This Week At Le Brin

It’s been a pretty quiet week at Le Brin. Various ailments are still going round the family with J having a sore throat at the moment, which, strangely hasn’t prevented her from shouting for cups of tea in the mornings, or indeed having a boozy night with the girls next door on Wednesday! And – she’s getting a ‘Mariella Frostrup’ sexy voice which is no bad thing!

Unlike J, the Stock Market has been pretty quiet which means I can spend my mornings pottering around, fixing the cars, scooters and various other bits of machinery the house relies on and sorting out my social diary, which, this week has meant ordering and taking delivery of a case of Beaujolais Nouveau (BN). Although most people think that BN is a trick by which the French get rid of all their plonk by sending it to unsuspecting, spendthrift Brits, it actually features in the French diary as well, with brasseries having all sorts of BN promotions to entice customers through their glass swing doors. The difference I think is that whilst the French will have a glass of chilled Nouveau with half a dozen oysters, the Brits will have a couple of bottles of the plonk with bacon sandwiches dripping in tomato sauce!

Although my French mate (yes – I do have one), who is setting up his own wine business, assured me that this ‘vintage’ was the best for many years (50 according to the experts), it tasted just like the expensive fruit juice I used to drink in London when I organized an annual Beaujolais Breakfast in the City. Dressed in full highland regalia or more subtle, in a dinner suit, I would muster my troops into a local restaurant and spend the day eating, drinking BN and performing a full sales strategy review. It was all business of course!

Getting back to Le Brin, the weather this week has been amazing (for November) and I’ve actually had to water some plants to keep them greenish. A few weeks ago, I switched off the automatic filtration system on the pool on the basis that with the night-time temperatures getting so low, the dreaded algae would not form, but with the day-time heat hitting between 16 and 20 degrees, those little green cells have started making the pool cloudy and I’ve had to start pumping chlorine into the system again.

The sun however means I can ride my scooter in a sweater and the roof will be down on the Alfa when I take it out tomorrow for its first run in over 6 weeks.

The bars and brasseries are buzzing with tourists and locals alike sitting at outside tables and passing the time of day in our magnificent medieval village, giving the bar owners a late boost to their trade.

But then I look at last year’s calendar and I see that this time next week we’ll all be shivering in plummeting temperatures, the fire will be stoked high with oak logs and J will have her thermals on (not a pretty sight). But that was last year – there’s always a chance that global warming will have more effect this year than last!