DAY 271 - ECOUEN TO CREIL: 18.4 MILES (36,800 STEPS)

Wednesday 18 January, 2012

18.4 miles (Total: 2599.8 miles) – 36,800 steps (Total: 5,867,801 steps)

What a great day!

Rob Parsons and Steve Williams drove out from Cardiff to spend a few days with me. Rob is the much in demand speaker/author and Chairman of Care for the Family and Steve Williams is the Chief Executive of Ty Coch Nursing Homes – the finest nursing homes in Wales and possibly the whole of the UK. The fact that two of the busiest people I know should choose to jump in a car to drive over four hundred miles in order to help carry the bags for their old mate is extraordinary. Then again, ‘extraordinary’ is exactly what they are.

In another respect, their timing could not have been better; only a few minutes after they arrived, I received a call from my bank, Lloyds TSB, advising me that my credit card details had been used to try and purchase some large items of computer equipment – thank heavens for having a £500 credit card limit I thought. Anyway, they advised me that they had stopped my card, which meant that I was without a replacement to pay for accommodation and it would be another two weeks before someone could bring the replacement out. I might have hoped that Lloyds TSB, as a principal sponsor of the Olympics, might have pushed the boat out and got the card to me earlier, but that I was reminded was a service for customers who banked with them, rather than the other way round. Obviously, the Call Centre hadn’t heard that the bank was only still trading because it had received a £20 billion bailout from the taxpayer. Very kindly though, Rob maxed his cash withdrawals from an ATM on two consecutive days and gave me the money – I am now off to Barbados to work for truce there! Of course, I probably shouldn’t mention on a blog that I am carrying a wad of cash but given that the readership is limited to my mum, my little sister, and my fiancée – I think I am on fairly safe ground.

The walk itself was very pleasant as it took me through the Chantilly area famous for horse racing and there were many ‘gallops’ as I walked through the forests. This was a very prosperous area so I decided to try and keep the costs down by pressing onward to Creil where accommodation was more competitive. Rob and Steve managed to find a motel complex, Hotel de France, on an industrial estate in Creil that was perfect for us, and successfully negotiated a price that included a set dinner, though none of us had any idea what was on it.

I reflected that what makes a hotel or guest house special, apart from wi-fi access, is the people and the welcome they give you. Similarly, what makes a meal special is primarily the people with whom you share it. This was a special place. Over dinner, we laughed so much that for the first time my sides were aching more than my feet. They could have served us anything and we would have eaten and drank it, and probably did. We retired to our rooms late with the wind and rain lashing against the windows, but at least Rob and Steve would have a lie in the next day – not that I’m bitter.