Bonjour
Hope you had a great week.
Summer is well and truly on the way here in the middle of nowhere – at least that’s what my neighbour Marie-Claude says. At almost 90 years old she is as spritely as a woman half her age and as thin as a reed despite her favourite snack being toasted sugar sandwiches. Whenever I see her nipping about the village I am amazed at her energy. I’ve asked her several times what the secret is. The answer varies.
Sometimes she swears it’s eating a slice of pork belly for breakfast with a glass of cider. Other days she’ll say it’s morals. “I have good morals, those who don’t are punished”. She doesn’t elaborate on this one. Once she told me it was because she goes to bed at 7pm and gets up at 5 am in the summer and 7am in the winter and sleep is healing. She has never been to a supermarket in her life, grows all her own vegetables, keeps chickens and ducks and goes for a walk every day. She keeps her house spotless, nearly every time I go there she’s mopping the pristine floor or polishing the gleaming windows. She’s never been on a plane or train, the furthest she’s been outside the village is to the local hospital 20 miles away.
Her best friend is Bénédicte, also an octogenarian. I took some tulips from my garden to Marie-Claude one afternoon last week. The two friends were sitting in Marie-Claude’s kitchen. It was a warm afternoon but the oven was on as they had been baking together. I almost baked when I walked in it was so hot. The pair of them had a tiny glass of red wine and offered me one. Thank gawd it was a small glass because, home-made, it almost stripped the skin off my tongue.
Anyway they both insist, summer is on the way in France and it’s going to be a long hot one. I suppose they have as much chance of being right as any of the weather forecasting apps I use which seem to guess most of the time!
Wishing you a sunny weekend,
Janine
Editor
ps top photo is Dinan, Brittany. It’s a photo posted by David Juricevich on one of my “Your Photos” weekends on Facebook. It totally inspired me to visit – so that’s where I’ll be next week, join me via: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
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