Leaving St Jean de Luz tomorrow for Champagne.   Weather has been terrible this week but we have been out and about a little.  Actually enjoying a bit of down time reading Paris by Edward Rutherfurd and painting the poor little cat waifs that begged me for food in Barcelona.  Bought a packet of cat food and fed them.  Oh my, their begging eyes were something to never forget!   Out for dinner (in the cold rain) tonight.  Michelin star restaurant that's looking interesting

I'm reading Paris by Edward Rutherfurd. His books are always a great read.

Well the boys were all brilliant.   Son made chicken lasagne and veg lasagne, son-in-law no. 1 made silverside and chips, DH 's salmon was great and he also made roast pumpkin and feta and herb stuffed capsicum and was kept busy as a wine waiter, son-in-law no. 2 made a rich chocolate cake with raspberries. So all was lovely.  Will be eating a lot less tomorrow to compensate

All our kids, grand kids, nephew and partner come here but all the males bring something they have made and they take care of us girls.... Keeping our glasses full of champers for example my dh is doing a side of fresh salmon oven baked in a  creamy dijonnaise mix .  I have a lot of cake off cuts in the freezer from November when I had to make large slab cakes to cut a mermaid from for granddaughter no. 1. We have crumbed them in the tmx and added 70% dark chocolate, butter and syrup all melted and mixed in with a bit of coffee liquor. Rolled into balls and finished in coconut.  Made some with walnuts too.  Very nice and made us feel good and frugal using up something from freezer - LOL!  Looking forward to seeing what the fella's bring along tomorrow!

Frozzie so pleased to hear you loved st jean de luz!  We are staying there for a week and at San Sebastián for a week.  Three days in Barcelona.  I shoud imagine that when we get to champagne it will be quite different.  We have an apartment in Paris right next to the Luxembourg gardens, which sounds lovely.  We love France. First time for Spain so thanks for the advice re 11:00 am opening!!!

LOL Amy - so do we -  and we can have what we like guilt free.  It is a very free-ing lifestyle to not have to count calories or worry about how much to eat and what to eat etc and still have the health benefits associated with intermittent fasting.  We have found that we naturally lean towards healthier foods because that seems to be what you crave at the end of the 19 hours.  Yesterday at break - fast I had a handful of almonds and cashews, an apple, a bread roll with butter and blue cheese and then a small helping of homemade pasta and tuna with homegrown broccolini (showing off my veg patch here) and of course my usual wine.  It was a very small amount of pasta and tuna because I couldn't fit in a lot after the other bits and pieces You feel as full as and yet  you have probably only had a modest amount of food.   I really think this is the beauty of it.  There is no way you can eat in a five hour period what you would eat in a full day of eating regular meals. You just don't want to eat any more after the first hour or so I would say, stomach must shrink through the day,  although sometimes we have some chocolate or something if we are still feeling like something else.  haha and I was down 600 grams this morning from yesterday morning

We are off next week but into Spain first and finishing with a week in Paris.  Going to visit Caterpillar Valley in the Somme as well and fit in a few days in the Champagne region  before the Paris part. Our aim this time is to get to know the Basque region, which is Spain and France.  Each year we usually pick an area we haven't explored as well as an area we want to go back to.  Last year though was no new area but back to Provence, stayed in St Remy and Avignon and back to the Loire Valley and Paris.  This year Champagne and Basque regions are new to us.

Just finished Suspect by Robert Crais.   What a lovely book, thoroughly enjoyed it.