Day 30 Brisbane

Home at last!  I had slept for 3-4 hours, so not enough, despite having a bed.  Note to self - perhaps forego business class and opt for longer stop-offs in future. We landed at 6.30 am, took an Uber home, unpacked and slept.  We were supposed to go to a Xmas in July lunch with our friends, but never made it.  Will start saving now for 2021!

Day 29 Seoul

This time we were on an A380-800, upstairs.  Not many Western faces again, but plenty of room and the meal service was much better, with a better choice of movies.  To pass the time I watched Rebel Wilson and Liam Hemsworth in 'Isn't It Romantic?', but I couldn't tell you today what it was about.
I had a grand plan to avoid jet lag by sleeping for only an hour on this leg, then a normal sleep on the next, but instead I nodded off for around four hours.  Oh well.
Breakfast was Korean porridge with seaweed, pickles and meaty things.  Interesting.
After ten hours or so we landed at Incheon and found the Business class Transit lounge, where we had a shower and more food.
The flight to Brisbane left at 8 pm and again we ate and watched movies.  I watched 'Hotel Mumbai', which was good and particularly meaningful to me as cousin Adele was there at the time, in 2008.
Fell asleep around 10.30 pm.

Day 28 Paris

This was our last day in France for a couple of years.  Paul drove us to Chalais where we caught the train to Angouleme.  It was 8 am and no ticket counter so we expected to pay on the train.  However the rule there is that you must find the conductor yourself or you will pay a fine.  That is exactly what happened - the nasty little man said because we didn't find him we would have to pay 100 euros as punishment!  I lost it and he eventually charged us 50.  Still a rip-off and totally unecessary, but we had managed to do our four weeks without coming across idiots until these last two days, so we did well.
We caught the TGV to Angouleme at 11.46 am, and whilst waiting I went for a walk around the old part of town while Neil stayed with the bags. It really is a pretty city and not too big.  The quirky cartoon characters, many from TinTin, painted on the buildings are an added attraction.
Three hours after finding our seats in the TGV we arrived in Paris. Charles de Gaulle is huge, and it took us a couple of hours to negotiate the red tape to eventually end up in the Air France lounge.  It was like an oasis in the desert, with free food, alcohol and comfy seats for the next few hours.
At 8.20 pm we boarded KE902, bound for Brisbane, via Seoul.

Day 27 Brossac

Neil got up early and began work at 7, to avoid the heat.  I lay around until 9, not having anything specific to do.  I ended up doing some weed spraying and gardening until lunchtime, then packed our bags for the trip back to Paris tomorrow.
At 5.30 pm we walked to a local restaurant called Samtho (Sam and Thomas) for a drink before dinner, but Sam, a rude Pommy lady, wouldn't let us book a table for 8 people, even though she has known Paul for years. (Maybe that's why!)  Anyway, when they turned up for dessert she accommodated us, albeit begrudgingly.  We did have a nice final evening, finishing off with a kir, a beer and some Pink Ladies.
We walked back around ten and got to sleep at midnight.

Day 26 Brossac

I started work around 8 am and finished cleaning up Sidney's grave .  It was our turn to cook, so after deciding on spag Bol, a traditional Australian meal, we relaxed, avoiding the afternoon heat.  The meal went down well, and afterwards we sat around outside and chatted over a wine or two until bedtime.

Day 25 Brossac

This was our first day of work.  Last time Neil worked inside on a fireplace and other handyman-type things.  This time he is mowing and weeding and fixing bikes.  Last time I cleaned out the tool shed and garage and fixed up the grave of Paul's dog which had passed away not long before. This time I redid the grave as no-one had maintained it in three years.  In fact, there had been very little progress in three years as Paul was now concentrating on permanent students and a new contract with China, which took up most of his time.  We felt that this time around we were not so much a part of the community as there were no darts evenings or boccia with the locals, and the lakehouse restaurant was temporarily closed. A shame, and as a result we will probably not do a third stint.  However we were going to make the most of this time while we were there.
After work we went into Brossac with Paul, bought some beer and walked home.  Shortly afterwards two more volunteers from Australia turned up - Anthea and Gill - around our age and a lot of fun.  We joined them in a glass or two of gin and tonic before retiring for the evening.

Day 24 Brossac

We slept in again, and after breakfast we went into the Chalais markets with Paul.  They were much bigger than three years ago, and still sold lots of yummy shellfish as well as some horn-shaped didgeridoos.  Weird.  Neil managed to pick up some shorts, thongs and sunglasses.
After lunch Paul picked up a new volunteer from Michigan called Valerie. Her husband works for Delta airlines so she has done quite a few trips to Europe before. She would be early 60's.
It was Hugo's turn to cook so we went into Chalais to Lidl to pick up a few things.  He cooked pasta with broccoli and cheese, which was really nice.  I even had two helpings and a few red wines.  Late to bed.

Day 23 Brossac

We slept in until 8 am which was great.  Out of the blue we decided to go on an adventure with the push bikes, riding the six kilometres or so to a place called Blue Lagoons.  After finding two bikes that actually worked (maintenance had been pretty much non existent, obviously), we pushed on, up and down the hills to our destination.  Neil became pretty tired, and was relieved when we finally made it.  The colour of the lake we saw was a vivid blue.  We decided not to go up to the end of the track to the next one as we still had to get back for a trip in the car that afternoon.  Going back it was my turn to get tired.
After lunch we went with Paul and two of the students, Hugo and Patricia, to a village called Aubeterre sur Dronne, which recently won an award for being one of the most beautiful villages in France.  Of course the first thing that Neil and I did was have a beer at a restaurant.  The one we chose was the Sel et Sucre - nice, but like everything else there, was expensive.  It is a popular tourist town as it turns out.
We then visited the Saint Jacques twelfth century church and the underground Saint Jean church, carved under a castle into the hillside.  This is also twelfth century, and is an amazing place to explore, with its staircases cut into the stone and the many resting places for the dead.
Finally we all met up at the beach, part of the Dronne River, and a lot like Southbank back home.  I had a swim and it was sandy underfoot and really refreshing.  We then had wine/beer and watched the finals of the women's soccer, Holland vs USA, on the outdoor television.  There were a few Dutch people there, but the US won.
We arrived back in Brossac around 8 pm, totally exhausted.

Day 22 Brossac

We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, then walked into the village to get rice salad ingredients for a BBQ which we were invited to down at the local lake that evening.  It was organised by the local retailers as a general get together and so Paul and the volunteers were going along.  There were only three other residents at La Giraudiere that night - three Erasmus students from Russia, Germany and Spain.  They were all very nice, and were basically doing a gap year studying French before starting at their respective universities.
Before going back after our shopping trip we visited a restaurant we hadn't seen before, called Quai Sud.  It was attached to the caravan park, and had very good service.  We had a carafe of wine and two beers as well as a meat/cheese platter. We didn't normally eat alone as it is not encouraged by Paul, but we couldn't resist this one.
Once back at La Giraudiere we made the rice salad then relaxed before going to the picnic.  The people of Brossac are very friendly, and are used to the changing shifts of volunteers at La Giraudiere, so you never feel out of place. I had a few glasses of grapefruit rose cask wine, which sounds terrible, but, as with most of their cask wine, was surprisingly good.  We walked back to the homestead around 11 pm.