Fewer than 50 days and counting

I posted here in February when we had 140 days to run to departure (91 working days for me) and were getting started on preparations. I’ve been meaning to post an update for ages and thought that last weekend as we approached the 50 day countdown would be appropriate. That didn’t happen for various reasons and we are now at 45 days to departure and I have fewer than 30 working days remaining. Barring any surprises I’ll teach my last class next Wednesday and be into my last lot of marking by the end of next week. It’s all becoming very real.

Since I last posted here I’ve worked through the rest of the accommodation bookings, made some adjustments to our track through Europe to simplify travel, and finalised our lease arrangements for cars. All the basics seem to be in place.

Majella has worked out a detailed itinerary for 3 days on our Paris passes and our very generous kids have kicked in with tickets for dinner and the show at Moulin Rouge as our gift for Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day and our two birthdays. Our time in Paris is set to be full on.

A couple of weeks after I posted we had dinner with long time (40+ years) friends, John and Pauline Dwyer, and conversation turned to travel. The result is that they will join us for our 3 weeks in Brittany and then go on to explore their Irish ancestry. That should make for an interesting 3 weeks in Brittany before we move on to Normandy for a week. Our Swiss friends plan to join us there for a few days.

From there it is on to the UK for 3 weeks and a wedding before we return to the continent and four more weeks of touring.

Time is slipping by and there is still planning and organising to be done. I’ve updated my iPad and MacBook in preparation but we will soon need to get serious about packing and some other arrangements. Twelve weeks is not something that can be managed at the last minute. Meantime, I’m about to hit the last wave of marking and have other work to deal with. Life is busy.