The electricity board warned us a couple of days ago that they were going to switch off the power today between 8am – 11am and 4pm – 7pm. This complicated our departure plans and meant we had to plan our day a bit better. However, getting up at 7am to shower and hoover was scuppered by the over-indulgence in cava the night before. We loaded up the car and cleaned until the lights came back on, finished off and were on our way. The forecast for Millau was crap (Meteofrance said rain, Meteoblue said howling winds), so we didn’t rush to get there. However, as we got closer the cloud started clearing and we could see little evidence of wind. We have rotten luck flying in Millau every time we drive through, so we weren’t raising our hopes, but as we dropped down from the plateau into down, a paraglider launched. I wasn’t feeling very well, so Geoff was flying and we raced up the hill and got ready fast. Because it had only just started coming on, it was still weak (and there was very little wind), so Geoff and the other two pilots went nearly straight down. When I picked him up at the bottom, others had launched and conditions had improved a lot. People were soaring and thermalling up. We debated whether there was time to fly again, but at the end of the day, it just meant having to drive later at night, whereas we don’t often get the chance to fly at Millau, so I took Geoff up again.

He took off and got straight up. He was heading out over the town, but with it being nearly 7pm, it was time to land and get back on the road. Whether we’re coming or going, it’s essential to get past Paris before we sleep, and we kept driving until 3.30am, when we pulled into a service station to have a cramped three hour sleep in the front seats of the car before setting off again to catch the ferry in Dunkerque.

See photos of today.

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