Final stage of the Tour partiel de France

Another rather fitful night of sleep, but was up before 8 and successfully navigated the vagaries of PP’s shower door (not sure if you will recall my locking myself inside the shower during my previous visit, finding myself alone on the second floor of the house vainly calling for Mrs Ottawacker or Ottawacker Jr to come and rescue me) and wandered down to a pleasant coffee breakfast with PP, B and his girlfriend Lola. PP had to go out to teach his class at the university, so I caught up with some blips and drank too much coffee. Never sit next to a DeLonghi coffeemaker, it is irresistible. It keeps on beeping at you and asking if you want more coffee. It couldn’t be any more helpful if it had a white towel over its elbow and was called Passepartout.

B&L arrived back from a shopping expedition to Decathlon around 11:30 and set about preparing aperitifs for lunch; PP turned up at 12:15, by which time we’d already had a beer and I was eyeing up the spicy West Indian chicken balls. Lunch, then they drove me back into Valence Ville so I could get the TGV to Lyon Saint-Exupéry. All on time, and so caught the excellent, if somewhat pricey, Rhônexpress to Vaulx-la-Velaine-en-Soie, and the Metro A line to Hôtel-de-Ville. Then walked up to rue Alsace-Lorraine, where I was, eventually, welcomed by Tim.

Lovely evening of catching up again, alone this time, as Salima was in Budapest on business and L was out being 17 with her friends. He rolled out the red carpet: Italian ham and a huge slab of foie gras as a starter, with a Sauternes to wash it down, and then a baked merguez and vegetables dish, with a local red of the Côtes du Rhone type. And what could make an evening with an old friend better than all that food and drink? That’s right. So, we settled down to watch Liverpool beat Luton 4-1 on Canal Plus. Well, I did, Tim fell asleep in the second half. Bed around 11.