SEVENTY FIVE NEXT !!

Another birthday has passed and in my birthday week we ate at some of our favourite restaurants.  The troglodyte pizzeria in Loches had had another makeover for Christmas.

On my actual birthday we went to the déchèterie!  What a treat!

We had to go because we had a lot of gardening and other rubbish to dispose of and opportunities were limited.  However, I did find a nice birthday gift on the "help yourself" table - four lovely dessert bowls, perfect for trifle or ice cream.

In the evening we had a delicious meal in the hotel in the village.  Its restaurant is called "L'Auberge".

The village looked very festive as we walked back to the car.

Later in the week we sampled the Christmas menu at Brody's.

The smoked sausage was very good.

I made a pumpkin and mincemeat cake in my forest Bundt tin for my birthday.

It was delicious!

 On a beautiful sunny day we went to the Christmas market at Bossée-sur-Claise which was great fun.

One of the food stalls was serving tartiflette so we had another good lunch!

In our art class we painted Christmas robins.

After we had deposited Yvonne in the cattery on the eve of our return to the UK for Christmas, there was a gorgeous sunset.  Such things make leaving France hard to do.   Hugo comes with us as he travels really well.  Yvonne does not travel well at all.

Soon after we arrived we continued the eating out and met up with friends who spend the summers in our part France for a get together and Christmas lunch.  It was great to catch up.

We went somewhere we had never been before, even having spent most of my life living in Derbyshire.

The Church Inn at Chelmorton.  Highly recommended.

After that, things went rather downhill.

The weather turned very damp and grey and we both succumbed to nasty colds.

All other festivities have been cancelled and we simply hope to be well enough to travel back to France on the 27th.  I am keen to fetch Yvonne from the cattery as soon as we can.

This was not the Christmas we had planned or hoped for.

Finally, in case you’re wondering, I have just turned seventy four.  It was my dad who would have said "I'll be seventy five next".  After every birthday he would add a year on, saying what he would be next, not what he was now.  It was his kind of joke.  Until the day he met his lady friend and then he started to say "we don't talk about our age" with a cheeky grin.  

It turned out that he had not been entirely honest with her and had knocked a few years off!  

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS 

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL !!