Bonjour! We always enjoy visiting M. Baranger. As a vigneron, he produces the most exquisite of wines, especially the regional Cabernet d’Anjou. As one wine buff commented (and here, as you would expect, I paste) “Very faint to begin with and suddenly flourishes with raspberry. Peach follows with a succulent cream and an almost tropical finish. Excellent.” That, of course, is totally lost on me. For me its main quality is that it is very cheap. (Incidentally, did you real

This blog comes to you from a unique location, from where the very first Allied opposed landing took place during WW2. And it’s not in North Africa; operation Torch into Morocco and Algeria took place a full year later in 1942. Surprisingly we are here in the Norman seaside town of Luc-sur-Mer, just 9kms north of Caen, en route to Saumur in the Loire valley. This was to become part of one of the landing beaches, Sword Beach, in June 1944. But what I had not realised was t

I write: “There was a young man from Hong Kong.” And you immediately start to compose a line with eight syllables concluding with a word ending in ong. Yes, it is the time of year for the annual Times Limerick competition. So in today’s Times2: A limerick writer named Lear Was born at this time of the year, So this competition Assigns you the mission Of sending your limericks here! It’s strange how the limerick has entered our national consciousness. In complete cont

Sadly I wrote out the address with the familiar postcode probably for the last time. Over the years wherever we go – even if just for the day – we send Clare a postcard. But yesterday I was sending a sympathy card for her sister and brothers. It was her sister who phoned us, to say that Clare – one of Jacqui’s closest friends - had suddenly and unexpectedly died. They met all those years ago as they trained as nurses together at Broadgreen Hospital. However, long-standi