Allo allo et bienvenue a Nouvion.
A PBP year will always bring a French flavour to our nocturnal excursions and with OD heading off to French France on a prolonged sojourn there was all the more reason to hold our first French themed evening.
The venue, was Les Malteurs in Heybridge, seldom visited but well regarded. I arrived to find Joergen sitting in the corner still trying to digest his romantic dinner for one - small wonder, the food on his plate matched his trademark labourer's hi-viz tabard that he so loves.
We were soon joined by Tomsk, the Hustler, le Duc de la Taquin, OD and Abraham Duquesne.
With Grays' pubs the selection can be a bit hit and miss and last night's was nothing like as good as on our last visit when we had the famous "best stout ever". We managed to sample No. 88 by Colchester Brewery and Polar Beer by Wibblers with the former taking the coveted Quaffers' Choice Award.
There wasn't much chat about the French Ride, it being banned, but we did manage to discuss a bit of logistics. Tomsk is taking the hairshirt option and riding there via Auchterarder with his wild camping kit in his carradice. Meanwhile Joergen is book-ending his trip with recuperative stays at the George V where he has booked one of those things where small fish nibble the soles of your feet. Actually, I may have misheard, perhaps he was nibbling several feet of small fish whilst alone or maybe he was stealing the souls of fishermen while he nibbled - it makes no odds, he would be equally happy with any of those options as long as no mushrooms were involved.
OD was quieter than usual as he is extremely busy loading action shots of himself on to his instagram account for his new John Noakes lookalike venture. No one had the heart to tell him that John Noakes is not quite the megastar in France that he is here. On the couple of occasions when he did manage to raise his head from his 'phone, he joined our discourse on auto-icons, Saxondale. homeland security and whipping.
It was a pleasure to be out on a rare windless evening and there was still no need for knee warmers on the way home. With BST imminent, we can revert to the strict more miles less beer regime that we adopted in 2015 (Joergen, please note which way round the regime works - "road beers" are not part of the solution here).
