Travel Woes Abroad- Warm Feelings at Home

You might have noticed a gap in the blogs. Well me and the missus took a sneaky week in Provence thanks to a friend with a pad in France. The weather was so unlike home, clear skies and starry starry nights. We managed to go to Aix en Provence twice, the first time because we got the day of the Cezanne tour wrong and had to go back the following day. But that was no hardship, only a 90 minute drive, but parking in Aix on a Saturday was appalling. We drove round in circles. Helpfully the city posts live signs around the place showing how many vacancies there are in each location, and guess what they all said “complet”, full!  Well after the travails of the day before we were sweating on the next parking place having a few spaces, but lo and behold we were saved by one of the car parks not listed on the municipal signs. It was the railway station with those narrow spaces that make you limbo out of your seat and hope not to get a bash on the hire car.

The exhibition guide at the Granet Museum was top notch and my head is now packed full of stuff on Cezanne and Aix that I’ll never need again unless the pub quiz goes arty. Another of the travel woes was the Spanish built hire car. Not only did it cost as much as the deposit on a house to buy it new, it was strange and complicated. A hybrid with no apparent way to use it in battery mode, safety controls that yanked the steering wheels as you were going round bends at 70mph , especially unnerving travelling round curves that had steep drops into cavernous valleys.  The handbook of course was in French! I truly hated the car.

Then on the way home at an aire, one of those travel stops that have petrol, loos and a small supermarket we were robbed.Thieves managed to get at the rucksack with the dough in it and have it on their toes with travel cash and a couple of credit cards. The bag was in the boot as well!

Au secours (help)as the French say. But here at James Pirie we are haven away from the perils of foreign travel and light fingered pests. Since 1890 we have been providing honest to goodness value, great service and very good goods. At here moment, with now less than a 100 days to the dreaded Christmas you might want to take a gander at some lovely ideas with very special prices.

For Mum o’clock there is the Skye  Gin and Tonic (G&T) Copa Glasses  by Royal Scot Crystal. They come in a fine presentation box with free shipping and free gift wrapping when you tick the box at check out. Customer Mike said: “friendly efficient staff have purchased 9 items over the last year all first class than you.” Can’t say better than that.  Or can I, because the glasses are on offer at LESS THAN HALF PRICE?

https://www.jamespirie.com/skye-2-gin-and-tonic-g-t-copa-glasses-presentation-boxed-new.html

And if you fancy another bargain, who doesn’t? There is the 60% OFF SALE that is the  Stirling Large Tumblers  by  Royal Scot Crystal, all in a smart gift box. And if you tick the box at check out we give you free gift wrapping.  Price reduction and free gift wrapping a pleasant double whammy!

https://www.jamespirie.com/sale-stirling-2-large-tumblers-90mm-gift-boxed-royal-scot-crystal.html