Day Twelve 26.03.05 Today was Gordon's birthday which meant that we had to be nice to him all day. This was a real challenge (only joking) Gordon and Bill travelled in the back of the van and entertained us with singing and 'What Links' games. We went to La Tranche Sur Mer and the weather was lovely all the time we were eating which at Gordon's request was at a beach side restaurant with excellent sea food called Equinoxe. We had been primed that lunch would be a long affair as both Gordon and Neil wanted a sea food platter (crab, sea snails, lobster, prawns, etc etc all requiring extraction of the meat with various tools including nut crackers and pins. This for us looked like far too much effort for very little benefit. We had been to this restaurant before and it was interesting to note that the waiter with BO was the same as last time and again he had not had a wash. By the time we finished the sun had gone in and the beach was not nearly as inviting. It was quite cold but then it is only March and it is the Atlantic coast. On the way back to the house we again had Bill and Barry Gibb (sorry Gordon) in the back singing to their full potential. This was momentarily broken by James trying to pull away in third at a busy junction. Why does stalling in the van sound as though somebody has driven into you? Back in full swing and it was Neil's turn to try something different (driving on the wrong side of the road) it wouldn't have been so bad but James just followed completely trusting Neil's driving ability a sharp correction for both nearing the top of the row of the hill averted any trouble.