Nicks Birthday trip to France

After months of covert messages and hush, hush meetings Friday 4^th October arrived far too early for some. Even Anne was up before 8 an almost unheard of feat. 

With Perfect timing Steve and The mystery machine arrived to meet me in Epsom. Then down far too early to Horsham to meet Anne and the unsuspecting Nick. The rumoured Bacon Buttie van could not be found.

Starved and tealess  eventually we packed, the birthday boy and recipient of the surprise weekend, Nick (blindfolded) into the back of the van. Round and round roundabouts and twisty roads we silently (struggling to suppress giggles) drove down to Portsmouth. The look on Nicks face when he realised that it was myself and Steve in the van was classic. Still there was a dearth of tea or butties, but a steady flow of friends as Paul, Christine, Dave, Sarah, Bob and Julie arrived Now we were 10.

But still the deception had to continue as we were only on a day trip, but with glad hearts and chocolate birthday cakes we set sail. Stale sandwiches were found for the hungry people and soon we were in France.

Here in Cherbourg Dave passed out the first of his VSOC calling cards to a passing Draggie, and we headed for the “supermarket” Nick still says he never realised until we were nearly at our chateau where we were headed. Mark and Fiona our hosts for the weekend gave us a warm welcome, champagne on the lawn, showed us to our rooms (Steve was in the Haunted Toy Room) and we all breathed a sigh of relief that the secrecy was at last all over.

Fiona created a superb meal, and the wine flowed well into the night with witty repartee and gay badinage, and ghost stories supplied by Steve.  Until slowly one by one we toddled off to be, perchance to sleep. Or at least until the doorknob rattling began.

As was to be the norm for the weekend I was up first, so strolled around and waited for the others so we could throw croissants at each other over the table.

We all then headed off to the supermarket for provisions and to be attacked by scary clowns throwing sweets at us. From here we headed down the coast to Arramanche for a light luncheon at a pavement café, before visiting the Mulberry harbour museum and then on to the 360’ cinema, which had Anne really spooked as everyone looked round to gaze at her. Realising the time we then blasted up the motorways back to the Chateau.

With moments to spare those hardy hiking soles (and the plodders) grabbed torches and hiked off up to “The Butchers Shop” once again as in the spring we had a superb meal, a cheese board you could die for luvvies, and major language problem. Never fear our revered centre rep had the answer, and with a full command of the lingo pronounced to the waitress “Sweet Pea another bottle please” pointing at the empty wine bottle, don’t knock it, it worked.

A very dark walk back, looking at eyes in the hedgerows saw us back , we then retired after a few drinks to bed, some of us with heated blankets and lighting, though not those rooms fused by Anne and her industrial space heater/hairdryer.

Sunday a glorious morning and mark kindly found me a cup of tea to start the day, hoorah that man. the decision after breakfast was to head off to the nearby fair for some of us, Nick ,Anne and Steve heading off to the cemetery and Pegasus bridge.

Now the fair, this really was something else, the whole village was closed off, with stalls everywhere and a funfair. You could buy just about anything, from sweetmeats to superb lock knives, Christine did put her foot down hard when she saw Paul’s maniacal look in his eyes on seeing the latter. lunch was mega hotdogs with lashing of mustard. The best bit being you could buy any food you wanted on the fields, and eat in any of the beer tents (cidre in our case) a wonderfully laid back way of doing things, and one I wish the English could learn.

Several hours later and we headed back to wish Dave , Sarah, Bob and Julie a fond farewell as they had to head home. Meanwhile the rest of us slept, had baths or went for healthy strolls. Another fine repast by Fiona was followed by a surprisingly early night.

Monday and just as I was being passed my early morning tea so the other strolled down. The decision was to head for the local market and the coast. Having said our fond farewells to our hosts it would not surprise our dear reader to hear the local market was closed. So after a quick look around we headed to the coast for lunch. Courtesy of Chris’s book a cracking restaurant was found for lunch, where a leisurely lunch was enjoyed by all Nick polishing off everyone’s plates as he went.

A pleasant afternoon spent then on the beach, paddling, lazing around and ringing Dave (now back at work in England) just to annoy him took place. Soon back to Cherbourg for a little more shopping and then back to the ferry. Many a game of dominoes a fine crossing and docking at midnight.

“Ouch” went nick as we hit English soil and officially his birthday was over. This meant Anne was now making up for all those kidney punches he had missed for the weekend(being a kidney punch free zone for 4 days).

A cracking weekend away many thanks for Anne for organising it, many, many thanks to Steve our designated driver for all his efforts. The good friends who made it such a good weekend and finally as Dave would have said “who could believe the weather could have seen so good for an October weekend”