One of the nice things out here is visiting other people’s houses to see their view. Virtually every house has a view of some sort or the other and even houses not far from our own have quite a different view – from Tan and Angie’s, terrace, only about 30 yards from our own, you see quite a different perspective on the valley.

I was therefore looking forward to going to Tim and Keren’s on Friday night. I’d been past their house, located on the old railway line, several times but had never been inside and when I arrived, the first thing I did was to go out on their terrace and look right up the Gorge du Loup. It was stunning. And perched 1,000ft above their house was Gourdon, a hilltop village which lights up at night and must perplex tourists when they drive down the main road and look up and see lights in the sky. 

J and Kitty had been learning (from Keren) how to make sushi and when I arrived it was placed on the table with all the usual accompaniments. J, I think, had informed Keren that I wasn’t too keen on ‘cold rice and raw fish’ and so whilst the others tucked into several varieties of the Japanese food, I wolfed down my bbq’d chicken sausages! Am I a philistine or what? I did try some sushi but politely declined any more much to Tim’s pleasure as he professed to being able to eat plate loads of it at a single sitting.

Anyway – back to the view. As we sat on their terrace and the sun fell and the moon rose, it cast an eerie white glow on the cliffs of the gorge making them look similar to the white cliffs of Dover.

Then it was stargazing and drinks before zig-zagging my way back home on my scooter. And you know the annoying thing about riding a scooter – you can’t scratch the mossie bites you get all during the evening.