Bounty

Well, we did stay up past midnight, courtesy of an obscure Humphrey Bogart film called Deadline USA. Made in 1952, it was far from his best. Perhaps the theme of a free press out to expose wrongdoing was important at that time, but to us nowadays it felt a bit cliched and preachy, with Bogart as a flawless newspaper editor. Terriblement bien-pensant, said a review in French S found online. It didn't stop us watching it to the end though.

We finished watching just before midnight. The witching hour itself was greeted with utter silence in the village, other than the 24 chimes of the clock of course. At about half past we heard a few feeble pops of fireworks in the distance. The atmosphere is subdued to put it mildly -- we've hardly seen a soul since we got back.

Once we'd got up, S went running, and my exercise consisted of going out for a walk and picking up pine cones for firelighting purposes. It didn't take me long to fill my sack up. Apart from that, I finally got round to my 2023 book roundup. I'm a far cry from PaulaJ's haul of 70 books -- only 38, which surprised me, but the quality was there. I was spoilt for choice to pick four favourites. I do wonder how some people on Goodreads manage to read 200 books a year  ...

We've dined on smoked trout, cheese and crackers, and half each of a mini bûche de Noël bought from the patisserie yesterday (delicious, lemon mousse in a crisp shell of white chocolate).