Not the easiest way to lose weight

I'm making a reasonable effort at following the diet that the good doctor (Dr K - the nutritionist, sorry, Chris) is insisting that I follow, because losing weight is part and parcel of improving my diabetes. We certainly find it easier when there is just Jan and I to satisfy, but today was a bit of a challenge. We are invited for lunch, because it is Jill's (of Jill and Harry fame - keep up) birthday. Needless to say it's bubbly to start, followed by melon and ham, a niçois salad, fruit, and lots of rosé (I must remember that é is alt+0233) which is actually pretty good as far as the food is concerned, but I'm not too sure about the 2 gallons of wine, but hey! The next challenge is Bob and Lynne's soirée. We need to be there at 6.30 pm.
Now before you ask, Bob is not Californian. In my experience Californians typically eat dinner at about 5.30 - 6.00 pm, and then go to bed at 9.00 pm. They then need to get up early, just in time to put the world to rights, after everyone else has messed it up whilst they have been asleep. It's different! It's a regime that would suit me, but Jan is definitely a night owl and likes to go to bed late and sleep later in the morning.
But I digress. We arrive at 6.50 having given a lift to a woman who, it transpires, is going to Ganges to meet friends. I never stop to give lifts and why I made this exception I'll never know. Anyway, she was chattering away in the back and, as usual in these circumstances, I nod, say "oui" with a little knowing chuckle, to everything that is said. Understandably It was quite difficult to concentrate on the road and listen closely to what she was saying. At one point she explained that the reason she had no car was that a friend had crashed it and died in the accident. You got it! Before I had fully translated everything in my head I nodded, said "oui", and chuckled. Oops!
Dinner at B&L's is, as usual, superb. Prawns to start, not piddly little things but big, fill your mouth, monsters from the deep, then baked Sea Bass followed by a delicious almond tart. Bob sent pictures the next day which frankly I didn't realise were being taken but when you look closely at the pictures, you see that I always have my face buried in a plate, oblivious to everything going on around me.

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Just to hark back to the TdF, after the 14th stage, Lance Armstrong is still in the lead. I found this article interesting, because whilst we were watching on Friday, he was so cool and relaxed, considering that he was riding his bike at about 35 mph at the front of the peleton, and that he was playing to the camera whilst all around him were huffing and puffing to keep up. Whatever he's on, I wouldn't mind some of it!