Sunday lunch

....in the garden. The temperature has fallen to more bearable midday heat at about 30°C, so with a lot of shade over our table we were able to have lunch outside for the first time for a week or so. Having been reminded by a restaurant review on the Observer site this morning about how delicious barbecued garlic is, I was very pleased that we had these huge cloves - almost the size of small onions - to cook over the hot charcoal. And very delicious they were too, with lamb chops and red peppers picked straight from the plant.

Neil Armstrong's death has reminded me of the first time I came to this département - l'Hérault - on an exchange visit to a family in Montpellier when I was 17. The moon landing was reported the first night I was there, but with teenagerish disdain for world events my exchange partner insisted that she showed me around the hot streets around her home to meet her friends. Everywhere we went windows were open onto the July night and I could hear the excited TV reporters telling us 'Un homme est sur la lune!' I never thought then that 43 years later this area would be my home.