I keep wondering what should really be on this blog, thinking that it should all be up to date and All New. But then there are all those times that I haven't written about at all even though they were great and worth seeing again.



Like back in the summer, in France, where I used to live. Hannu and I took our best friend-cousin down to the Lot with us and we took pictures and drank wine and ate duck. It was marvellous. One evening, a good friend invited us along to see a torch and candle-lit tour of the gothic cloisters of St Etienne cathedral in Cahors that she was giving. Because of Sue we got in early and had the place virtually to ourselves to take pictures.

But other than seeing the cloisters in a totally new perspective, what I enjoyed so much - in a no-guard-rail, use-your-own-commonsense, health-and-safety-is-somebody-else's-problem kind of way- was that flaming torches were just handed out to random tourists. Old and young alike, anyone was welcome to brandish an 18" torch in the middle of a small group of holiday makers. And did anyone bat an eyelid at being handed such social responsibility? Well most there were French and most looked like they had already handled burning torches on previous cultural visits. It was relaxed. Relaxed like the Lot valley.