The English Armchair Abroad

Last month cars, this month bicycles

Last weekend we had one hundred cyclists come to visit us.  They were spending a day as part of a local rallye event, cycling around the immediate area answering questions and doing other "silly things".  Prior to arriving at Gennetay they had "fought" the battle of Trafalgar with water balloons being sent over by our son and his friends.  I'm glad to report that history DID repeat itself and the right side won!

   The English team

And the French team

They had a fun battle and a decent number of people ended up in the river.  They then bicycled over to us where they had 30 minutes to paint a picture with a number of items included.  Like a total moron I forgot to take photos of the pictures but some of them (ten in all) were lovely.

The teams spread out around the garden.

And got down to work.  Then they were off again...

The day was followed by a dinner to which we were invited and it was enormous fun.  Our house is well hidden and many people locally have never seen it so it is wonderful when we have rallye's like this coming by.

Some visitors are just the best...

August has been busy this year with friends and family coming to stay.  Around about the second week our eldest son had three friends over from university.  They were the nicest bunch of people and had bought with them wonderful gifts - hand cream, soap, honey, jams, and a yummy looking apple drink which we haven't yet tasted.

Early on during their visit Max and I were taking a lazy morning relaxing by the pool when I finally decided, just after one o'clock, that I really ought to stop ignoring lunch and go and make it.  Seven may not be too many but they still need feeding!

Imagine my delight when walking into the kitchen I found lunch MADE and all but ready to eat.  I was totally overwhelmed and they more than restored my faith in humanity generally and visitors in particular.  I had in fact arrived too early - they were hoping that they would ring the bell (just about the only thing that can be heard up by the pool from the house) and I would find lunch all ready on the table.  It didn't matter - I was so overwhelmed I burst into tears anyway!

I might add that EVERYTHING in that salad came out of the garden.

For the remainder of their week with us they never stopped offering to help and the kitchen was spotless every night.  Oh joy!