RETOUR AUX SOURCES

The sea was absolutely beautiful, calm, sun dappled, a vast expanse of blue  as we sat in the front of the P&O ferry to Calais yesterday.  I wanted a Christmas shopping trip to my favourite place, Cité Europe, and my friend the golfer kindly offered to drive us there - all the better to stock up I thought.  But it didn't quite work out like that...for a start, I was seasick for the first time in my life. There was a deceptively gentle swell and after nine weeks of dieting I was determined to have a pain au chocolat AND a brioche aux raisins AND a cappuccino for my breakfast. Big mistake!

Once there - well done golfer for driving us directly there like a homing pigeon - the place was empty. Shops closed, restaurants deserted, Christmas cheer decidedly lacking, and when we got into Carrefour with our trolley the prices were sky high thanks to the pound's weakness against the euro. Much higher than Matalan, Tesco, Asda and even the High Street.  What a disappointment.

Feeling a bit cheated, golfer took me to Flunch for a salad (WW and unsettled stomach oblige), so much for my usual chèvre chaud and crêpe flambée au cointreau. And there, things began to look up. We took our time over lunch and really enjoyed it, and when we emerged again into La Galerie Marchande the place had come to life.  Children were jumping on the bouncy castle and sitting on Santa's knee, music was playing, the shops were filling up and the atmosphere had shifted. We shunned the big shops and spend a couple of very happy hours browsing round all the smaller boutiques, finding more presents at very reasonable prices than I could possibly want and dreaming of far away places in Maisons du Monde.

Then it was back on the boat and a hilarious episode with a dozy (yes, golfer, dozy) waitress who gave me a whole pint of white wine spritzer because she "couldn't fit the soda water into the wine glass."  The golfer was so bemused that he just stood there with his mouth agape and let her do it! You couldn't invent it!  Back home, we had a picnic of smoked salmon, pâté and camembert before he went home to rest up for his golf tournament today...good luck.

All in all, a very good day, lots of laughs, some good finds and a day off from dieting...this morning I measured my waist with trepidation, but it hadn't budged, ouf!

Comments

[l'anglaise]

And you would know! x

[Baby Sis]

Sounds lovely. Glad you had a nice day. Did you mention presents? Whatya get me? Whatya get me? Can't wait for Christmas. I am sooo excited!

(P.S. You should have had an orange for breakfast. Tastes the same coming up as going down!)