The Bombam Gorgeous Susie Bearne et moi – Susie on the right

Last week I took a group of 6 journalists to the Languedoc Roussillon region of France (Marseille and turn left rather than right to the Cote d’Azur) – there’s me on the left and the lovely Susie Bearne (freelance) on the right.  A couple of cultural difference occurred to me while we were there.

• Time has far less relevance in this region.  It slips effortlessly away and no one seems too concerned.  
• Lunch is not a sandwich on the run, but a proper 2-3 course effort where real care is taken to achieve local ingredients.  It’s to be savoured and thought through, rather than shoved down on the run.
• Only the English can make tea
• Only the English (and possibly the Irish) understand the concept of breakfast tea blend
• Everything local in the region is preferable to either national or international, from the art that hangs in the hotels, to the ethos of their spas (using local staff, local products, local building materials etc).  Even if it’s not great, they are proud of their artisans.  I can’t remember the last time we celebrated a local painter or crafts person.
• Cuttlefish is actually squid – who knew?
• “Bombam” is French for “like” as in “Susie is so, like, gorgeous” so it becomes “Susie is so, bombam, gorgeous”
• The most delicious cake in the world is choux pastry with sweet rose-flavoured cream inside – it was sublime.

 The only other conclusion I can come to is that having lost 2 stone it doesn’t look like I have in the photo, but perhaps I would look the size of a small hippo otherwise.  Not a single woman I know is happy with how she looks – to discuss next time.