Well, would you know? There are people at our place – 5 older French couples and an English couple, the latter had dinner with us, ie they were at the next table. He should have had hearing aids, said she, because he misses out on all the gossip. I agreed and told her mine were so good I could hear everything they said. So when he asked her for some of her wine, I said ‘go on, he gave you some of his favourite beer just before which you really liked!!’
It could have been a poor start, but she had a sense of humour and realised that she had herself probably heard and shared too much herself. But they did share that they (he) had an e-type Jaguar, which ‘they’ were driving to Monaco to enter a Classic car competition. A bit too hot was their only concern because these cars never had air-conditioning.
The talk moved from her digs in London, to Australia where she visits her sister, to their sharing of charges – he would pay for the drinks, she would look after the petrol – or did I hear right?
After dinner they went up their exotic looking marble staircase while we crept round the corner to our tiny little, much steeper stairway hidden in the corner. We met again at breakfast where the voluminous French people meant we could hardly converse. So our first real interaction with others finally gave me something else to post.
I revised my directions first thing having dreamt about them for most of the night; all went well. Along an open field, (thought to be behind us), over another river, along this same river cushioned by what seemed to be an old forest. Soon there was a carved opening, where ‘firewood timber’ had been felled. It was also home to a large fox who appeared out of the tall wheat before rushing into his timber residence.
A few Poppies had been spared by the mighty tractors, and it was a delight to have these bright flowers waving in the cooling breeze. Across another small river with lots of trees, the church spiral indicating we had completed another day and a hot walk home. The keys had been left on the desk and the front reception door open. This thankfully prevented another forced entry.
