Le Picnic
July 31, 2013

We were up quite early today as Helen and 3 other insane people in the family decided to go mountain biking. As I was awake already as well I went to breakfast with them and then they headed out on their bike tour of Bordeaux. They got back just before 11am and seem to enjoy it (having cycled almost 30 kms according Endomondo).

picnicWe had decided to book a picnic lunch at the winery we had visited yesterday (Chateau Font-Vidal) and got back there at 12pm (as booked). Of course they were not ready for us (this is France and they are never ready for you) so we killed a little time with some photo taking and general messing around. The picnic was ideal for lunch – bread, cheese (all goats cheese but 6 different varieties), cold meat, crudites (not the same thing as luddites), pate, fruit and of course wine (all of which came from the region). The older folks ate inside at the table, the younger ones (including Helen and myself because we form part of the younger crew here) ate outside on the grass. It was very relaxed and enjoyable.  After lunch we played some rugby including doing some lineout jumping by the more athletic ones. linout

By the time we left the temperature was already reading 30 degrees C and it was still on the increase. Pretty much the only thing you could do was swim or sleep though another 4 crazy people went off horse riding in the afternoon.  Apparently all the horses were French speaking and didn’t take instructions in English. We had a family meeting to discuss various matters at 4:30pm and then some family photos at 5:30pm. The latest addition to our family (Josh) is a professional photographer and he has the tough job of taking some formal family photos while we are here.

After that it was some more eating again. Dinner this evening for me was seared tuna as starter and then beef steak. I asked for medium rare and got the steak done blue instead. I knew that the French undercooked steak but I could still hear the mooing of the cow when I put my ear up to it. The other main choice was rabbit and many people (including most of my family) tried that. I got the best of both worlds because I ate the most well cooked beef bits and then traded the balance for Michael’s rabbit and then I finished off the rest of what Helen had rejected of her rabbit (I am thinking of a few friends who are reading this post and will be horrified by us eating rabbit).

game playingThis evening we had some more reminiscing again by a close long standing family friend who is here at my parent’s invitation (I remember staying with them when I was 5 years old) and my brother. This was followed by a quiz evening organised by the most competitive member of our family – my sister (Meryl). It was a quiz separated by 50 years. One set of questions on 1963 events and one set on 2013 events.  Some were ridiculously hard – like which island off Iceland was formed in 1963 through an undersea volcanic eruption. Who would ever know that?! None of us did. To save you the trouble of googling it – the island name is Surtsey (your trivia fact for today). Some were a lot easier like which Pirates of the Caribbean star was born in 1963 … is there any other star but Johnny Depp? Unfortunately even though we thought we had a good team we finished in the middle of the pack this time. If we hadn’t crossed out so many correct answers we might have done a little better though!

It is now 11:40pm and it is dead still (wind wise) but not noise wise. The girls (starting at 13 up to 24) have decided to all move into together for tonight and so there are a riot of them (what else could the collective noun be for a bunch of noisy young ladies?!) in the room diagonally across from us. Who knows when they will go to sleep but I am pretty sure it will be after us though.  It is still VERY hot and I doubt the temperature is less than about 25/26 degrees right now. No aircon in the Chateau but at least we have a fan. Still going to be a hot night tonight …

P, H, S, M, C

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