Detour

Janet, of the Gardener's Cottage has given me the Stylish Bloggers Award, for which I have to divulge seven things about myself that you don't know!

1. I have always loved to pootle about in water, at the seaside, in rivers, pools, ponds....

2. Biscuits are my downfall.

3. I am a great fainter.

4. I like to dance.

Joie de Vivre.

It's chaos in the kitchen,

pans to wash,

dog prints across the floor.

But on the radio there's jazz

foot-tapping music

and I shimmy in my apron

arms outstretched, hips sway

I've always loved to dance this way.

My imaginary partner knows every twist and turn.

There's a neighbour at the door

and I'm all about the floor.

The dog thinks that I've gone crazy

but

who cares!

5. I have no sense of direction.

6. I can't sing in tune. (Cue helpless laughter from daughters.)

7. I was married in a half ruined castle where Mary Queen of Scots had once lived, and danced on my wedding night in my stocking feet.

Tom Stephenson asked me in the last posting if I had been to see Matisse's chapel in Vence. The answer is no. I had every intention of doing so, but the family took me to the fabled La Colombe d'Or to celebrate my sixtieth birthday 

and after lunch there was no question of moving me from my prone position by the pool.

The hotel is famous for several reasons. First of all the food is wonderful and the setting, in St Paul de Vence, a hill-top village, is sublime. Then there is the long list of people to have visited and stayed. In the 1940's when the south of France was a 'free zone' the hotel attracted people such as Jacques Prevert, a favourite poet of mine.  Artists came, some of them paying with their art in exchange for hospitality. The hotel and its gardens are certainly full of covetable paintings, murals and sculpture, works by Miro, Braque, Chagall and Matisse among others. Since then film stars and the famous have arrived, along with the odd character being given a birthday treat.

In the early evening we wandered round the cemetery at the edge of the village, overlooking the surrounding countryside. 

We placed a pebble on Chagall's grave.

Some occasions are just a delight to remember.