Family Affairs and other matters

Hello again! Home briefly (to a very quiet house) for another few days before picking the kids up and whisking them off somewhere else. What a ridiculously lovely busy summer we’re having….

I had a wonderfully peaceful time in France. The villa I stayed in was absolutely stunning, with gorgeous views up the hill of an old village and a lovely wide and open light streaming in through the french windows everywhere you looked. “Shabby chic” would be a good way to describe the style of the villa. My friend is a designer and the way she puts things together is amazing – she has such a good eye.

Most of the time it was just the three of us. We did a lot of lounging by the pool and reading and drinking and eating. We did a bit of sightseeing and a bit of shopping and one day we did a bit of entertaining…..When I say WE entertained, I attempted to help cook, lay the table, put things on plates, but didn’t ever get it quite right. How is that some people can just get that “effortless entertaining” look so right?

The couple and their young daughter who came for lunch were lovely – she had until recently been a fashion editor for a major magazine and I consequently felt a little out of my depth in the style stakes. My attempt to keep up with the elegance of the whole affair was sadly cut dead as we all sat down for lunch outside, at a table piled high with king prawn and barley salad, wonderful breads, wines, glasses, white table cloths, (I’m sure you can picture the scene)….I squeezed myself into the corner onto some squishy cushions and because it was so hot and I was wearing a skirt my legs squelched together and made an awful farty sound as I sat down – exactly that sound that as a child you attempt to make in the bath using soap and lots of exhausting pumping movments under the armpit. There was a split second of silence, where I could have said “ha ha I’m so sorry did you hear that? My legs just squelched together and made a really good farty sound – didn’t that sound just like an enormous fart?”. But of course I couldn’t do that. So I had to just let them all ignore me for a moment in the unlikely event that nobody heard it.

ANYWAY, on one of the days we went to St Tropez and had our wonderfully girly people-watchy lunch at Club 55. As we were sitting on the beach waiting for our (not very cool) 3pm lunch slot, I spotted a bit of commotion going on down at the jetty….Here are the pictures I promised you:-
At this point we were not sure who it was:-

But if you zoom in:-

Do you think he could perhaps have got a few more gorgeous men on that boat if they’d all squeezed up a bit more?