Hello lovely people.

Today was a very good day, for today we went out for lunch for the first time in almost a year. We had settled on a little Auberge in the village we went to watch the Tour de France last year. In September it had a variety of animals ambling about, and planters had pumpkins and squashes spilling out into the street. Was so pretty. We booked a table yesterday and it didn’t disappoint. Firstly we were the only ones there, so we had the full covered terrace to ourselves, just the 4 of us. The lovely lady came out and told us the plat du jour menu which I caught about 3/4 of and as usual for these parts, it was quite pork heavy. I had to be that difficult guy asking if there was a vegetarian option. I have low expectations when I do this. See “hot melon gate” and “white rice, chips and a solitary broccoli floret gate” for details of vegetarian options past. The owner was lovely, spoke great English and offered to cook me some fish instead which is fine with me. So first course for everyone else was melon and Serrano ham, I had melon and radishes with a big basket of good bread for the table. All good. Main course was pork steaks with an oniony sauce for the rest of the table, and I had a gorgeous piece of lightly battered fried fish, we all had the same fried potatoes. Luckily I spied the big chunks of bacon in the potatoes and just popped them to one side. I’m not an evangelical veggie (I do eat chicken, born of a need for some lean protein), I loved eating meat once upon a time, just my conscience precludes me eating it now – my issue, no-one else’s, so the potatoes themselves were devoured and hubs had the bacony goodness I picked out. Next course was cheese, served the French way, so basically on a plate with a knife and fork, but we squirrelled away the bread basket which has a habit of being stolen away after the starter – why?! A lovely slice each of Brie and a Tomme. Then pudding which was a cherry and orange blossom clafoutis, I think with some ground almonds in it, and most importantly the stones still in the cherries. I enjoyed it but was a little floral for me, it reminded me of my shower gel a bit. Then coffees all round, and we’d had a bottle of rose wine and 2 panaches. Guess how much? €78 for 4. Amazing. Loved the place with it’s hanging baskets, roaming cats and lovely old border collie laid in the sun. We’ll definitely be back. Always great to find another favourite spot.

Ambling around a supermarket to do a spot of shopping is infinitely more fun after half a bottle of wine. Accidentally though, I’d bought a lovely floral dress from SuperU the week before, and as it was loose and floaty and cotton I decided to wear it today. I have so many dresses that as yet I haven’t worn, that I was spoiled for choice today. The one I really wanted to wear, upon inspection, was fully lined and quite heavy fabric, so that was a no. 25 degrees today. The second one was made from a fibre that hadn’t seen anything natural and was wholly incompatible it seems, with a sun creamed arm. As I was too hot at this point to fight with the fabric, I opted for the Super U dress, which is so comfy I might live in it from here on in. However only now, laid here and writing this, have I spied the tag, clearly saying to be removed before wearing, that has caused me to set off every single alarm in Lidl, Mr Brico, and SuperU this afternoon, (where I purchased the same dress in another colour because I love it so much). Sigh….. Weirdly and incidentally though, everyone that did their shopping in SuperU today was given a single rose at the checkout. No idea why, but I approve this message.

The car is now also full of wooden stakes to finally finish off my extensive dahlia planting, a tomorrow job for sure I think.

Enjoy your bank holiday weekend (if it is one) where you are.

Laters….. V x