Leaving on a jet plane!

Well that seemed to go very quickly. No sooner had we gotten used to walks in fantastic countryside, wonderful historic sites, and even more fantastic food and wine, when we were booked on an Emirates flight back to Perth.

Yup, we are now back into the realms of three types of cheese instead of the hundreds in France.  I kid you not, in Australia we only have four basic cheeses, 'Colby, Tasty, Extra Tasty, and if you really want to push the boat out...Strong & Bitey.'  All of these are some variant of cheddar and all are bland and boring. OK, sorry et pardonnez moi...while I collect my toys and put them back in the pram! But I suppose that is the cultural difference (well, one of many actually).  In Super U or Intermarché they dedicate at least an entire aisle to cheese, plus a deli section! Not so much in Australia. Anyway, I digress.

So we are now back in Perth, and back at work. It was a bit of a rush to find somewhere to live in a week and arrange to get our belongings out of storage and collect the cat. This time we have rented somewhere a bit cheaper so we can save quicker for our next trip back. We ignore the lack of lampshades, the dodgy stains on the ceiling and the really badly designed tiny kitchen.  Instead our focus is France and to keep our 'eyes on the prize!'

On the plus size of the ledger the cat has forgiven us for abandoning her, and as we are approaching summer here so we can take full advantage of the beach again.  But my heart is in the Ariège. In the meantime it's back to shift work, a reduced selection of cheese (grrr!) and a probably fruitless search to find Minervois or Saint Saturnin wine that retails at $7 a bottle...sacre bleu!!!! Having said that, a drop of Australia's finest McGuigan Black Label always goes down very nicely...

Mosman beach