Some of us have been back at the movies at cinema Le Familia in Quillan.

It started with Jennie and Ollie heading along for a possible screening of Godzilla yesterday at 6.15. Possible because (1) typographical errors on advertising posters showed a clash with Philomena. There’s only one theatre at Le Familia so they couldn’t be showing both movies at the same time. Luckily for J and O, Godzilla was the one being screened. And (2) would the minimum-four-viewers threshold that I mentioned in an earlier post be met? Yes – audience size of exactly four. They came home two hours later having enjoyed it and recommended it to me. ‘The last screening is at 9.’

‘I’ve got time. I’ll go.’ It’s only two minutes along the road. I got myself ready. At my point of departure Jen said ‘It’s in 3D – take the glasses. And you know it’s in French?’ I hesitated but only for a second and she may not have noticed. By that stage backing out would have caused me loss of face, so off I went for my first big-screen movie in French. Discussing the movie later, I realise I missed some of the details of the plot because of my limited French. But let’s face it: the dialogue does not matter when you watch giant monsters fighting to the death in downtown San Francisco. A skyscraper being swatted aside by a mountain-sized reptile is the same in any language. And Godzilla has a lot of that sort of thing. I loved it.

Coming home at 11pm, the Grand Rue seemed deadly quiet after two hours of Godzilla at full roar. Dark. Empty. The road was very wet – it had been raining. I had a vague sense of danger and glanced behind me. Nothing.

Flash! What was that? Lightning. That was bright – is there thunder coming? Crack-boom! It was like a small earthquake. The streetlights went out. Car alarms screamed into life. I looked up to see whether buildings would tumble down around me or whether a giant reptile was stomping around. No, that was just a movie. This is just a thunder storm. I’m in Quillan. Still, it spooked me and I ran the rest of the way home, arriving just before torrential rain. Somehow it seemed a fitting follow-up to the movie.