Monday 2nd November

Well, humble pie never tasted so delicious.  Despite my previous posts detesting the whole concept of Halloween, American import etc: I have to acknowledge that two days ago (Saturday) we had a wonderful Halloween party.  I was nursing a cold and not exactly in a party mood, but we had been invited and our favourite, Rob (Elvis) Russell was playing, and despite having a nice evening in Pub Gambetta with Geoff Barker the night before, we dragged ourselves away from Strictly and decided to get ready.  My wife had bought a red wig for herself and a witches’ hat, and a pair of horns for me.  We knew we had yards of black velvet somewhere as my wife had a market stall for a couple of years here but I couldn’t remember where I had stored it.  Eventually I found it, and we fashioned a couple of cloaks.  A bit of dark eye-shadow, a scar or two fashioned from eye-liner, black lips and we looked pretty gruesome.

Luckily the party was being held only a couple of streets away in Chouette, a family-run little restaurant in town.  We know the French family really well, as they often come into the Café for espressos.  Almost everyone had dressed up, some in wigs, some with rubber face masks, and many with witches hats and cobwebs so it was already a party atmosphere.

Lots of good wine (Le Haut Pais, a favourite from Perigord) and the food was excellent too.  And Rob played all night as well, some Elvis, some old songs and a few new ones too.  A great party, we all knew the words to the songs and sung along to them badly and we even managed a dance or two.  So, as often happens – that which you were not expecting to be that much fun turns out to be great, whereas when you have been anticipating a wonderful evening for a while you may sometimes be disappointed.