Angels Aloft

Today being the actual feast day of St Michael, the parachutists were once more in the village to take part in the parade and wreath laying ceremony at the war memorial.  Once Christian had done his civic duty, we met up with most of the folk with whom we'd done the tasting but this time it was for coffee rather than wine. Still, Sunday isn't Sunday without an apéritif, so when we'd had enough coffee, we had one courtesy of the Mairie who had laid one on a "vin d'honneur" for the parachutists.

Picking Up the Threads

After less than 24 hours to settle back in, we were once more catapulted into the village  official and social scene. There were naming cérémonies of the nursery and primary schools in the presence of the President of the Département. One was named after a prime mover during the Enlightenment (he even proposed votes for women) and the other for a member of the resistence from the village. He was arrested and later died in a concentration camp. After that it was up into a hamlet in the mountains where the Déparment had given a grant to restore the 17th century altar in a 9th - 10th century church dedicated to St Michael, the Archangel. Thre were several parachutists in attendance as St Michael is their patron saint. At long last, with all the formalities at an end, it was time to have lunch, which was as copious as ever, in the restaurant next door.
After a very short break in the house, we headed out again, this time to Marguerite and Michel's who were hosting an rosé tasting for the association. We were particularly touched by their willingness to change the date of the evening so that we could attend. Needless to say there was much hilarity and good things to eat.

Famous Last Words!

While Rosie went off to her first Welsh lesson, we packed our bags and made ready to leave  later in the afternoon for the ferry. Before that there was a pleasant lunch in the garden under sunny skies. An added bonus was being able to see several red kites in action.
The drive down to Portsmouth was long and after paying over £6 for two cappuchinos we came out of the services to find that the rear window of the car was half open. Tried to close it but it got stuck completely open. Managed to cover it with a blanket weighed down with the umbrella stand that Jill had given us. "At least it's not raining", says I. Talk about tempting providence ...... all along the A34, the rain just teemed down. Arrived in Portsmouth 10 minutes before the supermarker closed so I did a quick scoot around picking up some cold meat, cheese, fruit and a Hovis. Not much of an meal but it was the best we could do given that we couldn't leave a loaded car.

Managed to get some sleep on the overnight crossing. This time we were wise to the disembarkation problems and asked to park on a lower inside deck. A car with an open window exposed to the elements served as a good excuse.
BMW in Le Havre were great. They managed to pull up the window and firmly tape it in place. Had another picnic en route while looking forward to a good evening meal to celebrate our wedding anniversary.
Our hotel in St Poncey in the Massif Central was simple but in a pretty village and the food was good. And an apéritif in the sun on the terrace was a plus.
Arrived home the next day in lovely sunny weather, more than happy to be back.

Mwynhewch eich bwyd!

After a leisurely start to the day we took Chris and Rosie out for lunch. Good food, in pleasant surroundings much  to our liking. Afterwards took a jaunt into the nearby town in search of postcards. Hopefully, they'll arrive in France before we do.
And this title means "Bon appétit!"

Croeso i Gymru

Today, it was time to gather up all the shopping and other acquisitions, pack and move on to Chris and Rosie's new home in South Wales. Had a leisurely drive in the sunshine, stopping off in Raglan for a nice lunch. Despite all the comments about wet Wales, we had a couple of days of beautiful weather. We were able to have tea in the garden when we arrived and I have to say, that the garden is just splendid, summer houses (yes, plural), a pond, veg plot and lots of verdant nooks and cranies.
Ps. The title means "Welcome to Wales".

Lunch in the Cotswolds

By now we were running out of energy and ideas of where to eat that would have something to suit

Mum ; I must have mentioned before that she has a very limited palate which is the bane of my life. Settled on another pub lunch, this time in Chipping Campden. Beig a Sunday, there was nothing much else open so we went back to Mum's ; Christian to sleep, Mum to do her crossword and me to knit .... domestic bliss?
As if lunch out wasn't enough, John and Jill took us for a Chinese meal in the evening. despite all good intentions of eating meagerly, temptation got the better of us! Then went home and settled down to watch the start of the new series of "Downton Abbey". What suckers we all are for costume drama featuring the upper classes. Don't let on to the comarades. In our defence we did watch "The Mill" which was excellent, based on fact and redressed the balance of British social history..

Wherefore Art Thou, Will?

Back again to Stratford for more shopping and to meet Mary. Good ol' Christian, he's a gem; uncomplaining and patient. Still, lunch in a pub and then a walk next to the canal in the sunshine was a real pleasure. The Warwickshire countryside was looking its best and the narrow boats added to the scene. All we lacked was a Shakespeare look alike to accompany us.

