Friends and family

I returned to Carcassonne last Friday morning to find a very tired and stressed Debrah, a very tired and moaning Christian, two newly arrived and slightly bemused daughters, a departed genius (went back to London on the flight I arrived on) and a fabulous looking appartment. There was still time for a couple of more hours of manic cleaning and organising and room dressing before our weekend guests arrived on the late afternoon flight from London.

Of course, the beds had not been delivered. They had called on Thursday morning stating a delivery time of Monday afternoon - i.e. just after our guests had gone home. Debrah pleaded in her best French - "C'est tres important" - to get them delivered on Friday but was met with a stoic "Desolee, Non" response from an unmoved delivery company. Life throws up these ironies with regularity and I guess there was nothing to do but accept it and laugh about it, which we just about managed to do through gritted teeth and much cursing of the French 'laissez-faire' attitude which makes this place so good to live in and so terribly frustrating at the same time.

At least the beds did arrive on Monday afternoon and are now installed in spare room and appartment. However, it meant that someone had to sleep on the sofa cushions for a couple of nights and my girls gratefully accepted the inevitable for which I thank them profusely.

So, on Friday afternoon at 5pm we had a houseful of people and for the first time in nearly six months we put down all tools and stopped the renovation work and started the entertaining the visitors work, which I think is probably even more tiring and time consuming. I better get used to it though if I am to do this for a living.

For our guests, Ed and Lucy, this was a first trip to Carcassonne and also they were pretty much doing the weekend breaks that we plan to offer - so guinea pigs they were for the whole experience and also as the first guests to use the appartment. There are obvious things that we need to finish in there but their feedback on using the place was very valuable. What was also good to hear was their view that Carcassonne is a great weekend away from London.

They did come for a good weekend though as it was Bastille Day, one of the biggest days of the year here because of the massive firework display set over the Cite. As is was also a Saturday, they were able to take in the full-on market experience in the morning, with live bands strolling the streets, a local producers market in the afternoon with food and wine tasting, the fireworks from the balcony of an Irish friend's newly acquired appartment on the banks of the River Aude directly opposite the Cite and the late night rave in the town square which went on until 2am. Debrah is always very disparaging about the contacts that I have made here but without them I would not have met Patrick and we would have been forced to find a spot in the massed ranks of the crowd lining the riverbank.

On Sunday we took them up the Cite to explore it's narrow streets first hand and later in the afternoon they went off for a cycle ride along the towpaths of the Canal du Midi - so they really did do the full Carcassonne experience including dinner out under the stars one evening and my confit de canard supper and a lot of local wine consumption. I hope everyone enjoys Carcassonne as much as Ed and Lucy did.

The weather was still being a bit moody over the weekend - couldn't decide what it was doing - but finally the skies cleared and today promised to be hot and sunny. The river beckoned and in terribly English fashion we packed a picnic and our swimming costumes and towels and inadequate sun protection! We also reverted to the Audi cabriolet instead of the London Renault which had been blocking it in for the past two weeks - may as well maximise sun exposure.

River swimming is one of our new favourite things - no chlorine as in a pool and no salt as in the sea - mind you, there are fishes and Debrah finds that a bit disturbing. She manages most of the time but every now and again is completely freaked by them and it's all I can do to stop her yelling out "Everybody out of the water - there are fishes in there" whilst flailing away towards the bank. I think the kids had a good time and we all returned slightly glowing and tired from the sun and fresh air and exercise - I can't remember when we last had what was in effect a family day out and I guess it will be a while before we do another one - so I will just have to cling to the wonderful memory of this one.