Psst!

Backstory for absence of blips here. This is Sunday's; we spent the morning at De Ferme en Ferme in the Val de Dagne. It's always worth going on this annual tour of farm open days, especially on such a lovely day. These are a couple of young goats at Carrus, the iconic local producer of goat's cheese and eggs, supplier to our local 3-star restaurant. We haven't been there for many years; it's up a long and winding road from Caunettes en Val. Claire took us to see the dairy and the goats, and then we meandered back down the hill for lunch in Caunettes; buy a plate of salad and handmade pizza with a slab of sourdough smothered in Carrus cheese for good measure, then buy lamb cutlets from a stall and grill them yourselves on the supplied barbecues for a leisurely déjeuner sur l'herbe.

We had to be back in time for my conversation group. We'd decided to ring the changes and play scrabble, using an English set and a French one (the letter distribution is different to account for different frequencies). It's hard work playing in French, especially when your first draw gives you a K, a W, and a Y. I'm not sure I'll repeat the experiment as although we were playing in French at our table, we were speaking English. The other group spoke in French and played in franglais.

Much later we tried out the local restaurant's new tapas menu with S and R. Between us we were able to sample nearly everything and they were all excellent. Especially the cod ceviche and the beef tataki.