24 August – Getting out of mascot was pretty pain free and there was plenty of time to spare. Good flight to Abu Dhabi where we enjoyed temperatures up round 39 which would have been great if not just coming out of negative numbers at home.

25 August – Caught the TGV to Valence with just 7 minutes to spare due to the plane arriving in Paris about an hour late and mine was the last piece of luggage to hit the conveyor belt. Bus took just over the hour to get to Gare de Lyon rail station which was just excellent as the driver assured me I would be there on time. Had to get the tickets reprinted as the carriage number could not be read. Train reached 297 kph and yet the view from the window was quite easy – will be interesting to see how the Sapsan from Moscow to St Petersburg fares. No point taking photos out of train window due to the speed – image is just too blurry at this speed but the fields are very green and lush.

Train travelling at 297 kph – hard to take a photo