I got back on Sunday from our week in South Africa feeling transformed from my previous post-pneumonia self. What greeted us was a pile of mail made up chiefly of the New Year cards the French specialise in.
Almost all of them were from French wine producers, not surprisingly, including a bulging envelope from the Michel and Dany Rolland stable that contained multiple moody photographic portraits of members of their team.
Before we left on 16 January I had already received a number of cards that were the size of a small newspaper but the package that won the knockout...