It is hard for anyone to have escaped this weekend is the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of our Queen Elizabeth II, with pageants and parties spread over four days. I am writing this on Monday following a very wet Sunday for the Flotilla Pageant along the Thames. I met up with hoards of damp and cold public, who had lined the banks of the Thames, as they boarded the train at London Bridge railway station. Late Sunday afternoon was clearly not a good time to be on a train from London.
No, I had not been to London to see the Queen, I was coming back from St Pancras International, following a journey via Eurostar.
Where had I been?
I spent my weekend in France, where along with my cousin and a number of ex-pat English we had our own Jubilee Celebrations on Saturday evening. We were lucky with the weather, it was a beautiful day and the evening was slightly humid and sultry before breaking overnight with heavy rain.
As we decorated the outside of the house with flags the French locals, who passed by during the day, all stopped to wish us a happy time.
The lovely elderly lady, who owned the house next door, was just as excited as we were about the Jubilee and kindly offered us the use of her garden. She told us to help ourselves to any of the flowers from the garden for table decorations and she gave us some Spirea, with its fabulous heady sweet perfume. The red roses were ideal but there were no blue flowers so we used the regal purple Clematis to make our patriotic floral displays. 
Using the Union Jack flag as a table cloth we laid the table, and threw blue and red streamers through the trees.
Continuing with the Jubilee theme, my Cousin planned a completely English buffet supper, which consisted of salmon and cucumber and egg mayonnaise sandwiches, mini pork pies (my contribution purchased from M&S) , sausage rolls, and cheese with olives and pineapple on sticks. A friend made a delicious trifle which we finished off with fruit in Union Jack design. What else do you need to finish off an English evening? Pimms of course!!
We had a wonderful, happy evening and drank to the health of our Queen.
Have you attended or held or about to attend or hold a Jubilee Party? Please share your story and photos, especially if you are not living in England.
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Beautiful photos Ronnie! It was a lovely celebration in the sunshine. We are continuing today as the two Brits have decorated the office with bunting, flags and balloons and we are having a party later with Pimms and Union Jack cake. I’ll send you some pics. Enjoy your Jubilee days off!
Thanks Ronnie – I love the photos and your account of our Jubilee party. I can’t believe that’s where I live!! Thank so much for helping to make this a right royal occasion! Did you see there’s even a red white and blue garden chair! Love Katie
ps – your blogging and other social media experiences are giving me ideas … watch this space!
Nice photos of nice food – specially the trifle!
Hi! The trifle tasted as good as it looked – full of sherry… of course!!
Katie and Diane – we did have a lovely time didn’t we! Great hostess, great food, great garden and great people. See you all again before too long
Captures the mood beautifully – looks like your weather was far better than for the actual occasion over here. My youngest was on the bank of the Thames for the flotilla yesterday, in the rain – outside the National Theatre. Said the atmosphere was incredible, even if the view 5 rows back from the river bank wasn’t the best! It had taken her five attempts to get on a train from Putney into central London as each train that drew into the station was packed to capacity – but she was determined not to let her friend down, who was already at their agreed rendezvous. She even managed to capture a distant shot of the Queen going by on her boat. It was a real effort to get to the river and the weather was not the most favourable, but she says she is so glad she went – it was a once in a lifetime experience and beautiful though the coverage in the media has been nothing had prepared her for the physical and emotional experience of being there and seeing it for herself. It stunned her to hear first hand the conversations around her and feel the genuine warmth the crowd felt towards the Queen – nearly everyone seemed astonished by the sheer numbers who had turned out, despite the weather. Definitely something to relate to the generations to come.
How lovely, and it looks alot sunnier than in the UK! I like the Union jack tablecloth.