Cheers!

Outside the crickets are chirupping like mad, the washing is drying in the blink of an eye and I'm off heading northwards tomorrow. Many in the UK dream of escaping the rain and tepid warmth swapping them for some good old heat, brilliant sun and body-packed beaches.

Me, I do the opposite, so we're jumping on the train and heading for what looks like it'll be a rainy day. Good ol' Blighty.

Meanwhile, it's been party party here and we've been enjoying some fab times al fresco. The bike club organised an apero on the beach at Carnon for all the team, so we took a picnic, including wine and, bikeless for once, spent the evening chatting and noshing. The ado members of the team sat on the sand chatting and mucking about, while the younger ones dashed about in the sea throwing sand at each other. We stayed until it got quite dark and my sunglasses fell onto the sand which is where they remained.

I have new sunglasses which I greatly prefer so it was a Good Thing.

The other week I went to the Montpellier opening of the magazine Layalina which was at La Voile Bleu, one of the private beach clubs. I was invited because I was in it, yep, I was, as part of the feature on the Promo'Arts Gala. We were entertained by some exotic dancers while stuffed the buffet and enjoyed the wine and champagne. Overlooking the sea made it really cool. When the food ran out, we left for a bar in town for more food and booze and chitchat. I wasn't driving...

On Sunday, my TWDB and I had lunch at the Yacht Club at la Grande Motte. Being Sunday, they were not supposed to offer salads, but we arrived pretty late and didn't notice that they were only available on weekdays. The guy who took our order didn't seem to notice either and in the end it was not a problem, probably because the chef wanted to go home... So we sat out on the terrace overlooking the port eating shellfish I hadn't tried before and quaffing Puech Haut rosé super chilled.

Eventually, round about teatime, we left, and went in search of a place where we could buy a bottle of wine for the evening. It's not easy on a Sunday in France. Eventually we ended up going to a restaurant we knew, la Chichoumeille where we managed to get 4 bottles of nicely chilled rosé.

Since it's not a good idea to drink masses of wine at a time, we invited our neighbours over to join us. They had taken the boys to a pool complex for the afternoon, so really deserved some grateful thanks! I made some burgers and we enjoyed the balmy evening until late.

It's the sort of southern French living that is so seductive - warm evenings, good food, good chilled wine, jolly friends and picnics on the beach.

I'll just go and pack a pully for the UK, I think...