There’s been a lot of socialising, entertaining and travelling of late, and our frog blogging is all out of whack as a result. I’ll go some way to getting us up to date by covering the events of two weeks ago.
On Monday afternoon I saw a back specialist in Périgueux to go over the results of my MRI. This shows that I have scoliosis, but according to him, this is unrelated to the hip pain I have been having. So, he’s booked me for another x-ray, and also for an ERG of my legs. This will be in Libourne at the end of July, so I’ve a bit of a wait yet. This has been dragging on all year now and is getting frustrating so hopefully the ERG will find what’s up.
On Tuesday, I gave the house a big clean while Matt finished off some work. He then went off to collect Jan from Angouleme, in what turned out to be a nightmarish journey of road closures and heavy traffic. We had an apero when they got in followed by Tamale Pie and then Jan’s biscotti for dessert.
Wednesday was an unpleasantly cool and rainy day so we didn’t get up to too much. We had Bryan and Carol over for an apero-dinatoire in the evening. As well as leftover Tamale Pie, we had egg salad and a goat’s cheese & beetroot tart that Carol brought. We had biscotti again afterwards and then an early night.
Thursday started off cool and overcast but came good as the day went on, which was a nice welcome for Dave, Amy and Elvie. They arrived that afternoon for a long weekend break with Mum and Dad.
We have a pair of swallows busily building a nest in our garage at the moment. By the time I realised, they were so far along that it didn’t seem fair to stop them. I am more than happy for our guests to use the garage in any case – the only issue is the cats. I mention this because that afternoon, Smoo came charging indoors with a bird in his mouth, and I immediately assumed it was one of the two swallows. However, when he let it go we found out that it was a starling, and an uninjured one at that. It did a couple laps of the lounge before retreating behind a cupboard in the kitchen. I managed to flush it out eventually and it fled outside, much to the Smoo’s frustration.
That evening, we had Lucien and Mauricette over for dinner. This was an Asian-themed meal of spring rolls to start, followed by Thai green curry with side of bok choy and broccoli. The dessert, courtesy of Jan, was a chocolate fondant cake served with strawberries and whipped cream.
Friday was another naff weather day, with strong winds battering us. In the afternoon, Mum and Dad dropped Dave, Amy and Elvie off at ours while they had their French lesson with Françoise. We had an enjoyable hour or so playing with the wee monkey, who was in fine form, despite her teeth bothering her occasionally. Her previously-dark hair has recently turned a fine shade of blonde and she looks even cuter still, if that were possible.
That evening we were invited to Mum and Dad’s for dinner. This was Mum’s Glamorgan sausages to start, followed by a chicken and pesto main made by dad, all of it delicious. We left not too long after the meal and had a few games of cards before turning in for the night.
Carol called round the following morning to take Jan to the market in Thiviers, while Matt meanwhile did a Super U run. We entertained yet again that evening, this time inviting Manu & Mathilde and Françoise over for a meal. Matt and Jan worked together to lay on a big spread. After an aperitif course of hummus and tzatziki, we sat down to a meal of roast cauliflower, vegetable fritters and beef kofti, served with pita and dips. Dessert was strawberry cobbler served with ice cream, during which we suddenly lost Manu : he had a funny turn and had to take a wee time out on the sofa. It’s not unusual for someone to pull a « whitey » round ours, but we’ve never known Manu do so – and he was most embarrassed and apologetic about it. Everyone left at that point, which was just as well as we had a long journey ahead of us the next day.
On Sunday, we got up early to set off on our trip down to Nice, via Aix-en-Provence. We left around before 10.30 and had an uneventful and painless drive, reaching Aix a little before 6pm. We only had one night there, but Matt had booked us a rather plush 4-star hotel. After checking in, we made a beeline for the pool and had a dip. The water was a little cool but it was welcome after the car. We next ordered ourselves a stellar cocktail each from the hotel bar before heading out for a stroll around town and then dinner at a local restaurant.
We checked out next day checked out 11ish and headed on to Nice, which was about another hour and a half. We arrived at 2pm, got the car parked away and then had a quick lunch in a nearby café. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around town and orienting ourselves including a stop at the Chagal museum, in the hills overlooking the city. I hadn’t appreciated how large a city Nice is, but despite that, the streets didn’t seem too crowded. We got some recommendations of places to eat from our hotel and tracked one of them down. As you’d expect, there’s a lot of fish on the menu down on the coast, so I ended up having duck. It was alright, but not a patch on the Dordogne standard.
We dropped Jan off at the hotel after our meal and then headed out for a final drink or two before bed. A google search showed there were in theory 4 gay bars nearby. One turned out to be closed for renovations. A further two did not appear to ever have existed at all, but the last one was open. Unfortunately, it had also been invaded by some incredibly loud and drunken women. We were sat near them and it took us a while to work out where they were from, so thick were their accents. After a while, we realised they were actually Glaswegian. We later learned they were on a hen night, hence the vast consumption of shots that was taking place. After a couple drinks there, we left them to it and retreated to the hotel.
And seeing as that’s a week’s worth, I am stopping here and handing the baton over to Matt for part two.