Cheers - and memories

Our travels over for now, we consoled ourselves by opening the bottle of my favourite champagne that was part of my present from #2 son and family. I've lost count of the number of years since we stayed with friends in the Champagne region of France and made the visit to Épernay, not far from where they lived, to tour the cave of Champagne de Castellane, which we had enjoyed drinking at the friends' wedding.

I shall never forget the sensations of that tour - the dank chill of the tunnels in the chalk where the champagne is aged, the crates that tilt the bottles, the crunching of ice pellets underfoot, each step releasing the wonderful scent of the wine (these pellets form in the necks of the bottles and pop out with whatever impurities aren't wanted in the finished article). The tour was conducted in French; we were with our hostess and there was a French woman with her grandchild. At the end, in the salesroom, when I was buying a bottle of champagne liqueur (mmmmm), the woman who had taken us round said to her assistant "et madame a tout compris!". Smug? Moi? Well, yes.

So as darkness fell after a wonderfully brilliant blue-sky day, we drank pink champagne and became irrationally cheerful. I should have birthdays more often ...

Extra photo of the glorious afternoon along Loch Striven.