Mousstades

The busy busy month of June finally feels like it is coming to an end and things worked out very nicely today to enable me to have lunch with friends, watch the Lions match and go out to the festival in Villemoustassou this evening.

June has probably been the busiest month of all since we opened last year. I have been letting out the main bedroom in my apartment as a third suite so we have had even more guests and I have done the whole month on my own because Debrah has been tied up with her work in London. It has been absorbing, non-stop, hectic, exciting, fulfilling, exhausting and good fun - and a bit lonely in-between when in my quiet moments I have quite been missing my wife.

The Dubai based Irish family who arrived on Wednesday (Mum, Dad and three grown up daughters) left this morning. They were a lot of fun and great guests and if Debrah and I ever find ourselves in Dubai we will have an inside track on what goes on there. I cooked dinner for them all on Thursday evening which went on a bit. They were all planning to replicate different courses when they got home which was a nice compliment - but it wasn't all straightforward with one being gluten free and one lactose intolerant. Dad just seemed to accept it all with a smile on his face and heavily used wallet. Nice people and it's great having nice people come to stay.

They kindly moved their stuff out of the Studio suite this morning before they headed down to the market which allowed me to get in there and clean it out before taking Dad up to the airport to collect his hire car, which was just as well because when I got back my new arrivals (mother and daughter from the USA) were sat on my doorstep waiting for me.

Excellent. Departing guests out, arriving guests in and all sorted by 12.30pm. A quick phone call to see what was happening and soon after I was sat at a table in the square with friends having a leisurely lunch, which was followed by the ultimately disappointing Lions Test against South Africa. Oh well, but a pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon knowing that I had no further guest responsibilities to worry about until the morning.

As an aside, whilst I was waiting up at the airport for my guest to collect his hire car so that I could show him the way back into town, I watched with fascination the newly arrived visitors leaving the car hire depot and it didn't fill me with confidence. Some decided not to follow the tarmac road and turned off onto the dusty dirt roads looking for the airport exit, some were just driving on the wrong side of the road, some were going 10kph at most and some had a look of complete fear on their faces as they approached the roundabout that would unleash them onto the French highways. Scary to say the least but no doubt they will all come through their experiences unscathed - well let's hope so.

The 'Mousstades' at Villemoussetassou is one heck of a name for a festival event but is in fact just a lovely French village fete dressed up as a competition for 'bandas' that goes on for three days. It is a circulade village, so one can either find a spot to sit and watch each band in turn as they play two or three numbers and then move on or you can keep walking round and round in the opposite direction to the bands and see each one in turn whilst picking up food and drink on the hoof as you go.

We actually did a bit of both, ate some oysters, drank some white wine, clapped and foot stamped and shouted along with everyone else. When the blue sky turned to black and the strings of lightbulbs were turned on it all took on a very different late night South of France feeling that is hard to replicate anywhere else with the aromas of shellfish and sausages on the barbeque and frying 'frites' and shouts of 'Ole' in response to the trumpeters fanfares.

Well after midnight we carried the very tired Lara and Louis, Daniel and Cecile's children, back to the car. I was quite done myself - but there was no-one to carry me.