Biarritz Café

   This is the most famous and most beautiful café in Biarritz.  It is where the Kings, Queens, and princesses of Europe used to meet up with each other.  We had a lovely late breakfast here the day after my birthday.

That was over a hundred years ago.  Now it is mega-rich Russians that go to all the very posh places.

Hop Off!

It rained a bit through the night, which must have encouraged this frog to go wandering and visit our pool.

Handyman Loses Fingers

Vincent lives in a horse-drawn caravan with his two black and white dogs and a huge horse, in a field outside the village.  He does sheep-shearing and lots of odd jobs.  Today he was painting shutters for the Mayor in the big barn opposite.  He had his radio on very loud.  We waved to him as we were going out the door and said "Comment ca va?".  He said "Tres bien".  He's always very cheery.  He came across the road to shake hands, taking his work glove off as he walked towards us.  What a shock!  The 4th and 5th fingers on his right hand were little stumps.  We asked what happened.  He said he lost two fingers in an accident ..."nothing serious".  One was crushed and the other got so badly infected it had to be removed to save his hand. He was more upset that one of his dogs (called Patate = Potato) had died last week of old age.

Tom Tom Gone

When we were setting off on Monday morning, we had a bit of a shock.  The TomTom sat nav was nowhere to be seen.  I knew it should be in the car because I'd got it to memorise the route we were taking just the other day.  We searched the house in a panic --- nothing there.  Then I noticed that its cable and charger were also missing from the car.  Somebody must have stolen it while I was going back and forwards to the house packing the car because the doors were not locked.

I thought we could buy another one at a motorway service station but they only sell sweets, magazines and rubbish.  The road south is very easy - M6 motorway most of the way - but there is a tricky bit to get onto the Portsmouth road and if we got lost we might miss the ferry.  At the very last stop on the M6, we found a little shop selling phones and sat navs.  Now we have a bigger TomTom with a bossy woman's voice.

Back-to-front Butterfly

Cleaning the pool this morning, I found a drowned butterfly floating, wings closed & nothing moving, on the surface along with a few other insects.  Marion decided to fish it out with a broom and leave it in the sun to see if it was really dead. A few minutes later, it was standing up drying its wings!

We call this type 'back-to-front butterfly'(don't know its proper name) because of its camouflage.  The tail has got the same markings as the head and it has tail streamers that imitate the attennae.  The idea is that a predator attacks the wrong end and the butterfly is in the right position to escape.

It's A Jungle

Last time we were here, before Easter, we spent a long time cutting back the plants.  All the cuttings filled the small hire car!  Imagine then how amazed we were to arrive and find the the garden looked completely overgrown.  It has been very wet here too which makes plants grow like crazy.  It took another three hours to clear the jungle at the end of the garden.

Zombie Doorstop

I want one like that! Especially if its eyes lit up when you tried to open the door.

Downpour At Rudi's

Look closely and you can see a fountain of water.  Byres Road was like a lake.  We had to change all our clothes when we finally got home.

Like Goldilocks

The old mattress is too soft.  Tried the new one last night: it is too hard!

Marion could not sleep at all and got all sore.  She eneded up sleeping in the old bed.  So back goes the new one to Ikea to be exchanged for a medium-soft one, which we hope will be just right.  Lucky Ikea does a deal on mattresses that allows you to change your mind for 90 days after buying one.

Modern Romeo