This was Mick’s and my fourth Christmas away from home.

We have spent two Christmases in Fenouillet (France), in 2016 and 2018, and this was our second in the UK. This time it was in the beautiful city of Bristol – and the sun was shining for the whole day. A rarity for Bristol at this time of the year. So, we did not get a White Christmas.

It was a bit sad as we missed our children and our grandchildren, but we decided to make the most of it.

After chatting with family and friends on FaceTime and Skype in the morning, we headed to the pub we had voted “The Best” from our pub crawl with our son and his girlfriend – The Marchant’s Arms.

It was open for two hour: 12.00-2.00pm.

Mick was welcomed like a local. We loved that the owners had gone to so much trouble to dress formally for the occasion.

The owners wanted to be in a group photo with Mick, but as you can see, Mick was not too keen to take his eyes off his ale.

Lots of locals were there – Mick and I could tell by the way they shouted each other a pint.  The fire was raging and we found a good spot for a selfie.

I decided to drink a lager, but Mick stuck to the ale.

After a few shouts and a few more photos, we headed home for a late lunch.

But it was much easier going TO the pub than coming home, which was all up hill.

We nibbled on some delicious cheese we had been given for Christmas, accompanied by some (ordinary/cheap) Australian Chardonnay that Mick needed for the fish dish!!

After almost an hour, this was followed by a whole baked salmon for our (late) lunch.

There was no way we could eat all of that – but it was delicious and we have lots left over for the next few days.

Happy Christmas.