You may or may not know that my mother broke her leg about three years ago.  She and my father had gone out for the day to Dinard (almost an hour an a half's drive away) and after lunch she fell and thus broke her leg.  She was therefore in hosital in Dinard for some time, which was, quite frankly, a bit inconvenient.

Well, this week-end my Dad had gone away with a friend of his to 'play-trains' somewhere up near Caen, by all accounts it's about 2 hours drive, wherever they are.  Well, yesterday morning we got a call to say that he was in hospital, very unwell.  I won't go into details, but they kept him in overnight for obs and it seems that he will be fine.  Anyway, I was in the middle of preparing the cottage for the new arrivals due yesterday (who are french and Adrian doesn't have enough french to greet them on his own) and the girls were at home (it was a Saturday).  We would have found a way round this for me to be able take Mum up there, but then the wife of the friend that Dad had gone away with said she would take Mum up there and after much to-ing and fro-ing with regards to which car to take, they set off.

What I subsequently realised is that my parents have obviously found a niche-market in tourism literature and are currently researching a new book.  Working title: 'hospitals of northern France for the older generation of traveller'.