Monday 31st August

I returned from my brief visit to England on Saturday.  Life’s complications meant that I waved to my wife on the tarmac at Bergerac Airport; she was boarding the plane I flew in on.  Sunday and Monday and Tuesday I ran the Café on my own and we were quite busy because our only real competition on the square, Kismet, has closed for a month for refurbishment and a new owner re-opens in a month’s time.  Tuesday night was the last Marche Nocturne in Eymet and we had mixed feelings; sad that it was the last of the summer and quite relieved that our late night opening of the Café was at an end, we seemed to be a magnet for late night drinkers (us included) and had a job turfing everyone away at midnight.  Wednesday and my daughter flew in with two of my grandchildren and her husband drove all the way arriving around eight in the evening; takeaway pizzas all round.  Thursday was our market in Eymet and again we were busy, after lunch I went swimming at the lake at Lougratte, great fun but I was quite exhausted and we still had the last Gourmande evening in the Parc.  Again great fun even if the music was decidedly poor; a trio of teenage girls who were awful last year and have not improved at all – a pity as we all so wanted them to be half-decent.

Friday and we went to a nice early evening reception to welcome back some Australian friends who had been away for a few weeks, then to the pub and Elvis (on his own) sung and played guitar and piano for over three hours; I danced with everyone, not only my two sweet grand-daughters but my daughter, my wife and basically any other woman I could cajole to join me in my semi-drunken state.  And Saturday night we joined some other friends for an impromptu barbeque down by the Pont Roman where not a little more wine was consumed.  I am now recovering on Sunday before more swimming with the little ones.  It’s a tough life but I am bearing up remarkably well.