A rainstruck Beave sings a street sussed serenade

We had a fifth birthday picnic this weekend. This was the perfect excuse to get a bunch of people down by the river to eat and drink in the sunshine, not to mention drag in some random passers-by. I have pilfered some photos from Rafael's website to illustrate the kind of things that went on.

Uh-oh. There's a Timber on stage.

Do not underestimate our pulling power.
The gibberish gameshow scene attracts a passing boat.

Opportunist group of North African dancers borrowing our audience during the interval.

Clara models her new sunglasses. Reactions were mixed.
But wait, who's that style God sitting behind her? Maybe he'll be able to give her some tips.

Sarah the kiwi tries them on. And I'm still not convinced.
"Ah, Beave, I should introduce you. This is Seera."
"Hi Seera."
"Year," says Sarah, "he carls me thett. But my nime's ekcherly Seera."

Festivities continued until about 6ish, by which time Beave and I had made off back over the river, planning to walk up to Place de la République to find an Indian restaurant. This plan lasted until a few hundred metres along Rue de Turenne, when Beave noticed that we were directly under a friend's flat, and the window was open. And did I mention it was beginning to rain quite hard? In a very Dire Straits moment he shouted up to the window. She had two other friends over. Bargain. We elegantly gatecrashed, only to decide that we would go straight out again and reserve tickets for the 9pm showing of The Da Vinci Code at la Bastille. At this point, those of you who are not fans of getting drenched while making pointless round trips in the pouring rain will wish to note that the ticket office at Cinéma La Bastille only opens 10 minutes before your fillum starts.

This all resulted in dinner at chez Marianne, which serves a Jewish take on tapas, and which, as Ruth helpfully pointed out, was recently recommended in the Economist. You're probably best off doing what she and Georgie did, ordering a platter of 10 different items to share between two. With careful umbrella deployment we made our way back to the cinema, and saw ye fillum. Haven't read the book, so I can't comment on how well adapted it is. One thing I would say, however, is that Tom Hanks + Audrey Tautou really doesn't work. But overall it wasn't as bad as I expected, possibly because it's the kind of fillum that critics love to hate (but then, usually I do too. Hmm. Where's my cynicism gone?)

In fact I find it difficult to have strong feelings either way about it. Most of the harsh criticism over the book is that, to put it bluntly, it presents bollocks as fact. Ok, but it's hardly the first book to do that. People who can't tell the difference are probably the same people who don't understand why it's called Da twice. The plot requires a hell of a lot of suspension of disbelief, but again, that's not abnormal in the world of fiction. And I enjoyed the twists. I find it difficult to hate The Da Vinci Code, because contrary to popular opinion I don't think it's pretending to be anything it isn't. I just wish they'd hired someone less fundamentally uninspiring to play Robert Langdon, and someone better at acting in English for Sophie Neveu (sorry Audrey, you're great in French, but it all went a bit Emmanuelle Béart In Mission Impossible there).