A coquettish vision of loveliness .

High summer has arrived in our little patch of paradise. As the sun sets we sit in the garden with a birthday glass of champagne , a bowl of caviar , and buckwheat blinis fresh from the stove . As company the sounds of France profonde . A nocturne of rasping frogs , contented cattle, chirruping cicadas , a gently snoring PON , and the German billionaires paragliding above us . Our wealthy neighbours have taken to leaping of their battlements in their motorised parachutes . Three circumnavigations of the village and they land , one after the other , in the car park . Father billionaire , mother billionaire and two teenage billionaires in perfect line astern formation .

Difficult to get the words diaphonous, coquettish and gossamer in one sentence . Not , however, if you have Madame Bay as a housekeeper. She arrives this morning in her summer outfit. White stretch pants, white linen coat , white sandals ( with , I notice , little , faux , purple diamonds as decoration ) and a mass of white chiffon cascading around her neck . " You look like an angel " I say , quite truthfully . Madame Bay takes this as a huge compliment and Ongoose receives not two , but three , passionate kisses . General de Gaulle , who is still working on the shutters, stops, brush-mid air , as this coquettish, gossamer winged, diaphonous vision of loveliness brings him out a cup of coffee . Wilf is given a jaffa cake. The family fellows view of all this early morning activity ? " Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves " .