My Birthday Celebrations

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My Birthday: Chatillon -en-Bazois
The journey to Chatillon was completed in stunning sunshine. We saw herons, birds of prey, egrets, grebes, ducks, dragonfly, butterflies and lots more luscious green scenery with the occasional village or chateau nestled amongst it. We'd completed our lunch stop sipping wine in a lovely little tavern alongside a triple staircase lock whilst waiting for the lockeeper to eat his lunch. We arrived into beautiful Chatillon en Bazois at 4pm after completing 14 locks. The mooring was free and was beneath a gorgeous château alongside the canal. I decided I'd be perfectly happy spending my birthday here.
We explored the town on our bikes, found the supermarket, booked a restaurant for my birthday dinner the following night and discovered that the château only opened twice a year, but that September 18th was one of those times. We decided we'd go back for a nosey around on my birthday.
I sat in the sun listening to Alicia Keys and drinking wine whilst I mended my cotton dress that the guns had tried to burst free from (a cotton dress in locks whilst doing lots of manual work is really not a good idea!) while Mike went off to get my card and present. When he returned we had a BBQ, sipped wine, played cards and watched the sunset. Bliss.
On the morning of my birthday I woke up to find an empty space next to me. Mike didn't seem to be on board. I decided he must be doing something for my birthday, so kept quiet and put on Family Guy. Two episodes later I'd still not heard a peep from Mike. I went to investigate. As I went to open the doors to the cabin he called out,
“Happy Birthday angel, I'll be there in a minute, don't come out, I'm doing something.”
I was intrigued. “Ok, I'll go back to bed then.”
“Yeah, I'll be in soon.” He replied
Not long later Mike appeared with a plate holding smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and a hot croissant. He then disappeared and reappeared with a glass of bucks fizz, a mug of tea and an envelope.
“Happy Birthday” he said as he kissed me and handed me the envelope, “Here's your card.”
I opened it and saw he'd gone to the effort of making it himself. He'd never done this before and I was really touched.
“Oh baby, that's lovely,” I said “Is that what you were doing out the back?”
“Yeah,” he said “I've been out there since half five this morning. When I went to the shops I couldn't find one so I made one instead. What does bonne anniversaire mean?”
“It's French for Happy Birthday,” I replied “Why's that?”
A smile spread across his face. “Well, I saw loads of cards with that on them but thought it meant happy anniversary. I knew I'd never hear the end of it if I got you an anniversary card for your birthday. ..I thought it was weird that all they had were anniversary cards.”
“I love you, you are so cute.” I replied as I gave him a hug.
We spent the rest of the morning finishing off the bucks fizz in the sunshine while I opened my presents; a bottle of Moet and a gorgeous plant that I named Audrey in homage to Little Shop of Horrors; and read text messages from lots of my friends and family. Mine and Mike's parents called to wish me Happy Birthday as did my lovely little brother.
The chateau was gorgeous. The family who lived there gave us a tour around all the rooms and the grounds. It was fab to see a place that people still lived in and not one that had become a museum. We were lucky to have glorious sunshine again so spent the rest of the afternnon walking along the canal du nivernais and river aron before returning to drink Moet in the sun before changing for dinner.
Mike suggested we cycle as the restaurant was at the other end of town. I agreed and decided that as it was my birthday I'd dress up and wear my heels. Bad idea. Mike took us on what he thought was a short cut to the restaurant, but the road had loads of work going on in it. I sat atop my bike wearing black trousers and a lace top with my big stilettos, pants sticking out the back of my trousers and boobs threatening to burst forth as I bounced over damaged road surfaces and weaved around rubble. Elegance personified. As we came out of the road works and on to the main road, my bike made a strange sound and crunched to halt at the same time as my leg was yanked downward suddenly and I shot towards the handlebars. My trouser hem had got caught in the pedal. I had to laugh as Mike got off his bike to help. We must have looked a real sight; dressed up in our posh clothes on bikes with Mike crouching at my feet and me holding his bike whilst he untangled me.
We arrived at the restaurant relatively unscathed and had a delicious dinner and more champagne whilst chatting about our trip and what we were going to do next. We were both a little tipsy afterwards and hopped on the bikes to return, this time deciding to just head straight uop the main road and avoid the road works. I rolled my trousers up to avoid further entanglement. I looked like an absolute tard, but I didn't care, it was birthday, I'd had a few drinks and I didn't want to ruin my bike or my trousers.
Just before we were safely back on the towpath towards the moorings we had to go down a slope. We'd done this the day before with no problem, but I didn't factor in the 4 inch stillettos and kept one leg fully extended as my bike coasted down the slope. About midway down I heard a crunch as the heel tip hit the concrete and snapped off. I wobbled dangerously close to the canal before slamming my feet down and stopping the bike, chipping the other heel in the process. Mike checked I was alright then laughed at my misfortune (obviously). I joined him. My favourite shoes now needed re-heeling, but, sod it, I'd had a wicked birthday.

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