both very concerned. We didn't sleep that much that night for worrying about Bridget.
In the morning we saw Gerard again who told us he was going in to the hospital and he'd let us know how Bridget was in the evening. He'd called his sons and they were on their way to be with him. Luckily one of his sons was in Paris, so not too far away, however the other son was in Numea which is in the South Pacific... he should be there by now.
Anyway, we decided that we'd take a stroll into the village to buy some fresh croissants for breakfast and another baguette for dinner. As we walked past our hire car, we noticed a scratch at the bottom of the wheel arch that neither of us had noticed before. To be honest, we hadn't checked the car properly when we picked it up and the hirecar man had vanished as soon as he'd handed over the carseats. Neil decided that we'd leave for the airport at 6.30 instead of 7.30 as originally planned so that if there were going to be any problems with the car having a scratch we could sort it out! Once the croissants were munched we quickly packed up most of our belongings so that we didn't have to pack too much when we got back from the beach in the afternoon. We went back to the lighthouse and had lunch in one of the many restaurants there.
Off we went to the beach. A different one this time. It was a lovely beach with fine sand, but didn't have the lagoon our original beach had. The boys were quite tired and didn't stray far from the towels... they spent some time looking at books and bashing a bucket with a spade, but after about an hour we went back to the house.
We made tea for the boys and gave them another bath. Got ourselves showered and made some sandwiches to eat at the airport before we took off. Neil gave the house a good cleaning and we started to pack up the car. Gerard came over to let us know that Bridget had a suspected blocked artery in her brain. She could move, but couldn't speak. We asked again if there was anything we could do or call any of the family, but he asked us not to until he knew more about her condition. We thanked him for the hospitality he and Bridget had shown us while we were there and said our goodbyes.
Off we went back to the airport... Oh dear, a traffic jam. Neil doesn't cope well with traffic jams... He was worrying about the scratch on the car and whether we'd get to the airport before the hirecar people shut up shop and we had to drop the keys in the late box. Luckily we got there in time. Neil leapt out of the car to find a man while I looked for a space to park the car in... I drove into a space and got out of the car to start unloading... then I noticed it... yes, we were parked in bay 13! Oh no... this would mean bad news no doubt! But no, the man checked all around the car, checked it was full of fuel, finished off the paperwork and all was well.
We munched our sandwiches while the boys drank their milk and then we went into the terminal to check in... The lady checked in Neil and the boys and then asked me what my name was... "Sharon Young" I replied.
"I can't find you on the computer" she said...
Neil handed over all our paperwork which clearly said a ticket was booked and paid for in my name...
"Hmmm," said the French Easyjet lady...
This is not good, thought I....
"Hmmm," the French Easyjet lady said again and wandered off.
Eventually she came back again.
"I can find you on the Easyjet computer, but not this one" She tapped some keys on her computer and apparently I was all booked in... but... the flight was full and it was the last Easyjet flight of the year from La Rochelle to Gatwick and someone would have to be offloaded...
Blimey I felt bad for that person, but hey, we knew we'd booked and paid so it wasn't our fault that someone had left my name off the list. I put it to the back of my mind and decided not to worry about it.
Eventually the boys fell asleep in the buggies. I managed to transfer David from buggy to sling without waking him up. I also held a sleeping Joe while Neil collapsed the buggies and put them in the travel bags. Unfortunately Joe woke up while we were putting him in the sling, but he was very good and didn't cry.
We got on the plane, David still sleeping, strapped myself in, removed David from the sling and strapped him to me... David still sleeping... flew all the way home, got off the plane and David finally woke up as we were getting on the bus to the car park! Joe meanwhile had not gone back to sleep. He made friends with a little girl sitting in front of us called Emily and they played peepo all the way home.
We got home at 1am and both boys went straight to bed and slept through until 7am... followed by a 4 hour nap at 10 until 2pm...
Update on Bridget is that she's moving and speaking a bit, but is still in intensive care. Really hoping she makes a full recovery.
I just wondered how Bridget is doing?
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