Down by the river

I had time to walk down to the river before French conversation this afternoon.  The footbridge disappeared in the winter floods and has not been replaced.  I had been due to have a meeting at the Mairie this morning but had a phone call from one of the deputy Maires to come to his house for a mini meeting.  I was informed that the Maire has just sacked both of them both for not voting for his budget (a long story of misappropriation of funds.) A third ex deputy was there who had been sacked two years earlier for having the temerity to question the €6000 worth of unnecessary overtime that the Maire had allocated to his son who he had appointed as the village policeman!  Village politics can get complicated.  It now means that our two great allies for the church and the bell project are no longer in position and this will serious hinder plans for our planned festival.  Maybe things will change after next year's elections!
We were at Pierre's house for dinner last night and he gave us the honour of offering some of his late mother's quince eau-de-vie vintage 1913!  Her mother had been a servant at the castle and had been given bottles of pre war vintage wine and the quince eau-de-vie that had remained in the cellar till Pierre's mother's death. I don't drink but I had a sip and it was still fine.