??? e-bay virgin I’m afraid though I once had a Mac app monitoring Amazon prices of things you were interested in.
It’s a campsite in Peynier, just east of Aix, in a mobile home. We are staying in Vichy on the way, then a whole two weeks in Provence, which should be really mellow. Then a night in Böen-Sur-Lignon on the way to Vouvray in the Loire Valley for three nights. Each year there is an international garden festival in the Chateau de Chaumont, which we’ve been to loads of times and will go again this year. Rather than getting the overnight ferry, which gets to Caen at an ungodly hour and leaves us knackered, we are trying the 3pm crossing and then staying in Ouistreham before driving down to Vichy.
I was thinking the same earlier - petrol around 139.9p and diesel 144.9p at Sainsbury’s but a garage a mile away 5p more for each.
Maybe partly supermarket vs garage with small Spar, but it’s £2.50 saving for 50 litres. I suspect most people will just write that off due to fuel cost getting to a more distant cheaper place as well as time expended getting there (especially here in Wales at 20 mph! 
).
Our cheap price is from the nearest station, so it’s a win-win.
Looks wonderful, Aix is a lovely city, and you must take coffee in the Deux Garçon on the Cours Mirabeau; it used to be (and maybe still is) the “place to be seen”, but you need to sport one of the old Penguin “classics” in the green or, preferably, brown covers 
We used to go to the Ventoux region, northeast of Avignon. Many, many holidays spent there.
We stayed in Aix a few years ago. It was just after my accident and memories are hazy. At that time there was a train for London direct to Avignon, where we got a local train to Aix. Then it was on to Arles, via Marseille. It’s a lovely part of the world for sure and by September it will be less hot hopefully.
Maybe you should return, by train if you don’t fancy the drive.
I was up late last night reading articles on the web and at about 1am after a couple of glasses of rather unpleasant Lidl white wine (which oddly has a good write up), I was reminded of the annual Perseid meteor showers on the BBC.
Re-downloaded an old astronomy app to locate where I should be looking, plonked myself in a garden chair, and sat there staring over our roof without seeing anything for over an hour.
The city’s light pollution was really evident compounded by dozens of solar powered garden lights and upstairs lights in a neighbouring property.
We were supposed to have a clear sky but as time went on it was increasingly evident there was thin cloud or mist.
I don’t think I’ve ever managed to see these meteors when at home - does city/town light pollution render it a waste of time even trying?
Would have been lovely to have been in a near ‘dark sky’ region in West Wales.
Hope some of you have been lucky to see the Northern Lights recently.
We saw a few meteors zooming around, from our garden here in Emsworth.
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Absolutely, ours too, but were we closer to the more expensive one you’d have to weigh up travel/time to save a small amount but it all adds up.
Oh, tell me about it!!!
Been six years since we were last down there.
Not sure I’d want to take the 21 year old A6 down there - especially as the air-con doesn’t work! Need a new gas-guzzler!
There’s space on the ferry. Go for it! Don’t put things off, as who knows what might happen.
Nope re the Northern Lights - hardly surprising I guess, but was up for the Perseids last night. But same result as you.
I have seen them previously in East London.
Ah well…next year.
I’m waiting for the planets to swing by now. Not too long before they’re more easily visible at my location.
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The older I get the more I find joy in nature on my doorstep.
I’ve always been a nature lover but seeing a tadpole, frog, hedgehog, bees, dragonflies, caterpillars, butterflies, garden sparrows or robins just makes my day.
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LOL. This year’s money is being spent on a trip to New York State by wife & daughter2 for…. a “Yarn & Craft Fair”!
Somebody has to stay at home and look after the kitties.
That sounds fun.
Three nights in NYC, three at the Fair up-state, then three in Boston.
Nice.
And Dau2 informed us this evening that she has booked up for the Wacken 2025 Metal festival……Young people of today, eh.
BTW has your lad started his new job?
Wow, that ought to be an amazing experience. I wish I was a bit younger or had at least known about it quite a few years ago.
She and friend went last year in the rain & mud and still had a great time. Daughter#1’s partner goes every year.
They always live stream the two main pairs of stages, so I run it up on the TV - four solid days of metal!
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There’s something utterly refreshing about the metal scene and the kind of bands that play at Wacken and I’m hooked on so many of these bands’ videos on YouTube in recent years.
It’s not high brow music I know I simply enjoy a lot of it compared to mainstream rock/pop and the production values for so many videos are huge.
Agreed, although this year’s lineup was less to my taste than last year’s -I’m not a great fan of “thrash metal”. OTOH next’s year’s is looking more amenable.
And did you have to show Floor singing GLS from Wak2013 — it’ll only set Ian off again! 
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