We had just finished lunch when Claude, a friend of Henk, who he met on a plane from France to Holland about 20 months ago turned up at the port. He came aboard Aphrodite and accepted a glass of wine. He and Henk caught up for a while then he invited us all to his house for dinner - we readily accepted of course. He came to pick us up at 7 p.m. and took us to his lovely house, about 15 km away. As we arrived Claudes' partner, Michelle arrived from Lyon. How they had managed to give us such a lovely dinner, I don't know! The conversation was entirely in French which Skip and Crew struggled with a little but they both spoke very clearly and Henk was able to converse freely. Their house was in a gated estate, on a fairly steep hill, overlooking the valley - lovely view! We wondered if we should ask them to call us a taxi but, no........Claude very kindly drove us back. A lovely couple, a lovely evening (just wish our communication skills were better!!).
Now, for today!!
We had decided to stay for three nights, so Henk (who had promised to sand and varnish our two tables) said that he would make a start. Crew collected some laundry from him and got the machine going. We left it too late to shop in the village - they close from 12 p.m. till 2 p.m.so no bread for lunch. In fact there is only a boulangerie, a pharmacie and a coiffeur on this side of the bridge. More shops are available over the bridge in Condrieu town, which is almost a kilometre away. We decided against the walk as it was very hot with no wind, so crackers for lunch!! Henk was sanding away on the pontoon when we returned - very hot work, so we offered him a beer in the shade. Revived, he went back to work, refusing our offer of lunch........once that boy starts a job!!! Crew decided on a siesta and managed to get two and a half hours under her belt - must have needed the sleep! We decided to go to the hotel for dinner as we were all a bit zapped by the heat and didn't fancy the walk into town. The restaurant was very old fashioned but the food very good, although pricey.
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