It’s Telethon weekend; a bit like Children in Need, there are events all over France, some of which I assume are televised, to raise funds for research into genetic diseases.

We in Nogaro do our bit and yesterday there was a bike ride, a walk, a cake stall, a plant stall, a guess-the-weight-of-the-bread competition and a lunch. It was cold and foggy, so Nick was one of only four cyclists, though they had a good ride. Loads of people did the walk and I baked and helped man the cake stall. By midday we were all frozen, so headed to the gite for lunch; soup, daube de boeuf and apple tart, all washed down with red wine, coffee and the most enormous bottle of armagnac I’ve ever seen, donated by the local cave. There were about 100 people eating, with all the profits going to the Telethon, so we must have made quite a lot of money.

Today dawned very frosty, so while Nick went out cycling, I took the camera out for a walk. It was cold but beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and by this afternoon, it was 26ºC on the terrace!