2026 dawns

flat calm, 19 april 2007 on the Crozon peninsula I think

I STARTED the Driving on the Right blog back in 2016 to air some of the issues and vagaries I was encountering whilst being a home owner in France, but it didn’t grow into what I had envisaged. It went off on its own, sort of.

I was, of course, encouraged, prompted, shown how, and occasionally derided by Mme Melling, who has a much longer history of posting, and started with a genuine reason for doing it: she had subscribers.  My humble DOTR was definitely not written and illustrated for anybody else’s consumption save mine, most of the time. One lived in hope perhaps. It has collected a few, occasional critics, but by and large, the posts of the last ten years have not attracted acclaim, and reading through the odd post I am hardly surprised. I wince in fact. But there, as I say, DOTR was not constructed for anybody else much, and in that respect it has not disappointed. 

So when the sale of 1rueFB completed in the fag-end of 2025 I concluded that it might be time to close this blog down. Leave it out. 

And then I thought again. Because you see, Melling & Smith Enterprises are not done with the République. No way. True, we’ll have been relegated back to our previous tourist status for 2026 but with a bit more money in our pockets… And with the experience, perspectives and pleasure of the Sablet epoch under our belts we intend to leave the Fr domestic scene and engage with Frog Jollies again. Have some holidays, sort of thing. Eat some. 

So why not log those ventures down here, in this venerable rant? I like making the record, and one is reaching that time in life where one feels  > s n i f f <  one might like to leave a few reminders to those that one day one will have the task of clearing up after one, if you get my meaning  > s o b < . The shovel is in the shed. 

Cut that. Here is prior notice then: already planned and coming to fruition this year, 2026: 

The Finistère Return: a short tour of the north west extremity of Fr, places not visited in some years and other places yet to register. Based in Brest, accessed from Blightey via Plymouth to Roscoff and returning via the rose granites to the motherland from St Malo. The emphasis on coast, maybe the odd phare. Some seafood one trusts, in steamy cafés on rain swept quaysides. February. 

The Ciboure Return: another leisurely but compact visitation to Ravel’s birthplace, hotel based, with ventures into Spain and the Pyrenees. Returning to Blightey after this tour, but slowly, without hurry. One or two opportunties for some fine dining maybe…… April.

The Vaucluse Return: we can’t keep away. Yes, we are going back for about a month, not to Sablet, we couldn’t bear it, but to Villedieu, nearby. Good lunches. As fortold in the last post of 2025. September. Expecting the son & heir to drop by. How will we fare in someone else's house though, without our own things around us? We'll just have to get on with it, that's all. Won't avoid some wringing of hands though, I'll wager.   

There may be other excursions, we shall see. 

So stay with it: all is not over. Onward and upward. There will be posts! And pictures – if I can re-master my dated and excessively heavy Nikon D-SLF, I've had it up to here with those pocket jobs; I don't run to the latest grand iPhones either: close associates will be aware of my dislike of mobiles… recognising though that them phones take dashed fine snaps there days, but what a price! 

I can almost feel the joy and expectation reaching out to me from my public, either that or I’ve got a skin rash coming… And I can’t wait to be on Fr roads again. Driving on the Right. It just is, so right.

Villedieu village square, as it was when we left last autumn…