07 June 2012

Dry and happy

The weather cooperated and the food was fantastic. The company was even better. We gathered at Susan and Simon's place in Preuilly-sur-Claise. Most of us are bloggers based in France, almost all in or not far from the Touraine area. The guest of honor was Martine/Ladybird from Belgium, who loves Touraine and the Loire Valley. This was her first visit in two years.

The gathering in Susan and Simon's back garden.

The pictures here will give you a little bit of the flavor of the afternoon. The party started at noontime and started breaking up around 7 p.m. Not a drop of rain fell, but a few drops of the local wine flowed, for sure. It was all very civilized and friendly, and although many of us had never met face to face before, we felt, I believe, like we already knew each other.

The table laden with foods we all contributed to the party

Martine and CHM, the two guests of honor

Native languages spoken: French, English ( Australian, British, South African, American), Flemish, Dutch, Swedish... Lingua franca: English. Age range: 4 to 87 years.

Caroline and Alexander from Antwerp brought along their daughter
Florence. Here she is with Walt. She is a doll. When I showed
her this picture on my camera, she took it over
to Walt so that he could see it too.

The circle late in the afternoon, after the crowd had thinned some

Susan and Simon were masterful hosts, setting the tone for a relaxed yet lively afternoon, and providing much good food and drink. What a nice way to begin the summer...

16 comments:

  1. Looks like you guys had a great garden party...that's a very tempting table of food!

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  2. How lovely to see all of my French/Belgian blogger friends having such a great time...I am sure the stories were enhanced by the local "drop"! Louise

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  3. From reading some of their blogs, I was pretty sure it would be a lively group.

    Nice to see a photo of Martine! She is usually holding the camera instead of in front of it.

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  4. looks like a great time.....

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  5. What a party! Bonjour Martine and CHM. The food looks so good and the weather made for a garden event that looks so inviting.

    Cute what Florence did- she's adorable. Thanks for sharing your day with us.

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  6. We had a lovely time at the party too. Susan summed it up - 'interesting and interested people'. S&S are excellent hosts.

    We enjoyed meeting with you and Walt and can testify to the tastiness of the lasagne you blogged about yesterday.

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  7. Awwww, great! Thanks so much for sharing with us. That table of delicious foods looks wonderful!

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  8. It was great to meet you and Walt yesterday also CHM, what a lovely gentleman.
    Susan and Simon did a great job, the food was excellent and the company brilliant. As you say it seemed like we had all know each other for years.
    We meandered home today playing tourist and looking at sites which were new to us.

    Great to meet you both Nigel & Diane

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  9. Bonjour Evelyn to you.

    Thank you Diane for your kind words. It was great to meet you and Nigel and all the others I knew of but didn’t know in person. It was a great party. [As I said before, the Quiche Charentaise was delicious!]

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  10. It's so nice to have a lot of guests at a party.

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  11. What a smashing time you all had - a real blogfest !!

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  12. Is that your remoulade next to the wine? We''ll be making that salad (using your crème fraîche "secret") for a francophone gathering Sunday.
    Your garden party looks really fun and the food table...ça met l'eau à la bouche.
    What a great Loire valley experience for guests of honor, Martine and CHM.

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  13. Dean, that was our remoulade on the edge of the photo, dotted with green olives. It was good, if I do say so. I hope your version will be good and appreciated too.

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  14. came over from Dianne's blog what a fun gathering and love the age range :-)

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  15. what nice place and fun time, I came from Diane site!!lol

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