I gather all us West Country lot (boy do I feel smug saying that) have done fires tonight!

Well, here’s mine. It’s the beacon on East Looe headland and it was lit at 7.15pm, like 1,000 others along the coast tonight. The Queen got to go a bit earlier when she lit the first one in Portsmouth at 6.45pm and the rest of us serfs got to go half an hour later.

DM and I made our way to Looe as an antidote to doing the laundry at the laundrette, after a heated debate two weeks ago about only doing horrible things like going to the laundrette then going home. This week, I was determined to make an event of it and the battle of Trafalgar’s 200th anniversary presented itself without so much as an ounce of effort on my behalf – all I had to do was verify it was happening in Looe and as the website info on all sites about the event itself was shockingly poor, I eventually got confirmation on Caradon Council’s site.

It said ‘East Looe’ so that was where we went. But it was actually on the headland rather than in the town so we puffed our way up a steep concrete cliff-side staircase and then the coast path to the place of the beacon. It was OK but light was fading fast.

The pic is of the beacon in full flame, symbolic of the 200th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar, where we finally destroyed the French fleet and prevented Napoleon from invading our fair shores. Poor old Nelson bit the bullet though and lost his life in the battle.

We then had the challenge of going down the path in pitch dark and with no torch....stupid us!

Apparently one of the towns in Devon (Totnes) decided that they were too worried about offending their French twin town so they banned the celebrations. My word, I wonder how many towns in the USA worry about offending the Europeans on Independence Day – none, I’ll wager. So, it’s an unashamed celebration of beating off the French, even though they are now our friends and not foes at all.

I must say, I’m glad of my French friendships and let’s face it, there is no fairer city than Paris (equal of course with London, but not better). Hurrah for the celebrations and Vive La France.

Two years ago, we saw Alan and Dee's home for the first time - and it's got even better since then! Last year I had my knickers in a twist about MPs and their wanton waste of public money.