I'm going to show my lack of education now, up to last week I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say that I had never heard of the word cloying. It was brought to my attention by my american friend, don't laugh! You might be asking yourselves how come an american is teaching me the finer points of the English language when they can't even spell properly! Look how they spell "color"! Well, I am sure you are all better educated than I am, and know that roughly translated it describes the over indulgence of mostly sweet things till they become sickly and unpleasant i.e. too much of a good thing!

Having never come across the word before I like to put my own translation to it and say that it just describes the aftermath of indulgence and excess which brings me to our week with Virgil and Debbie.

They arrived at Nice airport with an agenda, Virgil in his 75th year had brought his bucket list with him and was out to tick boxes. The week past like a tornado, the chief guide of the Cote D'Azure was hard pressed to keep up with the insatiable demand for more.

It was difficult to say what was best, spending a day in the Casino at Monte Carlo, dropping a few chips at the tables and eating and drinking like royalty in their restaurant or becoming almost intoxicated with the views whilst driving along a deserted narrow road cut into the side of a mountain in the Italian Alps or maybe it was the picnic on the island of St. Marguerite cloying on fois gras and expensive wines while having the island and the whole Mediterranean view to ourselves.

Alas all good things must come to an end and the following Saturday saw Virgil and Debbie boarding a plane.

I took the motorway back to Cannes...............f@?ked or should I say cloyed!