Manu is a friend from the time when I lived in France. He plays chess, drinks, smokes and doesn't like football but I like him all the same and the bar that he lives in. I stayed there for a few days on my journey to Spain. 

Manu Laurand, chess player.

I managed to cook something

Lunch out with Manu. I asked the waitress to marry me, 

she replied in English, 'No.' 

Much to my surprise Manu had never visited Oradour-sur-Glane where on Saturday, 10th June in 1944 soldiers of 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division killed 642 men, women and children and destroyed the entire village without giving any reason for their action to the inhabitants and to this day there is no universally accepted explanation for the massacre.

It was quite sobering when we visited. The rain didn't help.  

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Goodbye England. 

I left mid-June 2012 for my new life on the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Dieppe with Florence my car pulling a trailer containing my worldly goods. Needless to say it was raining when I departed.

Florence somewhere south of Madrid

I felt a little like Del Boy as the car was packed to the gunnels so that I couldn't see out of the rear window and I'm sure the trailer was overloaded too. My son is in the logistics industry so he arranged for 2 pallets to be delivered to me and as the only piece of furniture I brought with me was a wine rack it now makes me wonder what my stuff consisted of. 

Anyway, after ambling through France, staying  with Manu in Limoges, Tracy & Colin in the Limousin, Suzze & Henry in the Tarn, I was in my new country in 10 days - the temperature was 38°C, and I was just in time for the cherry festival in Castillo de Locubín. 

Viva cherries, I love them. 



And the first thing I cooked in my new 
kitchen was Linguine Vongole in a le Creuset frying pan which had been temporarily lost whilst packed in a box from a previous move in 2008.

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