Isabelle's Big Day!

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After my flight touched down in Nice, I barely had time to drop off my bag at home, before it was time to head off to the airport again. We were off to Nantes, in the west of France this time, to celebrate Isabelle's 40^th birthday.

We were met at the airport by our good friends Aude and Magaye, who were kind enough to let us stay at their place for the Friday night. Before heading back to their flat though, we made our way to Trentemoult, a nice little former fishing village (the fishers left quite a few years ago, to be replaced by artists and their like) near Nantes, for dinner. We were lucky enough to get a table outside, by the river, at the Guinguette, a really nice little eatery. The views from the terrace towards Nantes are fantastic as well... Our stomachs were filled up, we continued catching up over a few drinks at a sort of Irish pub in Nantes... Very nice to catch up with Aude and Magaye – even though it was sadly short, as we made our way to Isabelle's party quite early the next morning.

Isa was organising the party at her parents old farmhouse, rather beautifully located in the Loire-Atlantique countryside (almost in Brittany, right Isa? ;) ). Rather a large number of people were attending – including quite a lot of Isabelle's friends from her years in the UK, quite a few of whom I know, and haven't seen for donkey's years. Nelle, Ollie, Raphaelle, Katja, Kartsa (and his lovely girlfriend Reija), Sophie, Manue; and many, many others...

For dinner, the Sannier family didn't go for half-measures – they actually had a lamb spit-roasted for us! It's quite a sight, and the meat was absolutely succulent as well. The party itself was fantastic fun; with Sophie especially being in a rather entertaining mood (when isn't she – I'd forgotten how mad that woman is!), and especially Katja also showing that Finnish people can have fun! Apart from the usual drinking and eating, there were naturally birthday cakes, singing, dancing of various kinds and just general madness.

In short, it was fantastically good fun. Things wrapped up with some eau-de-vie in the house (naturally!), and then it was sadly time to go to sleep (me and Mathilde were lodging in a tent). All in all, it felt like a very happy reunion party – so a big thanks to Isabelle and her family for putting us all up and organising such a fantastic party! It felt rather sad to leave...