Conversation was indeed about American politics (subset: why is Tony Blair such a poodle?) and the French elections. The lunch menu was slices of roast dragon. Dragon-meat's rather piquant tang was nicely offset, in this recipe, by a nouvelle cuisine peach and lychee stuffing. However, dragon tends to be a bit on the dry side, we found. Lupin suggested it should be treated like duck and force-fed to fatten it, but persuading young maidens to get into the funnel appeared problematical, and anyway no one wanted to get their fingers burned trying it out.

Next time the menu will be..? Suggestions welcome.

During the afternoon, Helen and I pursued historical and cultural investigations in the ancient town of Carcassonne (whose Car is Celtic and means fortified place, as in Cardiff or Carlisle). Facing a howling North-West wind and icy showers (we are plucky Brits after all :-)), we fought our way on till we found the Gaulish remains of the bar Chez Félix (a cousin of Obélix, natch). There Helen showed remarkable archeological prowess is identifying the origin of the hops in Kronenbourg 1664 Printemps : hop-gardens (whose name I've forgotten) in Oregon. Astounding. I've never seen a wine-snob do that well identifying vine-type and vineyard. Of course, our interest was entirely academic, since the beer was from 1664. Post-Gaulish, but a significant object of study all the same.

Then this train (seen here leaving Carcassonne station) took me home.

This is the same kind as Melanchthon showed here. Just to show that the Midi-Pyrénées region has these Bombardiers too. The Languedoc-Roussillon region ones in Carcassonne station were red. Unless my keen archeological sight was blunted by then.

I'd hope bruno-ken will post a report of the parallel event in Tokyo, too.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}