Ooh la la! Ten-year-old Giles Spurling had a New Year's Day shock when he opened a letter from France.

For it was from a man who found a "message-in-a-bottle'' the youngster had thrown off Bermuda in October, 1991.

It had washed up 3,000-odd miles away on the French coast.

"It was a total surprise,'' exclaimed Giles, son of Government MP Richard Spurling.

Frenchman Marcel Saintot stumbled across the bottle last month at Seignosse on France's Landaise coast.

"Twenty six months to make such a voyage, I hope my correspondence will get there a little faster,'' he joked in his letter.

He added: "It was during the course of a stroll along the beach that we discovered this bottle, which was partly covered in shells.

"After having broken it open, and read your message, I made a firm resolution to reply and, if you would like, to correspond with you.

"If you would like this, let me know, but by post this time, it will be much quicker. I wish for you and your family and loved ones, seasonal greetings from France.'' Giles had thrown the bottle while sailing off the east end with his 12-year-old friend Barnaby West.

"I had forgotten about the bottle until the letter arrived,'' he said yesterday.

The St. George's Preparatory School pupil now plans a reply to his new friend.

And his mother Mrs. Jane Spurling said a trip to France was also on the cards.

"If we do go we will definitely visit Mr. Saintot's home,'' she said.

FANTASTIQUE! -- Giles Spurling with the unexpected seasonal greetings from France.