Jean gets the boules going while the rest talk up a thirst
Louise, Nella and Jean preparing for the after lunch championships
I might not be as old as Her Majesty and I most certainly don't have her finances, but I definitely felt like the Queen on Sunday. My 60th birthday was actually a couple of weeks ago, but we decided that in order to take a chance on some slightly warmer weather, we would wait until the first week in March to have the birthday party. What a brilliant decision. If we had ordered the weather over the internet and given the supplier a year to ensure perfection, we couldn't have done better.
Having got the weather sorted, the next thing was to ensure the right mix of guests, and once again we scored big time. Friends newly made over glasses of wine at the Sommieres Saturday market plus other friends introduced by chance meetings, and folks that we had only met a week ago made up the guest list, and it turned out to be a perfect mix of languages, interests and fun.
Jean had lined up our four sets of boules on the garden wall, and in no time, he had a group of "newbies" getting the hang of the game and becoming increasingly competitive. The pastis went unopened but the wine flowed, and before things got really serious, I called a halt for lunch.
Our dining room table extends at both ends and we sat ten people in comfort, and thanks to plenty of early preparation, I managed to produce a large "Snake and Pygmy Pie" with vegetables and roasted potatoes. However, the sunshine called to us and we moved back into the courtyard for delicious deserts and coffee drunk out of my beautiful new demi-tasse cups. One guest bought a large box of plants for the garden and another presented me with a charming pottery dish which matched the coffee cups, and everyone arrived bearing a bottle of excellent wine. Glasses were raised and everyone gave a pretty good rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" and looking around at the smiling faces, the bright sunshine and the slowly melting ice cream, I decided that I was perfectly happy being me and didn't envy the Queen at all!
