Pat's Family at Dinner

Well, Pat picked me up from outside my hotel right on time at 8:00 pm. Pat, as you will recall, is the mother of Gen Blanch's employer, who lives in Paris. Pat and I drove to her other daughter's house in Beaune, where her son-in-law, Sacha, had dinner 'on the go'. It turns out that Sacha is heavily involved in the wine industry and has worked for a wine magazine where he wrote critiques about wine. He is currently employed by a local winery in the care of the vines. At present there is lots of pruning and burning going on.




Sacha's wife (Pat's daughter) is presently in Australia, but the other resident - a gorgeous 3/4-year-old named Stella. I am told that she is bilingual and that when Pat addresses her in English she responds in French, and vice versa. I do not understand why; she is too young to be being 'smart'. She is just gorgeous. I got a little kiss when I arrived and later when she went off to bed.

The other visitor to Sacha's house was a black dog - puppy really - called Goofy. He and Stella were both at the same stage in terms of emotional development and, by turn, rolled about playing and then called to order by turn. The whole event was most entertaining. Goofy had that way of putting his head between his paws on the ground when placed on his mat and looking upwards to reveal the whites of his eyes, as young puppies do following admonishment. Cute AS!


The dinner progressed well, the dinner comprising various parts of the half pig that Pat had bought recently. We began with pork terrine, then cheese and then on to roast pork. I had bought a cake (citron), all accompanied by Sacha's wine. One of the points that he made was that far too much energy is spent discussing wine, and not enough is given over to drinking it. The labels on the bottles he produces say, in Latin, "Shut up and drink". Here is the "buy me" cake I spoke of earlier.


All round, it was a lovely evening. Pat is heading off to a wedding in Manchester on Saturday and she said I could stay at her joint for as long as I want! Fantastic! She hasn't met Gen yet, but will do do on Monday. WHAT A TREAT IS IN STORE FOR HER!!!!k