SUMMER IS BACK

And the dogs are loving it!

A WEDDING IN THE HAMLET.

A week ago we got a sheet of paper in the mail box inviting us to the Vin D'honneur part of the wedding.

We didn't know the bride and groom, and barely knew our near neighbours.

All very strange.

What happens here is when you get married you go to the mayor's first, then to the church.

The vin d'honneur is to toast the bride and groom before they go off with relatives for the wedding meal and night festivities.

For this occasion, the evening do was a small marquee in the garden.

We stayed for a few drinks and left them to it.

A small turnout, but impressively, second in on the front row is Jethro, and at the back on the right was Father Jack Hackett from Father Ted.

DRINK!

LEARN FRENCH WITH AL & MARIE.

French: Je ne suis pas le plumeur de faisan que je suis le fils de plumeurs de faisan.

English: I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's son.

REALLY FRESH MOULES

Al took advantage of the lowest tide for months to go down to Pen Guen beach and pick some huge fresh mussels off the rocks.

They do need a lot of cleaning up before cooking.

But after scraping for a couple of hours they are looking good.

Steamed with shallots, wine, lemon juice for 5 minutes.

Delicious.

HARVEST TIME.

The fields all around us are being harvested of their wheat.

This is one of those rare instances where harvesting took place during the day. Most of it seems to be going on between 10pm and 3am.

Does anyone know why farmers harvest mainly at night.

Knowing the French, it's probably just to keep us awake at night!

MOULES FRITTES NIGHT.,

Saturday 7th August.

The Moules/Frittes festival at the lake.

If you was ever in the Navy, this is our Summer Ball

400 people, 500kg of mussels (Most of them mine!)

Just brilliant.

Early doors about 9pm.

The Chefs get amongst it!

The gang.

Me, Marie, Andy, Sophie, Dasha, Mikhail, Natasha, Jonn, Chrissie...and too many to mention.

Left to right. Chrissie, Henrietta, Robert, John.

Tucking in!

Dancing, and lots of it.

Even Al got up more than a bop night at HMS Nelson

The disco went on till 3am

Essential songs for a French "Euro Pop" Disco

Plastic Bertrand - Ca plain pour moi

Ryan Paris - Dolce vita

Opus - Life is Life

Boney M - Rasputin

I admit..I danced to them all.

We have become French.

At the end of the night, even the gay boys were dancing on the table.

This picture was taken for Nick in Pompey!

This is the night you need to be out here folks, it's brilliant.

Would love to see you all here next year.

WATERMELON WATCH

The Watermelons are now raised off the ground to stop them getting too damp from the soil.

There are now 4, but for each picture we will show the same one.

MONDAY NIGHT IS FRENCH LESSON NIGHT

The Cheval Blanc Bar & Hotel in Plancoet plays host to a language practice night on Monday's.

A mixture of French and English attend.

For the first hour we all speak English, and for the second hour we are half cut, so we speak French.

The informal gathering numbered 16 or so last Monday.

Host Michael from Ireland is doing a fine job setting up the Cheval Blanc as a place for live music.