La Marseillaise

A few years ago we got to know an old French neighbour called Henri when he killed a rat for us, got us blind drunk on fine wine and evil after-dinner spirits and fed donkey sausage to our dog. He was what you might call a character, full of stories and knew everyone in the old town - and he was an Anglophile to boot :-)

One night he gave us this parchment and challenged us to learn the words to La Marsellaise, which we never did, of course, but he said we could keep it as a gift. Only a few years after we'd met him, Henri passed away. Been meaning to get this framed for a while and finally picked it up from the framers today - really pleased with it.

Looking at it will always make me smile, as the bottom right corner features a faint stain from me knocking over a glass of some illegal liqueur he'd foisted on us. So it reminds me of every time we sat and got sozzled round at Henri's...