Had a very pleasant end of stay in St-Quentin, including a walk along the Sentier Botanique to a picnic place with loads of fishing platforms.
The hoped-for croissants arrived in a van on the campsite at about 9 am. Perfect.
What with generally faffing around, making tea and coffee and eating croissants, it took me about 3 hours to get on the road.
I had a good run down to Trockheim. The new car goes like a dream and two days’ non-stop driving has really got me used to the manual gearbox again after driving an automatic for years.
The trip was only marred by lots of loo breaks due to drinking loads of water to ward off a threatening dose of cystitis. I decided that more action was needed and after googling around booked an immediate online appointment.
Dr Khalil took a while to appear. Just like a long wait in a surgery I guess. And it reminded me of the Peanuts cartoon.
When he did materialise, Dr Khalil was great. He spoke good English and emailed me a prescription to pick up this morning. Covid-19 is putting an end to many face-to-face appointments and in my situation this seems an entirely good thing. I’ll be back on the road without having to make a risky visit to a doctor’s surgery.
I had to translate a report on the Italian health service post-Covid last week. It concluded that resources would be stretched by not being able to have traditional waiting rooms and, given that no more funds or doctors are available, the only way forward is to innovate and use remote methods where possible.
Having seen the doc, I took the ever-patient Lottie to see Turckheim. It turned out to be as pretty as Colmar on a small scale.
I even saw two storks nesting on a roof. it was a long way up and getting a bit dark, but you can just about make them out.
Next leg is Turckheim to Parma through Switzerland…
2022 and all that 