Thank you very much for asking.....

We are always very aware of the change in the seasons living on the marshes and Autumn has now well and truly arrived here in Normandie. But how the weather can change in just a few days. Gone are the long balmy luscious sun-filled days we enjoyed a week or or so ago to be replaced by lashing wind, rain and much lower temperatures.  It would be nice to hibernate until Spring but I can`t  - and what do I have to look forward to?

A cardio physical check up with my cardiologist where, if like the last consultation,  he will wire me up to a computer and ask me to peddle on an exercise bike, TOPLESS (!), for 10 minutes whilst he sits a few feet in front of me watching!

Excuse me ? Yes! Topless! Had I been 18 years old with a firm set of bouncing bazookas I wouldn`t have minded, but please;  I am well endowed with a splendid busom and now on the wrong side of 50. Believe me if that footage ends up on Youtube he will be sorry! I can see no reason not to hibernate with this experience to look forward to. Oh, to be a dormouse!

But then.......................I could light up 'Hercule' my treasured 1930s Belgian enamel stove. Named after Hercule Poirot (the only famous Belgian I know), he is possibly the best 'impulse' buy I ever made!

I bought him after seeing this photograph on the French online sales site www.leboncoin.fr . We trekked to the other side of Paris to collect him and, after having to wait for a local farmer with a tractor to lift him up the chateau steps, he was duly installed in the cuisine - and he is my best friend every winter.

He runs on coal and/or wood and he warms the whole place instantly. He can be a little temperamental but I know his little foibles and he knows mine!

So let it snow, rain, sleet, howl gales and a plague of locusts descend upon us -it`s okay- ........because you know where I am going on the 18th? You will find me sipping hot chocolat at Casanovas old haunt, the Cafe Florian in St Mark's Square, Venice.

Will it be cold? I do hope so but thank you very much for asking. Do you have a warm coat?, I hear you ask. Well yes, I do thank you very much again for asking. A divine heavy black velvet vintage swagger with a hood that I bought off the 'Etsy' website. A coat so luscious that I'm sure even casanova would swoon if I walked up to him wearing it

And what if Venice has a last minute heatwave? Well I shall still wear it and collapse with heatstroke - but thank you very much for asking!

You may already have gathered that I am addicted to Venice out of season! Its a very quick flight from Paris and I adore the place when there are fewer tourists about. 

Last year whilst sitting at a waterside cafe 'people watching' Mark asked me "Would you like a go on a goldolier?" to which I replied....." Yes please ...thank you very much for asking; I`ll have that big six footer over there please!"

I think he actually meant "Would you like a gondola ride?"......shame!

Finally blogger will not let me leave any comments on anyone elses blog.  I think I'm not the only one having this problem. Any suggestions?