Monday blues

Last night there were eleven of us for dinner and tonight I'm alone. Katrin and David left at 4:30.
It was a major logistical problem to get everyone to their point of departure: fortunately Jean-Claude had to make an early run to the Montpellier station and was able to take John Gadney with him. Jesper and family had a small space for Rick. Andrea drove Chrish to the airport and made it back just in time for her, husband Brock and Lottie to get in the car with Jean-Claude again, racing in the red urgence car to catch a plane for Gatwick and Paris respectively. In the meantime, with no car being available, Pia had to be taxied to Nimes.
The cats can't believe the quiet and start strutting around the house: ha, we showed them!

Departures

And so it goes! Nicky and Nadia have to catch an early plane in Marseille. My Swiss friends and relations, Marc and Meisi, Hans, Theres and Ruth, Hubert and Marianne start their leisurely trip back to Switzerland. John-B and family plus dogs pile into their huge Landrover, direction Champery, and I take the Swiss band to Nimes to catch the TGV .
We are feasting on left-over lamb and pork. David undertakes the arduous task of bringing the tables and benches back, all the men give a hand to move the furniture back into the musicroom.
There is a moment of panic when we hear about the forth-coming railroad strike, but SNCF assures us that all the trains will be running normally until Monday evening.

The Party!

D-day minus 1

Everybody is going to the marche. The fridges are already bursting, but we shove more cheese, more sausages, more olives into them.

In the afternoon Andrea and daughter Lottie (having just flown in with Brock, her dad) are mysteriously busy at Danielle's.

We make a final decision: it is too cold outside, so Katrin and David are in charge of moving sofas, chairs and tables out of the music room, ably helped by everybody.

June 5th, 2008

And so the big day is here, I am 80.
When I was young I thought 80 was out there, in the stratosphere, but now I am quite comfortable with the fact.

My daughters make a fabulous dinner:mixed salad for starters, then monkfish and scallops in a creamy saffron (thank you so much, Rick, for the luscious Spanish saffron) sauce on Basmati.
We had to move the big table under cover, the sky was threatening .
Rick got here from Marbella, Daniel from Budapest, Jesper, Mette and daughters Emilie and Cathrine from Copenhagen, Christine and Arnold from California, Pia from Goa. John-B and Juliet drove through the gate just in time,with children Atlanta, Katarina and Jonty, accompanied by Archie, the St. Bernard, and River, the Labrador.
As we savored strawberries and cream on Katrin-made meringues, I opened a plethora of presents, embarrassing. Our sadly missed Katrina outdid herself: she made an oil painting of Trilby, my cherished three-legged cat.

-and now into high gear for Saturday's big party

David and Katrin have gone to get the tables and benches at the Isis camping in St. Julien, then more tables at the Mairie in Moules. It tuns out that the measurements I was given are wrong. We have to replan the seating arrangements. Katrin has painted flat river pebbles with the names of all the family and guests, lovely!

Monday

Still very cool and damp.

---they start arriving!

Chrish (from Washington D.C.),Pia (from Goa), Harry (from Taos), Andrea (from Kent). The salad in the garden and the 3 liters of salad dressing I made (Wild Garlic, page 124) are fast disappearing.
Katrin says we need another table cloth ( number 7---)for the big party on Saturday. I start hemming.