Day 904 (Saturday) 30^th November 2019

The big day has arrived – Pat’s 50^th birthday party and the weather was glorious

and Badger sunbathed all morning

We met Kevin and Angie in Place de la Paix and walked up to Pat and Dee’s place together.

That’s our old flat below the swimming pool – it seems like a very long time since we lived there. I do miss the terrace and view but we are much happier on Rue du Poilu.

We arrived at their place and the Prosecco van was there…

…such a great idea – us with Kevin and Angie

There were a lot of people already there and their apartment looked lovely.

and this is their glorious view

This is Basque Alex and Angie

Alex’s wife Jackie was there and she made my day saying that I looked chic! Nobody has ever described me as chic before and I chuffed to bits!

The food and booze flowed all afternoon; for canapés we had sausage rolls from Antibes which were divine we also had lamb kebabs, scotch eggs in three flavours and onion pastries and for the main course we had chilli and coleslaw. Andy and Chadwick cooked the chilli and it came in four levels of spiciness. Naturally Huw went for Andy’s super hot one and I had Chadwick’s mild version.

When we’d finished eating I managed to get all Le Phare people together on the terrace and I got Sean to make a little speech and we gave Pat his card. This was the big secret that we’d been working on and got everybody to sign it.

This is Pat

 

In May this year we went to the beach with Pat and Dee and there was a group of very young ladies near us so Pat struck this pose and I captured it. When we showed it to him he pretended to be embarrassed but we knew that he was secretly proud of it. Huw worked on this for a long time and we got the card through Moonpig and Dee printed the posters. We were going to put posters up all over the village but when we arrived at the party Dee told me that Pat had found the posters this morning! After weeks of planning and preparing the surprise was spoilt so I asked Pat to pretend to be surprised when we gave it to him, which he did.

   

There was a lot of laughter all day and most of the Irish people were sensible and went for a sleep before the party in Betty’s. Most of Le Phare stayed and enjoyed a lovely pink sky.

At 7pm we all walked down the hill to Betty’s and there were a lot of people there

We just had one glass there and then headed home – neither of us can party day and night anymore! It was a really fun day!

French expression of the day: Nuit blanche

Whether you're planning a night on the tiles or want to complain about being tired, this will come in handy.

Why do I need to know nuit blanche?

If you're in Paris you will see this a lot this weekend, but the phrase also has a more timeless and general meaning that makes it worth knowing.

What does it mean?

Its literal translation is 'white night' but when it’s used in French it means a sleepless night. It can be used in a positive sense if you're staying up until the dawn and going to an all-night event or in a negative sense if you want to have a moan about not getting a wink of sleep the night before.

The reason why it will seem familiar to those in Paris is that the city hosts an annual Nuit Banche in which the museums and art galleries stay open all night and there's a programme of all-night events.

But the phrase itself can be used all year round if you've had a night that hasn't involved much shut-eye.

Après une nuit blanche avec le bébé, il il était en retard au travail ce matin - After a sleepless night with the baby, he was late for work this morning.

Il a enduré de nombreuses réunions tortueuses et qui ont fait une nuit blanche à Luxembourg pour tenter d'arriver à un résultat - They went through numerous torturous meetings and lost a night's sleep in Luxembourg trying to get this result.

Il y a une grande variété de musique réservée pour la nuit blanche - There's a great variety of music booked for the all-nighter.