Thank Friday it’s Lunchtime – Cobra. Somewhere off the Côte D’Azur

There’s a bit of a lead-up to this week’s TFIL….

So on Wednesday evening, the LSH and I went off to play with the horses. We did a short loop through the woods beside the farm, with me riding Flurry bitless on a trek for the first time and the LSH leading Aero, who was on his second day of “No Riding” after the Osteopath’s visit.

(Damn. I forgot to mention the Osteopath’s visit. Grrr. Ok, the Osteopath checked Aero out on Monday, he was back to feeling stiff and uncomfortable on the left rein but pretty good on the right, so I was sure there was something afoot. Sure enough, his left hip was dropped, causing a corresponding sore spot on the right hand side of his neck; his lumbar vertebrae were a bit scrunched up; he was a bit touchy around the poll and his withers were sore – probably caused by using Flurry’s GP on him. I feel bad about this. Sorry, Aero-Bubbles. The good news, though, was that the Ostéo gave the Gaston Mercier saddle a cautious thumbs up. I have to use Flurry’s riser pad and a thin numnah and “see how it goes” – if it makes him sore I will have to rethink. Fingers crossed!)

Back to Wednesday evening… we had a lovely ride/walk. We saw a really cool green lizard and had a pair of eagles circling overhead for a while, mewing as they hung in the air. They sounded like a cross between seagulls and sparrows, and after doing some research afterwards, I came to the conclusion that they were Golden Eagles… awesome!!

Flurry felt great bitless – not much different to normal. I had set the Micklem bridle on the “middle” bitless setting, where the reins pass under the chin like a curb strap, but I think he would have been just the same with it in the sidepull setting.

He did try a bit of meandering towards the end, bit it was easy to straighten him up just using my legs, and I was really happy with the whole experiment. Flurry was also barefoot for the ride, as was Aero. They’re both still a bit tender on stony ground, so I’ll stick to the boots for another while.

Anyway, we were heading to B&J’s house for a sundowner when I looked at my phone to check the time and realised it was still on “Airport Mode” since I had been using it to play music the previous day. Oops, I said, and switched it to normal…Bing!Bing! replied my phone – “You have a message in your Orange.fr mailbox.” I dialled the number to listen to the message and said “OOOOOOOH!!!” (OOOOOOOH actually has several syllables. I think you should know what I mean.)

My trekking buddy MC was wondering if we’d like to spend the next day on her boat. OOOOOOOH indeed…

First there were the ankle-biters to consider. MC said if we were really stuck, we could bring them, but obviously this was a less than ideal scenario. Dog-sitters Extraordinaire B& J stepped up to the mark and offered to look after them, so the following morning, Cinny & Cookie were dropped off at 8am and off we trundled to the town of La Londe de Maures.

After only one unintentional detour, we found the right place, met up with MC, loaded our picnic onto the boat, filled the boat up with diesel (holy c**p, those things take a LOT of diesel, the boat ahead of us at the pumps took €650 worth of fuel) and headed off, hugging the coastline so we could see stuff.

The port at La Londe de Maures. MC’s boat is third from the right.

MC’s boat “Cobra.” This week’s venue for Thank Friday it’s Lunchtime.

And there was plenty of Stuff to be seen from this exclusive lunchtime venue…

stunt biker…

…a buoy. Exciting stuff for a landlubber…

…water skier…

…a distant regatta…

…a windsurfer struggling to stay upright…

…jet skis, with the town of Hyères in the background…

…a less distant regatta…

…finally, a sheltered spot suitable for lunching.

There was even the occasional idiot having a swim. Brrr. It’s not warm enough for me just yet.

Lunch started of promisingly with an aperitif of cold drinks.

…but went downhill steadily from there. Presentation was poor, this is how the egg sandwich was served,

What? I have to make it myself??

but service was reasonably quick (i.e. I was sitting beside our cool-box) and overall, the food was edible if a little rustic, consisting of boiled eggs, ham, goats cheese, butter, mayonnaise and baguettes (thankfully, we were able to find an open boulangerie that morning) all washed down with a lightly chilled Rosé (the cool-box worked well), with a dessert of fresh fruit (apples or bananas) or little lemon tartlets.

And the all-important ratings?

Star Rating (out of 5) :

Service : ✮✮✮✮✮ (ok, I have to give myself 5 stars. I took stuff out of that cool-box REALLY quickly. And we’re all Lovely People)
Food : ✮✮✮ (I’ll be harsh and take two stars off myself. Must. Try. Harder.)
Value : ✮✮✮ (hmm, tough one, this. Food was cheap, but there was a lot of diesel consumed… I have to go with 3 stars, I’m afraid)
Ambiance : ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮✮ (Yeah. That’s out of 5)