Carnival, Coffee and Cava

8.3.15:
After a bit of a lie in, I took myself off to the square in the centre of the village where the men of the Association were serving coffee and cakes to women as a gesture to International Women's Day. As for every year since it was started here in 2008, the sun shone brightly which made it easy to while away a couple of hours chatting and relaxing. And what do you know? I actually won the first prize in the raffle; a voucher for 30€. Don't know why but I had a feeling I would! The money raised is going to a women's association in Perpignan.
Normally, Christian has done his bit as a waiter but today he stayed home and read the paper, joining me later along with Henri for an apéritif before going for lunch at Jean-Jacques'. He did us a tasty main course of pot roast pork and even started us off with some nice, warm canapés washed down with cava. I'm so glad we introduced it to him and that given he's from the Champagne region of France, he doesn't turn his nose up at it. If you're wondered what's happened to Michèle, she was off on a tai chi course.
Weather:
17°, Sun and later cloud

7.3.15:

Started the day by going to the market; well, I went around while Christian unable to contemplate the walk, stayed in the car. First port of call was our usual café to say "hello" to Henri and Michèle and have a coffee. After that it was on to another one to see Hortense who was doing her book signing, then back to the village for lunch at the restaurant. It was warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the menu that was on for the carnival. Here's Christian reading the card sent by Valerie and Christophe to go with the voucher that we'd already been given on Thursday.
Then, it was all systems go to get ready for the village carnival but needless to say, I needed have hurried as it was late starting. Sorry
to say that some of the floats that had promised to come from other villages didn't turn up but even so, there were plenty of people in the streets having a good time. Squidgy foam and confetti was in abundance; it was noisy and despite the aching feet, lots of fun.
Our float won the first prize and no, it wasn't a fix! Ended our participation in the afternoon's festivities with an apéritif accompanied by our very own banda (dressed as clowns) in the village hall. At the same time, tables were being prepared for the evening's meal, the disco was being set up for the fancy dress ball and the bar was doing a good trade, so an atmosphere of organised chaos reigned.
 The 7th March is also the anniversary of when we met so we ended the evening at home with some fizz and foie gras in front of the telly. Well, it was 28 years ago and our ceilidh days are over!
Weather:
16° Sun and no wind

PS. Opened up the blog to write up this latest post and found that Ken and Kathy had left a comment which was a lovely way to start off. Some of the comment boxes were ticked too and not the boring one either!!