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Back online after a lot of very pleasant family interruptions: firstly the visit to Antibes of Arthur, who brought his parents in tow, and secondly our trip to Normandy, to take Papy to Lily and Alain's exhibition at the Salle André Malraux in Yerres, in the Paris suburbs.

Arthur's French is now as good as his English, in the same way that Edward 1st's son, the first English prince of Wales, was promised to be as good in Welsh as in English. That said, he has captured the Parisian 'r' perfectly. He just needs the words to go round it. His prowess at ice cream and other delights was equally impressive. Let's hope that next time he comes he can spend more time at the beach, in his sexy swimming costume and cool shades, catching the eye of the young Italian lovelies who were already loitering near him with intent.

Normandy was our first long trip in the car - fourteen hours of driving to get there, and the next day, after the usual supersize but quite excellent lunch at the local café, we headed for Yerres. The trouble was it was the wrong day to set out. Paris on a late Friday afternoon is one colossal traffic jam, over a hundred kilometers wide. It took five hours to get to the exhibition, instead of the usual two. Bladder discipline had to be military, and clutch replacement is recommended even for new cars.

The exhibition was in an interesting building with a wonderful hammerbeam roof. The paintings, and Alain's sculptures (the first time we had seen any) were displayed to real advantage, with excellent lighting and plenty of space around them. The problem was that there wasn't much sign of visitors. Not surprising, really, as the gallery was quite hard to find.

Afterwards we all went for dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby. It was an occasion to see Pierre and his girlfriend Aurore. How they put up with the old farts nattering on about things which didn't interest them is a mystery, but they managed it.

After a night at the local Etap hotel, which had, shall we say, a somewhat aromatic drainage problem, we took Papy back to Normandy, where another supersize lunch was consumed.

The return trip was undertaken in submarine fashion. we could have done with a taller periscope, as the rain was bucketing down and visibility was minimal. We drove till we dropped, reaching Valence at 11.15pm, staying yet again in an Etap hotel. Today, we motored through the rain once more and got home shortly after one o'clock.

A long, not very ecological trip, but humanly worth it.