It seems like only last week that I was working for Imation Corpn in Cergy, 20 miles North-West of Paris. While I was there, my wife’s daughter worked and lived close by. To her delight, she and her husband found they were expecting a baby. I got the news at work one day that a little girl had been born in the nearby hospital. So after work, I drove up the hill and poked my head round the door. What I saw was a perfect face and dark, questioning eyes, already interested in everything going on around her.

But that was twenty years ago. Now, a wonderful butterfly has emerged from that ball of humankind, and her name is Clémence. This weekend, we met up with Clémence at her home in Cléry-Saint-André in the Loiret department of north-central France, near Orleans. Her parents were away and her sister was in Corsica with her grandparents, so Clémence was on her own. We thought it would be a good idea to take her out for a meal somewhere, so that’s what we did. (We don’t usually drive 100 miles for a meal!)

We ended up at La Criée in Olivet, a nearby town. The restaurant was an unassuming building at the side of a busy road, but we were not disappointed either by the welcome, the service, or the food. Our butterfly decided to go for lobster and a glass of dry white wine. And why not? She’s 20 years old and worth spoiling once in a while. (And guess who ended up cracking the claws for her???) Marie-Danielle elected for a seafood platter, which left a large smile on her face too. Well worth the trip!