Pleased to Meet You!

19.9.13: A day off! Yes, a lazy start, lunch at The Bell and a zip around the shops in Stratford. Weather was ok but better than that, it was just us. On our return, we called in to see Joan who's moved around the corner from Jill and seems to be happy in her new house.
20.9.13: Started the day with a visit from Ollie, Tash and the new baby who is just a week old. She's a wee smasher! From the youngest relative to the oldest .... picked up Mum and took her to the garden centre for lunch. Pleasant surroundigs but like the one earlier in the week, there seems to be less emphasis on the  garden side of things and more on eating and gifts. Supermarket shopping ... what joy and then home.

Pub Fare

17.9.13: Met up with Mum in the town, visited several charity shops in search of china cups and saucers. No success in that department but came away instead with a lovely M & S winter skirt. Went to "El Café" for coffee. It's a tiny little place which has good reviews on Tripadvisor. In fairness we didn't eat there but quite honestly, there was nothing to set it apart from any other café. These jaundiced eyes are too used to the real thing.
Mum treated us to an upmarket pub lunch in the village where we met contempories from the village that I hadn't seen for years and years. Our meal was fine but Mum wasn't very happy that the September menu didn't include the gammon that she'd had and enjoyed in August. The terrine that she had instead didn't meet with approval so I guess this place will be struck off. Shame as the only other place in the village serves run-of-the-mill fare which we're more than happy to give a miss. You know what they say about pleasing people ......?

18.9.13: Today we went for another pub meal, this time "The Fleece" in Bretforton. It was worth it just fo r the character of the place which dates from the time of Chaucer. If you're interested you can read about its history on http://www.thefleeceinn.co.uk/history-of-the-fleece-inn/  Although sunny outside, its dim interior made it cool enough for a fire but the wood was damp and it smoked. It all added to the atmospere.
From here we went to the Evesham garden centre where 90% of the visitors  were elderly people on an afternoon out. Every year there seems to be going more and more downhill.
The evening redressed the age balance as Jill's kids came around with their families so we met JJ for the first time and heard Isla count and say her alphabet. Much more fun.

No Frills Sailing

Stopped off for coffee with Gilbert and Jacqueline, who have finally sold their shoe shop, before going to catch the ferry. Oh dear, we really need to go for another means of crossing the channel as the new owners of the line can only be considered as the maritime equivalent of Ryanair. Pitiful facilities and it was an old non roll on / roll off boat. That meant that when it was time to disembark all the cars had to back and turn around thus taking nearly an hour as a consequence. To add insult to injury, the crossing was so rough that once we were out at sea, we weren't allowed out on deck. Our sad little picnic was eaten in the seats where we spent the whole of the 5.5 hour voyage.  Finally arrived at Jill's after midnight where a cup of cocoa and plenty of tlc put us right..

Family Ties

This morning our youngest granddaughter acted as our guide in town where we went to buy bread and dessert for lunch. With the sun shining we had to have a coffee out on a terrace of a café. The weather held long enough for an apéritif outside too but lunch we had inside. Once back at Christophe's, it wasn't long before we were on the road again. Sylvie (cousin) and Christophe had only arrived home from Spain that afternoon but vallantly insisted that we go around for something to eat. Irene and Alain (cousin) were also there and we really appreciated the effort that they made to see us. So, our last meal in France was a good one. Can Uk keep up?

Chilling Out

10.9.13: A lazy day spent close to home (because of the rain) until it was time to go over to see Lydie and Bernard for dinner.
11.9.13: Cold and miserable but we went to the local market only to find that the old characterful café is no more. Found a café near to the house where we were soon talking to the locals only to find that we'd met one of the clients at our local market.  He's from the same family as the stall holder that we buy cheese from and had been down in our neck of the woods on holiday. Small world, eh?
12.9.13: Weather still miserable, so gave the market a miss and went to the Pissaro exhibition featuring paintings of the ports of Rouen. Dieppe and Le Havre in the Musée Malareaux. The restaurant was fully booked so we came back to Montivillers (photo) where the market had finished and had lunch in the "Pomme et Cannelle". We'd been thinking for a while that we'd like to try it but now our curiosity is satisfied, there's no reason to go back.
13.9.13: Did some supermarket shopping as we're cooking dinner this evening. Weather miserable, chilly but dry so we were able to have a walk along the prom at Fécamp before lunch with Christophe at "Terras Nuevas". This time we had an excellent meal; lots of verrines.
Our meal in the evening was a simple affair, apéritifs, pasta with smoked salmon sauce, cheese and petits fours.
14.9.13: Caught up with "Young Moltabano" who's as beguiling as his older self. The mannerisms and reflexions are the same but it's difficult imagining this thin, curly haired, bearded young man becoming the Salvo of later life that we first met. It is fun though being introduced to all the characters that we already know. Later in the afternoon we went over to Valérie and Guilhaume's for the night and celebrated Hugo's birthday..

