How Was Your Week? Time Out in France

If we were having coffee, we would have plenty to catch up on, as I have been absent for the last ten days (apart from a pre-scheduled garden post and a Wordless Wednesday), so I am running waaaay behind. The reason: we went to stay with our daughter and family in France for nine days. Although I took my laptop, the internet connection went down, so I was limited to data roaming on my phone. But that was okay. I survived without computers, TV and WiFi, and life went on. It was good to have quality family time and to celebrate our eldest granddaughter’s 14th Birthday.

Travel: We departed on Thursday, April 24th. Mr Piglet and I detest flying, as planes are a petri dish of germs. But fly we must if we want to see our family in the UK and France. Thankfully, there were no delays but there were germs. I’ll rant about that in a separate post because Mr P picked up a bug and missed our granddaughter’s birthday meal. The rest of the family gradually succumbed, and we are now all sick.

Cooking Challenges

One of the many enjoyable moments was watching, or I should say trying not to interfere, while our 10-year-old grandson cooked lunch. We were making what looked like some kind of patties served with a salad. All the ingredients came prepackaged in a bag, including a recipe card with step-by-step instructions. Of course, they were all in French, so in theory, I was about as useless as a chocolate teapot. That was until he plonked the hot filling onto the puff pastry which melted the pastry into sticky gloop, which in turn stuck to the greaseproof paper. ‘It’s okay, Grandma‘, he protested. ‘No problem‘, he said angrily as I finally took control. ‘No problem if you like eating patties mixed with paper, ‘ I laughed as I deftly scraped and remolded the melting pile of gloop onto clean paper, quickly brushed with milk and suggested he put it in the oven.

Not quite as pictured on the recipe card but we had a lot of fun and it kept him off his phone for nearly two hours. They did actually taste surprisingly delicious. So a takeaway recipe back to Portugal.

Birthday Celebrations – What struck me most about our granddaughter’s teenage birthday party was that it was very family-oriented. Our SIL, with the help of friends and Mr. Piglet, converted his estate agent’s offices into a disco room with flashing lights and a party room. A melting pot of ages we all mixed in. And far from being embarrassed by her grandparents’ presence, she introduced us to all her friends. They even encouraged us to dance with them, pleased we were there, as were her other grandparents. I don’t think this would happen in the UK, but we have never been invited…. The culture is different here.

Her other grandma brought along cupcakes and invited me to use my creative side to decorate them. I have never seen such a selection of glitter, sprinkles, baubles, beads and paints. So while the party was in full swing, we disappeared into the office kitchen and had some grandma bonding time. It’s just a shame she does not speak much English and I speak even less FRench. Thank God for Google Translate.

I’d never decorated posh cupcakes before, so I watched with interest as she made the icing of Mascapone cheese, melted white chocolate and icing sugar. I was then set to work.

The following evening, we all went out for a family birthday meal. Sadly, sans Mr Piglet, who woke up with the lurge (raging sore throat and cough), decided to stay home out of respect for others.

Pétanque

Another highlight of our vacation in France was playing in a fun Pétanque tournament. Our daughter’s local Youth Village Association organised the tournament as a fundraising event. I am game for most things, so I immediately said yes. SIL partnered with Mr. P and our daughter, me. It was the May bank holiday, a hot sunny day, and people came from afar, which surprised the organisers. Even an ex-French Petanque champion joined in the fun! There were 76 pairs in the tournament, and as I watched people practice …um …. I wondered why I agreed to play. This looked like serious stuff, and we had not even thrown a boule in practice at home.

Once we located our first opponents, the first round started. Because there were not enough courts for everyone, we found a patch of dirt near the car park, as did many others. It was chaotic, with boules flying everywhere, but so much fun that I hoped we could organise a scaled-down version for friends at some point when we returned to Portugal.

Our first opponents, two delightful young men, were kind. Picked up our boules at the end of each end and tried hard not to thrash us. Despite their best efforts, we only managed to score 1 point. I did smile when I discovered that the winners of each game bought the losers a drink. And smiled even more when I later discovered that the organisers had to abandon the tournament by early evening because the finalists were too drunk to participate! But a merry time was had by all. If we lived there, instead of a tourist area of Portugal, we would have been fluent in the language.

BBQ’d meaty French sausages (not UP) served on fresh French bread, chips, and crepes were also on offer, all reasonably priced, as were the wine, beer, and soft drinks.

I love people watching, and this was village life at its best.

Have you ever played Petanque? Did you enjoy it?

Basketball Tournament

On our final day before our flight, we donned masks just in case we came in close contact with people and went to support our granddaughter in a three-a-side fun basketball tournament. We were so proud of her. She was on fire and scored most of the baskets. I feel sad we can’t go to more matches but such is life and makes the ones we can attend even more precious.

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While we were in France, our sporty daughters-in-law ran the London Marathon. More on that tomorrow as I’m still unpacking the cases and tending the garden between dodging the showers and nursing the lurge… so must dash.