After a tearful goodbye in Antibes (for real this time!) it was on to Albi, in France, to stay with Arnie Sue and Uncle Bri! It was so nice to be staying in a home again, especially one with English Sky TV! And so ensued some serious Olympic viewing (and of course I managed to squeeze in a few episodes of Friends!).
A real highlight for me was spending time with the three gorgeous dogs, Winnie, Banksy and Sprint (later renamed Monsieur as he is so incredibly french looking!). Used to reprebate dogs charging about and jumping on to beds, I found it bliss to have them around. Matt however exercised some admirable pacience when woken each morning by Winnie's toenails tapping on the floor and Banksy's dive bombing wet nose butts!
We had some incredibly relaxing days. Matt and Brian played golf in the glorious sunshine, while me and Suzanna had a proper catch up over a bottle of rose! We were treated to a delicious lunch at their friend Ruth's house where, of course, another couple of bottles of wine were enjoyed....well, when in France!
Evenings were a different matter altogether! We indulged in carpaccio (a delicious revelation to Matt!) washed down with wine on the first night. The next night I made my seciality batch of cosmopolitans which were then followd by a whole range of unsusal cocktails, based on whatever we could find in the drinks cupboard, before heading out. Around midnight we hit Mitch's Bar in Albi. Mitch is French but speaks incredibly good english and he greeted Suzanna and Brian, and subsequently us, as long lost friends. However, the free shots of vodka with creme de menthe that he continuously plyed us with were not the act of a friend! More like the kiss of death! The night turned into a lock in with us choosing the music and dancing with a few of the staff. If I told you that at some point during all of this, Monsieur rang us on Matt's flip flop to complain about Banksy's behaviour and spoke to everyone in the bar, you may get some idea of the night we had!
Being good standing members of the community we decided to leave the car and walk home. That's a 45 minute walk, across country, in the pitch black! Need I say more, other than that I'm surprised this didn't in anyway relive the pain that followed the next day.....especially Matt's!
And so it was time to bid farewell to Arnie Sue and Uncle Bri, Wins, Banks and Mons. We had an amazing time and we love Albi! Thanks so much guys - see you in St Lu for more of the same!
And it's off to meet Rhiannon and head for the sunny town of St Sebastian.....