Moving On

Today was the end of the official twinning visit and the bus left to return to the village at 6am. Unfortunately, the bus broke down after only 2 hours into the journey and it didn't arrive back chez nous until 1pm the next morning. We, on the other hand, had a leisurely start and a visit from Angelique for coffee. Then it was lunch at Alain and Andrée's before a quick visit to see Nadine and Jean who sadly was too ill to see us. A drive of 1.5 hours then followed taking us to Christophe and Valérie's and the next stage of out trip.
So, next year it will be our turn to pull all the stops out and show our Normandy pals a good time and there's a lot to live up to.

A Sporting Chance

An 8h30 start for Bayeux where we gave the tour of the Cathedral a miss, preferring to go and have a
coffee with Agnes instead. Had a stroll and met up with Loïc and Anneka for a drink before it was back to the village hall for a copious lunch. This I'm sure was sabotage as in the afternoon there were a series of games:

• boules
• badmington
• basketball
• equilibrium on a (gym) bar
• scrabble
• hoola hoop
• quiz on Normandy

There were 11 teams, 3 from here. Not everyone from our group took part though Christian and I courageously responded to the challenge albeit on different teams. There was even a cup for our participation.

At least having burnt a few calories in the afternoon, the evenings gala dinner was managable ...... more so than all the speeches and exchange of gifts.

Côte Fleurie

A visit to Cabourg leaves you in no doubt that the coast here abouts deserves its name. The group were well in awe of the abundance of flowers everywhere. The wind made it a bit chilly but a visit to "Père Magloire", the Calvados (apple brandy) producer with  a free tasting at the end of the visit soon warmed us up. Christian and I have passed by a number of times when we've been in Pont L'Évêque but never stopped, so this was a first for us and interesting it was too. Needless to say, the tasting

encouraged several of the group to splash out on a few bottles and we were no exception. Next came lunch out in the Normandy countryside and once again everyone was well pleased with what had been laid on. From here it was back in the bus and on to Honfleur where we were free to wander in the sunshine. Yet, another success for the organisers. For us, even though we've been many times before, it was lovely to enjoy it in the sunshine minus the headache of trying to park.
There as just enough time on our return to change and get ready for fireworks, a communal meal and dancing for 400+ people. As our contribution to the evening, some of our group did a demonstration of the Sardane .... no escape even up north!

About Turn

Spent a lazy few hours after lunch on our own as François and Jojo had to leave  for an appointment in Paris. Made sure that all was lockred up and secure and were half way to our twinned town when we realised that we'd left the shopping that friends had asked us to do in the fridge. No worries we'd left the key as asked in the neightbour's letterbox. The neighbour was in but her husband had gone off with the letterbox key and she didn't know when he'd be back. By this time we were starting to be running late so off we went again. The Gps wasn't aware that the entry road to the town was blocked off so we ended up nearly in Caen and had to turn around.
By the time we 'd made it to the village hall, the bus from the village had arrived and the apéritif was in full swing.
There was a quick meal at Agnes's with whom we were "billeted"where we were joined by Bruno & Christine, the owners of the charcuterie that we'd left in the fridge. Then a concert given by Axel Bauer (a bit of a passed-it cult guitarist/singer) to inaugurate the new hall. Stayed the course until 2am. you can find a taster here: http://www.axelbauer.com/

Friends Reunited

Next stop was lunch with Christian's Godmother who at nearly 92 is still living on her own, is never bored or complaining and has such a positive outlook on life. From there we went on to visit our friends François and Jojo for two nights. A walk around Arromanches (one of the Normandy Landings sites), shopping in Bayeux where I found a lovely Irish woollen jacket for Christian, a couple of sale bargains for me, good food and conversation just about sums it up.

Bags Packed!

Yesterday, in spite of having to do all that last minute stuff before going away, we went off to have our hair done and were in the salon for 3 hours. I came out with eyebrows 3 shades darker than I would like, so next time I'll do the timing.
Left this morning before 9am in bright sunshine. Picniced on the way up and here's Christian having a well earned beer. Stayed in the B & B that we'd used once before mainly because they produce a good muscadet. The meal was mediocre and to make things worse we shared the table with the most boring couple. Still, the rest of the trip spent with family, friends and participating in the village twinning visit promises to be both more interesting and more fun!