I know, I know... we haven't blogged anything for a long time. Sorry, but. Happy New Year anyway, and all that.

See, like yourselves, we've taken some time out over the past few weeks to relax, visit friends and family, drink and eat too much, and generally dispose of all of last year's resolutions in bulk. We also haven't been sailing in the boat anywhwhere, and so haven't had the ammunition or felt the impulse to blog.

That's not to say we haven't been doing anything interesting, we have, but it's not boat-related or France-oriented. For example, we have bought into a hotel development in central Liverpool. Oh but wait, that IS boat-related, because the building in question is the old headquarters of the White Star Line shipping company, the one that owned the Titanic, er, briefly.

Anyway, long story short is that the building in question has been bought by a developer who in the past couple of years has successfully tranformed another of Liverpool's old buildings into a trendy hotel, one which now consistently gets four and five stars on Trip Advisor (It's the Signature in Liverpool if you want to look it up). Now he and his wife have bought the old Titanic building and plan to turn it into an upmarket Titanic-themed hotel, with the first three floors open by April and the remainder within a year. Ambitious? Sure, but he took only four months to turn the Signature from hovel into hotel, so we are hoping he can do it again. At any rate, the work has already started; in ship-building terms, the keel has been laid.

The building certainly has history on its side; one story goes that after the Titanic sinking, the White Star Line's board was too afraid to meet the crowds mingling below, so stood in safety on a balcony and read the list of the dead from there. You can see the balconies in the picture... along with the architectural merit of the building itself, which has been described (nicely we think) as a "streaky bacon" design of brick and Portland stone.

The hotel is within sight of the River Mersey, is out of range of icebergs (hopefully), and has the nod from Champagne house Veuve Clicquot as being willing to be the principal name associated with the restaurant. The developer has plans to recreate the famed Titanic staircase inside, and to pay homage to the "unsinkable" liner in a thoughtful not tacky way. We hope so.

Meanwhile, we are now back on board Liberty, which survived our month's absence intact, afloat and undisturbed by icebergs or anything else. We were lucky to have the security services of Jim, one of Beaucaire's many boatie residents, who walks his dog Bella around the marina every day, and who obligingly kept an eye on Liberty while we were away.

And, despite being winter, Beaucaire seems to have enjoyed mild weather, and still is. Two days ago it was sunny and reached 22 degrees (according to the pharmacy sign), which saw Liz and I out on the aft deck having lunch. We paid for that with two or three subsequent days of rain, but not as badly as the south-east where houses and roads near Monaco found themselves deluged and in some cases undermined. Poor rich things.

We've been told that January and February are the worst winter months in Beaucaire, so we aren't gettimg complacent, but we're certainly keeping our fingers crossed that winter continues to be mild, in the hope that come the first week of March we can begin cruising again, and set off along the Canal du Midi heading ultimately for Bordeaux.

By the time we reach there our Titanic Hotel should be open for at least limited business and have started returning something. God bless her, and all who invest in her!