Only in France…

Just back from a few days in Carcassonne, to celebrate – oh joy -the fact that I can go on holiday during school term time now that I’ve quit teaching. The town itself isn’t terribly interesting, but embedded in it is the fabulous medieval Cite, which looks like something designed by Disney. Husband and I spent many happy hours wandering, eating and drinking. While we were in the inevitable castle gift shop I noticed a very jolly range of melamine plates for children, with brightly coloured comic-book style illustrations of knights, damsels, peasants etc, each with a bit of text. When I read these, they all turned out to be exhortatations to have good table  manners. ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full!’ and ‘Don’t gobble your food!’ for instance. How very French… Bought them for all my nieces and nephews for Christmas – don’t worry, mes enfants – only joking!