Different situation…and one in which whisky could be appropriate. If he doesn’t drink, or doesn’t like whisky then he will use it elsewhere.
Problem is getting it to him presumably? Is there a local cave that will send him a gift certificate?
Paul will get over here sometime soon 
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I’ll hand it to him personally when I do get over.
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Or drink it yourself if he hasn’t cut the grass 
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Ta…may come to that! If you are into daffodils then might be interested in this festival of backhouse daffodils, and some others…
What a thread I have engendered!!! Update: I took 20 different daffodils in a bunch, my last jar of Welsh wild strawberry jam and a smile. The whisky offered was called “Paddy”, and the son’s. The port was okay and I overdosed on Martinis as a teenager often enough to hate the stuff. The nibbles were okay. The company was charming and the background music was Mahler. I don’t like Mahler either. The sofas had collapsed sometime in the seventies. I had to pull my poor other half upright and it wasn’t the drink. But they are lovely and it seems that we are the only neighbours to have ever been spoken to, never mind invited. They are only locals since 71. So, like in Yorkshire, Arrivistas. We spent a good time telling them all about ourselves. I rarely ask questions. I figured long ago that it’s better when people volunteer. Well, thank you all for your insights into the do’s and don’ts, it helped us enormously and I was not worried about offending. Thanks again.
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well done you!
Now the fun really begins as you will no doubt wish to invite them over to yours at some appropriate point in time.
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Hah! It has to wait until the weather is clement! We live in the house where the ceiling is still parked against the wall behind the sofa and the kitchen sink is a cold tap and a bucket! But hey, the poele is in since last October and we have a temporary 3kw leccy supply! But my word, the garden is lovely already!
I would just take a bouquet of flowers.
Wear masks.
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Terribly blase about it here. We said we have vaccination RDV in April, they just said they are on the waiting list at the pharmacy!!! They turned 80! I volunteered to get them an appointment asap, but like my parents, same age, they are JUST NOT BOTHERED!!!
Do grillades in your garden 
Ahem. be careful on plant material there was a rumour we’re not in Europe any more.
. …As I found in La Poste today when the lady quoted me 34 euros to send a document by Chronopost to the UK. Then her colleague came over and said “Oops UK is not EU any more so that’ll be 62 euros” (I may be a EUR or two out but that was the level of the price increase.)
I cannot believe Switzerland and the other EEA countries are being treated to these price increases. What on earth was the UK government doing for 4 years if they couldn’t ensure postage did not become a ripoff to a country next door/the EU? I feel desperately sorry for small and medium size businesses for whom admin procedures and duty/tariff agreements parallel to those the EU has with the EEA simply haven’t been worked out.
Well at least I got to practise “Je m’en passe” in French (“I’ll do without”) 
Bulbs from suppliers with health certificates are fine. I am completely against uncontrolled movement of plant species and plant materiel because of the damage caused, so actually quite pleased that more controls are now in place. Shame we had to have brexit to make this happen…
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I’ve read every post on here and not one of them gives you the best advice. You’re all between 50 and 70, no mention that I can see has said you are vaccinated (if they are anything like my French neighbours, they don’t want it), and I’m not sure that the present curfew/lockdown rules allow you to visit anybody after 1900.
Do like we do, say very sorry, but as soon as the pandemic is over, we look forward to partying. My neighbours, who have plenty of French visitors, were in full agreement with our attitude as soon as we mentioned the “UK Variant”.
Stay safe
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Aperos round here are 6pm to 7pm…and takes 2 minutes to walk to a neighbours. We wash hands, sit far apart, have a window open and avoid sharing bowls of peanuts. There is no prohibition here on being in other people’s homes thatI have read, just advice about being fewer than 6.
We have to balance safety with the problems of mental health. If I didn’t pop i to a neighbours for a carefully distanced cup of tea now and then she would be completely isolated.
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We agree with you. We were in the garden, extra blankets and no sharing anything. They are not bothered about vaccination, when I told them that we have been done they were amazed. Both just turned 80!!! I offered to make an appointment asap but they did that gallic shrug thing and said no doubt the doctor or chemist would ring. There is no helping people. We have lost so many and here nobody seems to quite believe that it is reality. As for curfew, we are not on public land between ours and theirs. Their garden is at the end of our field and then a footpath along the maize field.
Looks like it is outside only (but with no eating or drinking!). Although it doesn’t actually state it is banned.
Well, you may remember or be aware of those immortal words about the French administration in a famous Coluche sketch called “L’Étudiant”, the words)
“Dites nous ce dont vous avez besoin et nous vous dirons comment vous en passer”.
(tell us what you need and we’ll tell you how to do without it).
(that bit above was about his dad, who wrote to an admin and got that (fictitious) letter as a reply:
Monsieur,
Écrivez-nous de quoi vous avez besoin, on vous expliquera comment vous en passer.)
That’s the daft thing. It is all advisory not mandatory. So everyone is very confused and that doesn’t help promote responsible behaviour.
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