Birthday

Well, 60 years young today and hard to believe that I'm celebrating it in France - a dream I've had for a long time. I've had a quiet day packing and organising for tomorrow's departure. Danielle left for a meeting in Lyons at 5am, so Bernard came home from work to take me for lunch at the local pub! There was a small crowd of men in there for lunchtime beers and a couple of Minnie Caldwell lookalikes in the corner but apart from that, no other females. After the men Bernard knew had said their polite 'bonjours' to me, there was some laughter and I didn't hear the comments but he told us at the table tonight that by late this afternoon there were quite a few in the village making inquiries as to who the blond was that Bernard had out to lunch!
He took me into the school at 4.30pm as they wanted to say goodbye to me. The Principal had ordered a huge cake with candles on it which was very nice of him - a pineapple gateau which was delicious! They all want stay in touch and my students are going to be writing so many letters to France when I return!

                          

Later when we returned home,we had a lovely dinner after some celebratory champagne and it will be sad to say goodbye tomorrow to Bernard and Danielle who have been so good to me and we've had lots of laughs. Danielle and I will go into Bavay to the market in the morning because she says I have to try some variety of tripe that wasn't available at the market last week. The weather forecast for the North tomorrow is thunder, lightening and rain, so I don't think I'll be throwing back much of that tripe at lunchtime just a few hours before I fly to Edinburgh!

Opening the champagne

 

A birthday to remember