A substantial outlay for your Paris trip, Danny. Was the Bond being de-coked, re-bored, or whatever? It would have been a hit in La Belle France for sure, even with their idiosyncratic take on what constituted a Voiture. Given its frugal consumption and the relatively low cost of petrol anyway, the only real big ticket item would have been for the car ferry. I'm not sure if that didn't require vehicles still to be craned on board, or were RORO's then up and running? But we already know of your preference for CAT in those days despite the cost and experience suffered. Positioning flight? Isn't every one? £11 for the 11pm one? Sounds like a marketing ploy. The 1pm could have been a bargain ;-)
Your successful indent for "Bicycles, Tradesmen, Qty 2." was a triumph, for anything that the RAF provided for ground transit was fiercely fought over and never sufficient for the demand. How a RAuAF FCU so qualified I cannot imagine, but possession is 9 points of the law, and 3608 FCU possessed! Your description of the vehicles took me back to my childhood, for I did a Greengrocer's round on Saturdays and a paper delivery round on Sundays. The former was done with a similar bicycle as you describe, albeit in black. The basket was piled high with produce and off I went on my teetering way. The round was rather the opposite to the famous Hovis errand boy ad, in that I went down a steep hill outbound, returning empty up it. An advantage one would think, but the AUW, gradient, and indifferent brakes all led to an acceleration which was both exhilarating and problematic. The unevenness of the road surface seemed to set up a harmonic vertical oscillation of the basket and its contents. Soon cabbages, cauliflowers, or other larger assorted vegetables and fruit could be flung out hither and thither. I would have to squeeze hard on the brake handles, steer into the kerb and, bringing the bike to a halt, stand it up on its retractable legs in order to recover the produce before it was run over. A quick dusting off of gravel and other contaminants and all was as good as new, well almost. Fortunately the customers never complained and indeed often added a tip or two to my 10/- retainer!