Vias

Got to Vias with some relief in late afternoon. Met up with Ian and Emmy after we had just sat down in a cafe. Bit of a relief because linda not sure of how to get to Ian and flos. Was a lovely welcome to Vias!

Wednesday 15th October

Was such a relief to wake up having a base for the rest of the week. Many thanks to Ian, Flo, and family for making us so welcome.

Our week at Vias...
Lin here agreeing with Brent re enjoying being able to chill, catch up with paper work..eg checking the bank balances and getting to know Tom and Emie a bit more. We had a lovely lunch at the Peace family's home on our first day and enjoyed strolling down to the beach and exploring the village. On Friday we had lunch all together down in Vias and in the evening Brent went with Iain to Anthony's stag do, whilst I went out on the hen do with the girls... both were fun experiences....
The hen night / l'enterrement du jeune fille: 5 of us – me, Flo, Laure, Stephanie and Megan, the bride to be, headed to Beziers, where we met Julie, who had prepared an outfit covered in sweets, including a matching necklace, for Megan to wear. Having put this on, Megan was then given a basket full of goodies: sweeties, g strings, perfumes etc. We all then proceeded to the first bar, where we approached unsuspecting men...and some women, who donated money ( a pen and some cigarettes!) to the bride, and chose something from the basket in return. At some point in the evening Flo took out a set of scales and set out a challenge for Megan: she had to kiss 2000 kilos of men! Looked good fun to me and the men she chose were all good fun and joined in without complaining...the fact that Megan is a gorgeous girl, may have contributed to this. At some point we enjoyed some tapas together then at the end of the evening Flo tallied up and Megan went home with 185 euros! What a great tradition.

The stag night...over to you Brent:
The stag night was not such a sober affair. We were based in the Irish bar in Vias. Was fantastic to be made so welcome by the grooms friends. The beer was flowing followed by carmel vodka shots in between each pint and then later a baileys mint one. The groom Antony was dressed up ( by Ian ) as a rather fetching woman. Was actually a bit scary the way he could wiggle his hips. Anyways he also had a pint glass taped to his hand which was regularly filled and he was blindfolded at regular intervals so needless to say his drinks were mixed. My capacity to keep imbibing the drink has limited with age so at the point when Ian and Antony moved to the next bar I retired and walked back to the gite.

Next morning felt surprisingly ok. Linda had offered to do the video recording at the wedding so went off. I had some quiet time on my own (which was very welcome ) At about 3.00 ish Linda came back with Emie and Tom and we did some drawing, and football. We had a game of wally. Tom proved he was particularly good by beating me 100 points to 93. The game involved scoring by hitting the tree ( 2 points ) the wall ( 1 point ) and the window ( 3 points ) . The ball was very soft and the window very small!!! Good time had by all. But boy did my inner thigh hurt from side footing the ball. Damn to getting old :-)

In the evening we had been invited to the post wedding celebrations with some food and drink at Ians and Flos. It was an intimate gathering with close friends invited and we felt very privileged to be there. The bride and groom looked resplendent - which was quite amazing considering the alcohol that had flowed the night before. They both put on a superb dance which was to a compilation of pop songs starting and finishing with their favourite Elvis number. Retired earlier than most after a lovely evening.

Sunday was a day of catching up and planning ahead. Was glad to be able to get our head around the forthcoming England visit.

Woke up to a cloudy day on Monday ( shock horror ). But as in time honoured fashion the sun did come out and we set out on our planned cycle trip along the Midi Canal to Bezier