29 December 2007

Christmas au Couvent

A happy time was had by all, great evening at Erzsi's on Christmas Eve, two geese and Bourdic wines on Christmas Day, before setting off camping at the mazet on Boxing Day.

Ali bought me a fab sleeping bag for Christmas, so what was I to do but agree to sleeping in a 9 square metre hut in the middle of the vineyards in December? After all, seven bedrooms all with their own bathrooms can make one forget the essential things like - will we be warm enough?

So off we trundled with the dogs, soup, breakfast and good books. (Actually the car was filled to the gunwales, but mostly dog-stuff - oh yeah?)

It was magical. I was never less than sweltering thanks to a roaring fire and zillion-tog sleeping bag. The books were excellent and it was wonderful to be away from the phones. But the real corker was waking at 2am when Kit the labrador decided on a comfort break outside. The moon was so bright you could have read outside. Looking back towards the lights of Roujan, Caux and Neffies just made me grin. It's hard to feel anything other than enormous gratitude when you look up at a billion stars.

Next day voices drifting up the hill announced the arrival of Erszi, Heather and Alex who'd come for a walk, some lunch and a bit of pruning. The views were beyond divine.

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