Leading lines

Once again good weather ruled for the Thursday walk, as did good humour on the part of the walkers, despite last week's experience. JL had learned his lesson, and the walk was much easier: longer, but mostly on gravel tracks or metalled roads, with fine views over the vineyards (spot the chateau on the hill in large). Obligatory photo of walkers and their shadows in extras. Leaving the village, we acquired a large blond dog, roaming free with no collar -- typical of dogs in our village. It was delighted to find someone to go for a walk with and trotted happily along, fetching sticks and at one point plunging into a lake after one: we paused to make sure it could get out again. After about 5 km he decided we were going too far and legged it for home on his own. 9.5 km (it felt like less), 100 m climbing, 2 1/4 hours.

In other news I decided to apply for my UK pension, due in July. Thanks to the work I had to do in my abortive attempt to claim my French pension, it was surprisingly straightforward. Well, I say that, we'll see what they make of it. Don't mention the B word.