Jeremy Clarke Jeremy Clarke

How not to fish

I dangled my luminous plastic maggot over the still turbulent spot hoping that nobody was watching

[Photo: Balakleypb] 
issue 21 May 2022

After two nights at Le Grau-du-Roi (the King’s Pond) and a night spent within the medieval walls of Aigues-Mortes (Stagnant Waters) we drove north-west to our Remainer friend’s castle perched on the bank of the river Lot.

Then duty called her and Catriona returned to Provence and I stayed on for a week to try to recoup a modicum of strength with a daily invalid regime of gentle breaststroke in a swimming pool sheltered by old walls and toddling unsteadily about in the sunny gardens, sometimes putting out my arms for balance like a tightrope walker. Any time I felt like it, I could then mount the 17th-century stone staircase to my town hall-sized bedroom and lie down and fall instantly asleep.

He headed for the nearest shopping centre to buy two lucky goldfish with which to stock his newly filled moat

‘Stay as long as you like!’ said our Remainer friend.

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