IT'S said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach – as a Crossford couple discovered when they met a Dunfermline cafe more than 50 years ago.

Mike and Frances Rouse set eyes on each other as teenagers at Cafe Giacomo in June 1952 when Mike went in for blackcurrant juice – and that first meeting that has led to 50 years of wedded bliss.

The couple recreated that fateful evening on Saturday – their golden anniversary – with a visit to Giacomo's, even sitting in the same seats!

Mike, now 71, recalled: “I was about 19 and she was about 18. I happened to go in one Saturday evening with my friend.

“We went into the back shop but there was nobody there. We had only been in there a few minutes when these two young ladies came in, one of whom I didn't know – and she was the one who ended up becoming my wife.

“I encouraged my friend to sit next to them and as it is with teenagers it was chat, chat, chat.

“We then went for a run to Aberdour beach. I managed to convince her to come in my car instead of my pal's and managed to set up a date for 8am the following morning.”

Asked why she had agreed to a date, Frances said she and Mike “just hit it off right away”.

She joked: “I think it might have been his sports car at the time! It was an Austin Healey Sprite.”

That date led to their engagement in June 1965, which they celebrated by going to the first showing of 'The Sound of Music' in Edinburgh.

The couple married on March 26 1966 at a registrar's office in London, and went on to have children Michelle and Louise, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Mike, a former production manager for Heil in Dalgety Bay, and Frances, an ex-telephonist and receptionist for Hay & Robertson and James Wilson, lived in Mid Beveridgewell and Cairneyhill, before building their own home at The Nursery in Crossford in 1983.

They marked their milestone anniversary with a soup and sandwich at Giacomo's, then celebrated at the City Hotel with family and friends.

Their secret to a long and happy marriage? Frances said: "Compromise. If you can do that, then you're OK."

Mike added: “Give and take. There's no other secret. We've been very fortunate to have our wonderful family and I couldn't ask for any more.”