It really is quite hard to believe that in two weeks today we will be climbing aboard a plane for the long trek home again. The six months that we have had here have just flown and we have enjoyed every minute, even the times when we nearly froze with cold and the other times when we were so hot that we thought we would explode. Living, as we have been, in the heart of rural France has been en experience that we have long dreamt of and I’m glad to be able to say that it has fulfilled all our expectations. Apart from being here ourselves, we have also been able to have visitors to stay and to introduce them to some of the gems of the area. The latest of these visitors was my sister and her husband from England, whose visit was real bonus. They are busy with renovations to their house and the trip was very much an ‘on-again-off-again’ item. When finally they found a gap in their occupations and said they were coming, I was over the moon. We fetched them on Sunday night in the pouring rain which continued in a drizzly manner most of the next day. Not a good start for us to show them how beautiful this part of France is. Rain and mist they have plenty of at home! It did give us time to talk though, and to each show the latest batch of holiday photographs. The weather did clear later in the week and I think they enjoyed all that we managed to show them. All too soon it was Friday and time for them to leave again. A real flying visit, but so much enjoyed and appreciated.
By Saturday the weather had become very, very cold and the breeze had a damp, icy nip to it.A load of washing hung out in the morning hadn’t dried by early afternoon and we had to bring it indoors and drape it over drying racks. We had been invited to go and pick grapes again at a neighbouring farm, but we both chickened out. We do not need to get ill at the moment and I am sure we would have both developed colds if we had gone out in that weather, especially in our inadequate clothing. South African winter clothing is not really sufficient to cope with the European winter.
Sunday’s weather forecast had been for a sunny day so we were rather disappointed to awake to grey mist. Happily though, it soon cleared and the promised sun began to shine. It was the day of the Goose Fair at Riguepeu and we had booked to have a meal there. Not that we were in the market for a goose, of course. We were more intrigued to find out what went on there. The town is so small that we couldn’t imagine a fair of any great size taking place there. How wrong could we be?! By the time we arrived, all the parking places in and around the centre of the village had long since been snapped up and we ended up parking a little way off in a field. We walked back into the village and found it to be fairly buzzing with people. I imagine the fair started out as a trading fair but nowadays it is an opportunity for stall-holders of all kinds to display and sell their wares. To be fair, there were some geese for sale, quite a lot in fact, but there was plenty more to see and buy too.
At 12.30 everyone started queuing up for the pre-booked meal and in a relatively short time six hundred meals had been served out and everyone was seated at long tables in a huge shed, enjoying their food and wine. Suddenly a group of men and women sitting at one of the tables broke into song. It transpired that we had a choir among the assembled masses and they entertained us for some time with songs, some of which required us all to stand up, sit down, clap hands or wave a handkerchief in the air. It was all very jolly and I’m sure went on long after we had left. Another experience of village life to add to all our other wonderful experiences.
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