how to keep a minx

There was a surprise waiting for me when I returned from my visit to the UK on Thursday evening. At first I thought I had been burgled as two doors that I always keep closed had been left open. But then I realised that my ‘burglar’ was of a very unusual kind: he had left two rose plants, one each on either side of the mantelpiece and a very nice bottle of Bordeaux on the kitchen table. He had also hidden chocolates in the mirrored chest of drawers in the bedroom and left A4 size pictures of a recent trip to the coast dotted around the house - presumably, so that I don’t forget what he looks like as I haven’t seen that much of The Man lately.

Our paths keep crossing somewhere under or over the Channel. He drove back to the UK for work assignments on Thursday morning, just as I was heading to Shabsted to fly back to France. He returns here next week just as I take off for Paris. Et voila. But he emails from the UK to say that he is compiling a guide entitled ‘How To Keep A Minx.’ '[The Man hails from a family of Gloucestershire gamekeepers and one of the things I like about him is that he knows a lot about wildlife and game].

'A minx is a fun and gregarious creature though it can be quite scary... ’ he writes. I type back: ‘Rule no 1 of minx-keeping: do not leave a minx at home on its own in France for too long.’