Last supper

Tonight our host was worried we'd be thirteen, but we were 18: seven women at one end of the table, then five men, then three teenage girls, with three under-10's at the "table des enfants".

After the big loud parties and last night's quiet meal, tonight was somewhere in the middle, and I learned things. One member of the family who lives further south was bemoaning the arrival of insects from Italy which cut his normal crop of chestnuts from three tonnes to zero and, unlike the Italians they don't treat the trees with pesticides, but with caterpillars. But then there's the lack of water...

After a modest aperitif, when the Pimm's I made up went down very well, we had "soupe au pistou (pesto)" and a huge fruit salad. Then came out the bottle of flavoured eau-de-vie as a digestif...

Tomorrow I leave for Paris with my older daughter.