This was a first for Mick and me.

We finished up our time with the five cats, but instead of ‘handing back’ to the home owner, this time we ‘handed over’ to two new English house sitters. There was still lots of fussing to be done and a meal to prepare and share, and we were lucky that the home owner had two well-equipped gites we could use. Mick and I moved out of the larger gite just before the new sitters arrived, and we moved into the smaller one just for our last night. It was not as comfortable, but it worked.

This cat well and truely adopted Mick and spent the time outside our door crying to come in, or happily curled up somewhere near Mick.

It was good to have time with the new sitters so we could take them through the morning and evening feeding routines. Although, everything did not go quite to plan because when the sitters arrived Mick and I had only four cats to show them. There was no sign of Fat Cat, and only just after I decided I must email the owner with the worrying news about not having seen him for more than 20 hours, did he turn up. Phew!

On our last morning, after feeding the cats, putting things back into place and cleaning the hire car (with the help of the three-legged cat), I drove us off towards Caen. Mick had found a new way that meant we did not need to go through Bayeux.  With quite a bit of time to spare, we returned the hire car to Avis. It was so easy. We just had to get our bags out of the car and an employee ave the car a quick scan and took the keys and the car. That was it.

We crossed the road to the Gare to wait (for two+ hours) for our train to Paris Saint Lazare. I noticed that there was a train leaving in ten minutes. I asked for help about whether we could catch the earlier train and was told I had to ask “le contrôleur“. Just as the train pulled in I found the man I was after and asked if we could take the earlier train using the tickets I had bought, and he said ‘normally no, but we could on this occasion’ – or words to that effect – it was all in French and I was pretty pleased with myself.

Mick and I ran to the carriage he told us to use and caught our breath as the train took off. Once in Paris, we then made our way via the Metro towards the Gare de Lyon and to our hotel.

We have stayed in this area before which helped as we knew where to drag our bags to the hotel.

We have an early train to catch tomorrow from the Gare de Lyon to Perpignan, on our way back to Fenouillet. We are returning to spend all of October house sitting for our friend. She booked us up on her return in early March (when we house sat for her for 11 weeks while she was in Australia) and we are really looking forward to it. We love her home and Fenouillet and her cat Sammy. Sadly, she now only has one sheep to care for as only a few weeks ago the male sheep (Bibi) died suddenly of ‘bloat’. He had engorged himself on the clippings the gardener had thrown into the sheep yard thinking it was a good idea. But, Bibi did not know when to stop.

We enjoyed our time in Basse Normandie, even though the weather was not always fantastic. There was lots to see and learn. And, on our second last day there, we agreed to our Number #10 house sit, this time in Haute Normandie. So we will travel the 900+km to Fenouillet tomorrow and then reverse the journey on the 1 November.