Friday night, yesterday and aujourd'hui

'Twas a good day today, to be sure, to be sure. Just a wee tipping of the hat to St Patrick there. Yes, sorry Louise, I know it's St Louise's Day today! (But is it St Alison's day tomorrow I wonder?)
On Friday night I caught the bus into Centre Ville and had a meal and drinks with Sarah, a young friend from university. She is quite young too - she turns 22 on Wednesday! I thought she was about 28. But it doesn't matter! It was lovely on the bus going into town - it was such a super warm evening and people had just emerged from everywhere. There were kids playing in parks and people just milling about. In town there were heaps of people sitting outside bars and cafes. There was a real buzz. It was as if they were all corks who had been bobbing in a barrel with a lid on it, and the lid had been taken off and they and they had all just bobbed up! It was quite amazing really. Sarah was good company and we had a good time. She is English, by the way. So it was a good night. Apart from the not especially nice people on the late bus going home! The photo is of the Hotel de Ville just as the sun had gone down.
Yesterday was actually incredibly boring, but you get that. Mainly through a series of misunderstandings, and I ended up doing nothing. After thinking I was going to be doing a couple of things. But there you go. Life is like that! Also, it was cool again yesterday and then it rained in the afternoon.
However! Today dawned with a strong determination to be spring-like, and it was great! A really lovely day all day. This morning I got picked up by Hugues and his wife, whose name escapes me, and Jean and Therese were with them as well. I was going walking with the walking group. Have I mentioned them before? It's a group of friends who walk together once a month. I have been with them 2 or 3 times before. There is a plan for the year and they meet at different spots round the district and walk a planned route. When I first went with them I was a bit taken aback at their get-up - hiking boots and the works! They seemed terribly serious! But in fact I am possibly one of the fastest walkers, despite my short Snook legs. Either that or they walk slowly in order to chat with each other. It's probably that.
Anyway, today we met in a little village called Avanton which has a rather nice chateau - now privately owned and in apartments. But it must have retained some of its original character inside as there are certain times when you can visit. But not today. Anyway, we walked for about two hours and it was good to get out in the fresh air and have some exercise. No-one really talked to me, but that's OK. I guess they only catch up with each other on these occasions. Hugues speaks English and chatted with me a bit towards the end of the walk - in French I might add! There were a lot of people out walking today, but I have noticed that they are almost always in groups like ours, rather than people walking in ones and twos. I also have noticed in our group that when people want to go to the loo - they just do! The women usually do squat behind a tree, but hardly out of sight, but the men just go where we all are! I have been quite surprised! I'm afraid I hang on! Lol. I also noticed today zillions of cyclists. Obviously cycling is a really popular sport and general pastime in France, and today we would have seen about 10 different groups cycling past, on the roads and on the rough tracks through the fields.
This afternoon Guy came and picked me up in an official car and I went and watched some tennis. It is a tournament for players who have a world ranking, but not the top players. However, the winner of the tournament in 2007 was Tsonga who is now number 11 in the world rankings. (I know his placing, because I checked on Google!)It seems to be a tournament that discovers players. Anyway, today was just for qualifiers, but even then I was surprised at the quality of the tennis. I really enjoyed it, although it was indoors, and I got a bit cold after a while. It was so good to see some live sport. There was rugby on the tele too, but as I don't have a tele, tennis was the winner on the day! No quarter asked and none given.