Today
has been a chaotic day. We thought for once you could cope with a
chaotic account!!!
Yesterday
C had harvested sloes (prunelles in local lingo) to set up Christian
with the novel (for him) Sloe gin for the coming European winter.
(Absolutely yummy stuff, we relished the brew we made last year in St
Valery ready for this season)
Straight
after breakfast we went to Lidls to buy the gin and one or two other
things we needed.
Back to
the boat to get the washing under way, clean toilets and handbasins and prepare sloes for 'winter stewing' when the lovely Georges pops in to
see us. To be fair, this was expected, he was coming to collect his
valuable guide books, which he lent to us two years ago to help with our
navigation into Belgium. ( 4 books worth 130 euro - about $200) Of
course, we had a chat about what we had both been doing since last we met; they will
winter over in the Arsenal in Paris. He also offered us the use of
his campervan next spring if we want to come back but navigating is difficult for J with her
wonky hip! How lucky can you get?!!
12.20pm:
washing sorted, and off to visit John and Anne on Petite Princesse for lunch. (We first met them three years ago on the Doubs.) That's when things started
to get slightly wobbly and out of focus! Champagne for starters, what
else?! Barbequed stuffed capsicums (with a different wine);
barbequed lamb, roast veges and salad (another different wine); fruit
salad (more wine); coffee and Calvados (but none of us bothered with
the coffee). Then to finish off, we enjoyed a few glasses of some
obscure but delicious, garlic-flavoured liqueur. We floated home at
8pm and didn't mind that we missed dinner!!
C
hadn't had a chance to prick each sloe 10 times as part of the sloe
gin-making process before we went out for lunch so she started when we got back to the boat. She was less than
impressed when she discovered the J had tipped 2 cups of gin down the
sink! J thought they were coffee cups being soaked but in fact newly-bought gin had to be 'stored' somewhere to make room for the sloes
and sugar in the sloe gin processing. Oh dear! How sad! Never mind!
We'll have to buy some more tomorrow!!!
Sorry
no photos! If this makes sense it is because C has done a jolly good
job of editing this rambling account!
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