Beaucaire

Hi everyone,

Well, we've reached the halfway stage at Beaucaire, and the group is finally getting a bit of a rest. The teachers had a fairly horrendous journey overnight from Venice to Dijon, with nocturnal interruptions from train staff, Italian customs, and then Swiss border guards who wanted to see all passports and to match passports to faces for two compartments before finally giving up, as well as sharing our compartment with two others who arrived about 11pm (one of whom was detained by the Swiss at 3am and not seen again.....). So, a much-needed sleep last night before heading out to Nîmes and Arles today.

I think that many of your boys are here to shop more than to look at monuments and art — several have already broken out their second bag, they seem to be ploughing through their euros with enormous enthusiasm, and they ask constantly where the next stores are. I hope your bank balances are coping!

We've had the odd bout of plague, weariness and colds, but everyone is generally healthy at the moment apart from the odd blister, and looking forward to Paris and London. Thankfully Hugh's hacking cough has abated, so he may indeed survive the trip without being murdered by his roommates.

The weather has been consistently amazing — mostly 32-34 degrees in Italy, and a little bit of refreshing rain this morning before turning into a hot and humid day of 29 degrees, with higher temperatures and blazing sun forecast for all of tomorrow. The pool here at the hotel is being well used!

Hope you are all well, and thanks for your messages. If your son hasn't written on here yet, it's not through lack of trying, but I shall start some firmer encouragement tomorrow!

À bientôt,

Mr Buckingham