Tags and old photos

I'm just in the door and I've been tagged. I'm already a meme behind but this doesn't involve Wiki-ing things and can be completed sitting on my sofa recovering from a surfeit of cheese, wine, bread. Oh the bread! We had a favourite bakery in the village we stayed in and went there every morning to buy pastries and baguettes. I no longer fit comfortably into any of my clothes. It was a lovely time away and we managed to speak French to everyone - and everyone managed to keep a straight face. There is a cliche about French people, that they are arrogant and don't take kindly to people talking French badly ( and God help those speaking English ). We had the opposite experience, even in Paris. People were super patient, helped us when we didn't know the word for something and were just downright friendly.

The trip started out badly, as well as the extra security at the airport which was really scary - Scottish police don't look right holding guns - we also lost one of our party at the check in desk. Poor old Grahame, he got all the way to the airport, queued for over an hour at the check in only for his passport to be deemed too damaged to be acceptable. The page where his photo is was damaged and although the staff were lovely they weren't allowed to let him on the flight! By then we were way past the time for boarding the plane so the other three of us had to give him swift hugs and run for the departure gate. Luckily Grahame's MIL lives a few miles away from the airport and he stayed with Meg for a wee holiday instead. Kilmarnock is not quite the same as Paris though!

It was a holiday of wandering about, sitting in cafes and eating as much as possible. The attitude to food in France is great - although I'm sure people shop at supermarkets, there are also lots of specialist cheeseshops, bakers, chocolatiers and in St Germain, a beautiful hand made pasta shop and a shop just selling honey and things made from honey. The weather was cool enough to make walking easy until the last few days when it was so hot we could only sit under the parasol in the garden moaning and dipping slices of bread into our Nutella jars. I can't wait to go back.

Bugger - I've run out of space for meme-ing. I'll try again tomorrow when I can find photos of me with big hair. Here is a photo of the Dam in our village instead.