…was actually a sneaky way of saying that I was off to France with Tan for the weekend. The parents knew she was going but not me.
Tan and I had an excellent Japanese dinner at Hare and Tortoise in Ealing on Wednesday night, then headed for Gatwick on Thursday morning. Volotea, a Spanish carrier, has started flying twice weekly to Brest.
The cabin staff were extremely efficient and – this is important – did not spend the entire flight trying to sell us scratch cards/lottery tickets/duty free/food. There was a menu accessed by a QR code, so you could eat if you wanted, but no hard sell.
You can’t check in online, so there was a bit of a queue, but the team were smiling and friendly and efficient.
These mice were the outcome of the flight and a slight delay…
When we arrived at the parents’ house Tan sent me up the drive while she reversed the hire car up the tricky drive, so I wandered into the house… mum spotted me first and then dad appeared to say ‘that’s not the daughter I was expecting!’
In the evening we went to the pizza place in the local town – the thinnest base and hugest pizza, followed by an excellent coupe tatin ice cream – vanilla and caramel ice creams, cooked apple slices and cream.
Friday was spent admiring French bakery and vegetables, napping and then going for a walk along the canal where there were hordes of swallows and noisy coypu in the lagoon.
On Saturday – before the predicted heatwave – we headed off to Port-Louis where the sun was starting to break through. We had a mooch around the market where we were beguiled by the smells of the strawberries and fresh produce, and then headed to the beach where I hopped into the sea for a quick dip.
Lunch was at the restaurant on the beach, where we had very fresh fish and chips (tuna for Tan, mackerel for me, something battered for the parents) followed by café gourmand all round – Far Breton, crême brulée, and salted caramel glace.
Today’s plan may be to hit a different beach in the morning so the less hardy among us can go in the sea too, and then hide from the promised heat.
Other things making me happy this week
This week was Thing 2’s prom, so I can at last share photos of the skirt we made!
Reading the latest Joanne Harris novel, Vianne – a prequel to Chocolat and magical as ever.
That’s it, I think – I have a busy few weeks coming up at community festivals and testing a new school session! All very exciting…
Same time next week…
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
Edgelands – Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley
La Vie/The Wild Life – John Lewis-Stempel
Golden Hill – Francis Spufford
Vianne – Joanne Harris
Greetings from Bury Park – Sarfraz Manzoor (Audible)
Shadowlands – Matthew Green
What Kirsty did next 
Oh the MICE! 😍
LikeLike