In which the Not-so-small Boys (and the Lovely Girls) arrive.

Nobody warns you about the grip your children will have on your heart. Having devoted your life to their well being and upkeep, before you know it they move into adulthood and away from you. You are left trying not to be needy or demanding of their time, letting them lived their own lives and have their own relationships, while keeping your fingers crossed that they will still want to spend some time with you.

I was therefore particularly grateful when both the Not-so-smalls agreed to come to Carcassonne and spend a week of their hard won holiday with us, and even better, they brought the Lovely Girls with them. We scooped up Alex & Amy on the Saturday afternoon, and Nick and Ruth joined us on Monday morning. We had a lovely time with them, despite their obvious efforts to kill us off with hilly cycle rides and excessive alcohol consumption, but fortunately Catering & I have been in training.

We hired bikes for vineyard tours, but made the mistake of making Alex team leader and Master of the Google Maps route – a trip that should have taken us 45/50 minutes, took the best part of 2 hours and at about halfway, I was not entirely convinced I was going to make it. Mental note to self – don’t go biking with a bunch of 20 somethings and hope to keep up.

Nick not looking good! But where am I?

The 2 white dots in the distance are me and Amy – who kindly waited for me

We finally made it to the vineyard – the owner looked genuinely concerned that we might die on the premises and laughed like a drain when we explained which way we’d come. Instructions for an alternative (flatter) route home were gratefully accepted.

We only went because of the bloody name