Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir is, as you know, what The Avengers is called in France. Rather long-winded and goodness knows what it is called in Germany.
The man who had the bright idea of buying the rights to show the programme in France used the money to buy a truffle estate. I didn’t know such a thing existed. All this came to light over an agreeable lunch with C and T.
Coincidentally C worked for Platts in the 1980s, cooking up the price of gas oil. In those days I was a gas oil futures broker listening to my clients complain that the Platts prices were rigged. C said she was handsomely entertained by oil traders, including at least one of my clients, so methinks they were only put out when they had failed to manipulate the market to their satisfaction.
T told us that his father got a double First and a treble Blue. His mother was an author and Spectator columnist. T’s own claim to fame is that he gatecrashed a Private Eye lunch at The Coach and Horses and was ejected by Ian Hislop. He consoled himself by having a few brandies downstairs with Norman Balon and the escapade appeared in The Evening Standard.
I was feeling a bit under the weather in the morning and went for a walk with my host and his dogs. We saw a fully grown boar (sanglier) scamper off and then a piglet came towards us along a woodland track. One of the dogs tried to play with it but was brought to heel before the sow could defend her offspring. The wild flowers are beautiful and the views stunning.
Today’s guest presenter is Joan Collins.