Five French children and One Sick Kiwi

We had been really looking forward to the next part of our journey, as we were going to stay in the heart of the French countryside with a homeschooling family with five children.

We travelled by train from Paris to Limoges, and then onwards by bus to a little village called Aubusson. The bus journey between Limoges and Aubusson was really lovely....the scenery was absolutely beautiful, with rolling green fields, and we passed through lots of little villages with stone cottages.

We were met at Aubusson by the mum and seven year old daughter, and driven to the remote rural area of Pallier.

The girls were chattering together immediately in the back seat, and I could see that we were going to have a really fun time together.

Unfortunately, it was not to be, as the next day Miss S awoke with a very high fever and was awfully unwell.  She stayed in bed for the whole of the next two days, slept a lot and ate nothing.  Meanwhile, I was supposed to be working with the other children for a few hours each day, teaching them English.  This proved very awkward, as my own daughter kept calling out to me to go and sit with her, and I couldn't not go to her when she needed me, so I felt I wasn't really fulfilling my end of the arrangement.  The family were understanding, but I felt uncomfortable.  This, coupled with the fact that the household was extremely noisy, and hard to rest in, with drums, the flute, and the piano accordion being played, often in unison, in the room below ours, meant we decided to move on after three nights, rather than stay the seven we had arranged.

It was disappointing, but we were so relieved to be leaving, so we could get some quiet space to sleep and recover our health.  By this time I was also starting to feel a bit under the weather myself.

I had booked into a cheap hotel for one night in Limoges, and was hoping to change our next few bookings so we could carry on our planned route, just a bit earlier than we had arranged.

The hotel in Limoges turned out to be right on the edge of a very busy six lane road....practically a motorway, but with the added bonus of the street cleaner that came past at stupid o'clock in the morning.  Needless to say, we didn't get the great nights sleep we were hoping for there either!

Perhaps we would have better luck in Carcassonne.