La friterie belge

… seems to be popular. In a new departure for the village, we now have a food truck on Fridays, a Belgian guy doing chips (of course) and other Belgian specialities. Such as hot dogs and hamburgers. Naturally the bar was open for the occasion. The van arrived about an hour late, as he’d got stuck in a traffic jam coming from the coast where he’d been serving lunch. So a hungry crowd descended on him as soon as he opened his hatch. And he was on his own as his partner was ill. He coped very well, even if he showed slight signs of irritation when I hesitated over his list of 30 different sauces, most of them unknown to me.

This afternoon our American house sitters, Vicki and her 12-year-old niece Lina, arrived. Though jet-lagged after three flights from Ohio to Toulouse, they bravely survived our tour of the village in blazing sunshine, and joined in the soirée belge after a brief nap. They were delighted with the village ambiance, if slightly overwhelmed by the mass socialising, especially Lina as she’s never been out of the US before. We introduced them to everyone we know who speaks English, and British neighbour H kindly gave them her phone number in case they need any help. They were obviously flaked out by 9 pm, and we left them to go to bed, as we’d arranged with Ingrid to sleep in her otherwise empty house, so as not to disturb them.

As for us, we went to bed quite early too, as we had to be up early in the morning to start our travels. See you on the other side!