Allo, allo, allo.

Gill and Mike left this morning via Montpellier. We rush back to change their room so that Floyd can use it when he arrives this afternoon. Talk about musical beds! Then it was off to Nîmes to pick up the tennis group (Five people + Floyd) and bring them back to the ranch. As soon as I'd done that I had to take Peter to the Gendarmerie in Nîmes because the accident had become a police matter after Doreen had been injured and hospitalised. Are you keeping up with this? Anyway, I helped Peter make a statement, which gendarme Monsieur Lacoste typed, and I even had to append my signature to said document. Deep down I was nervous about what might happen, never having been involved with the police in France (England yes, but that's another story) and with no knowledge of the French judicial system. I did consider that he might have been arrested, but as it turned out he simply made a statement and when Doreen gives her statement next week, the dossier is sent to the public prosecutor for consideration, by which time he will be safely tucked up at home. So far, so good.

***

Before he left this morning Mike told me this true story. He's in hospital waiting to have a colonoscopy when the duty sister told him that they are running late and that the procedure would not take place as planned, but a little later. She asked him if there was anything else that he had scheduled that might need to be re-arranged. "No, nothing important, I was going to watch England play South Korea at football that's all. Nothing too important." "OK," she said, "If you would like to wait over there I'll call you when we're ready." The colonoscopy went ahead later in the day and later that evening he came round, but naturally felt uncomfortable. A little later still, the doctor who performed the procedure came to his bedside and said, "Well Mr Robbins, that all went well would you like to know the result?" Mike, who had been quietly worried about the possibility of bowel cancer said, "Yes please doctor, let me hear it." The doctor said, "Well the news isn't too good, they only managed a draw, it was England 1, South Korea 1."

***

As an aside, I realised today, when at the police station, that the Gendarmerie are part of the French Ministry of Defence. They are a quasi military force, details here, not unlike the Carabinieri in Italy. Not many people know that!