The day we arrived was simply stunning! Warm without being hot, still and very clear. Being the beginning of Spring means that all the wild flowers are out and we were dazzled by the array of colours. There are a lot more blue wild flowers here than we have at home, which is interesting, and then of course there are masses of red poppies, yellow daisies and all sorts of white flowers. To top it all off, when we arrived at the house we could hear a cuckoo calling in the woods below the house, sounding like a Swiss clock endlessly chiming.
The view from our bedroom is wonderful and looks more or less south to the Pyrenees, which we caught a glimpse of yesterday. Apparently, one doesn't really want to be able to see them as that usually indicates rain in the near future.
Having had a 5 am start on Monday and practically no sleep that night, we were fairly bushed when we arrived. so it was a really early night for us (8pm) and a straight 10 ours sleep before we were properly compus mentis again. Yesterday was spent sorting out our vehicle which is too cute for words. It is, I think, probably called gold, but is closer to 'dirty nappy' colour; two door; and with a couple of dings here and there which makes us feel very at home as it appears to be a requirement in this part of the world! But we are now all legal and insured and can drive around quite safely - or as safely as we can with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car! Neels really has to keep his wits about him.
Nicky didn't really give us much time to get over the effects of the long flight, and we were exhausted again last night, but it was probably better to get all those arrangements done at once and Thursday was a day at home for us. We went to examine the veggie garden and found a superb crop of blackjacks, which Neels started attacking with vigour and found that the ground is like concrete. In amongst them though, we found some little red potatoes; some broad beans, onions and some very strangely shaped carrots, so we had food for that night. Yay!!
On Friday, Nicky phoned to tell us that a friend of hers had offered us a microwave, and that she would be bringing it over later that afternoon. This was wonderful news as I have got so used to living with one that I can’t imagine life without it. To celebrate the event, I decided to bake some biscuits!! I thought would make some custard powder biscuits which are so easy and my favourites, but soon discovered that there was no custard powder in the house. (I wonder if the French even know about custard powder – they probably only make it the proper way with eggs etc) Never mind, I thought, there is Maizena, so I will make melting moments instead. No butter, but we had margarine and no baking powder so I left it out. Flour and icing sugar I found in the pantry. The mixture wasn’t quite as I expected it to be and certainly didn’t resemble the usual dough, so I put blobs of it on to what I hoped was a baking sheet. Then into the oven on 190 degrees. Ha ha! Ten minutes later they were still the same colour and getting sort of dry on the top, so we turned the oven to the next setting, which is supposed to be 220 degrees, and baked them for another 10 minutes. This time they came beautifully golden. Hoping they would be edible, I stuck the little biscuits together with a bit if butter icing and arranged them on a pretty plate. When our guest arrived, the success of the venture was obvious as she quickly disposed of at least three cookies and licked the crumbs off the plate!! I don’t think I could make them again, if I tried, as there are few measuring spoons or cups, the oven settings are diabolical and I can’t quite make out why they came out well. Just a lucky chance.
Later that night, at 8.30 in fact, we received a phone call from a gentleman from the motor registration department to tell us that we had omitted a document in the bundle of papers that we had sent off to his office on Thursday. We were amazed! Firstly that the letter had already reached its destination; secondly that it was already being attended to; then thirdly that he was still at work at 8.30 at night.
On Saturday we awoke to the sound of rain gurgling in the gutters and down-pipes, grey skies and a decided nip in the air. The forecast ‘weather’ had arrived. Good for the farmers; bad for the visitors. It was also a Public Holiday, for which the whole country closed down, so there was little point in going anywhere except over to Nicky to print out the form which we needed (from the Internet) and get her help in completing it in readiness for faxing it off on Monday morning. How we would have coped without Nicky’s help, I just don’t know. She has been a real star.
Today, Sunday, brought a new confrontation. This time with the washing machine. Once again, if one just knew what all the little symbols stood for, it would be really simple to operate – as the home-owners said it is – but without no manuals, we are doing everything by guesswork which is always the longest way to solve any problems. It doesn’t really matter as it is again grey and drizzly, and not a good drying day for laundry, so it can take as long as it likes – this time!.
We haven’t yet met any of our neighbours. In fact we have hardly seen anyone since we arrived. It is almost like living in a ghost town. But once this holiday weekend is over we intend to march over to the two houses we know are occupied and introduce ourselves. In our very best French!
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