A really busy week for a change. Starting on Monday when we had a whole round of chores to do which involved a certain amount of driving around. By the end of the day, we had found a new battery for Neels’ watch, fixed the leaky pipe at a friend’s house, cut the grass and sprayed the weeds. Then on Tuesday, we were able to go to Auch to fetch our long awaited renewed permits and since we were in the area, we went to visit Nicky and have lunch with her at the house where she was dog-sitting. It turned out to be a beautifully restored farmhouse and barn, near a small town called St Puy. We noticed that most of the houses in that area have been built with a particularly pretty pale stone, and this was no exception. It also has a magnificent garden which, we are sure, is an absolute picture in the summer. Wednesday to Friday were spent packing up both clothes and food, and cleaning the house to within an inch of its life! As most of you are well aware, house work is not my favourite occupation, so this was real hard labour for me. Meanwhile, Flo, the resident cat, was getting ever more twitchy at the sight of suitcases and boxes, but we tried to explain that her real owners would be arriving on Monday and that she would then be going to England with them – complete with international passport! I don’t really think she got the message.
By Saturday, we had enough luggage to justify a six month safari, which all had to be squeezed into poor little Goldie, but, as ever, she proved equal to the task and everything went in without problem. It was a chilly, foggy day when we set off at a rather slow pace to begin our 230 kilometer journey northwards. For the first half hour, we felt as if our eyes were out on stalks as we both strained to see through the fog which at times appeared to get thicker and then a few minutes later seemed to thin out a bit, and then quite suddenly, it was gone and we were spinning along under a completely cloudless blue sky. We had decided to travel via the toll road as it was the quickest, if not the most scenic route, mainly because we knew that there was to be more travelling later in the day. Quick it certainly was, and a little over three hours later, faithful ‘Jane’ of the Tom-Tom navigator told us that we had ‘reached our destination’. All we needed next was the actual address of the place we were going to stay, but try as we might we could not find the right piece of paper. Eventually, feeling a complete fool, I rang the house number to ask for directions. No answer. So I tried the mobile number. No answer. So we drove around town a little until we found a parking area with some trees where we stopped, had a drink of water and a biscuit, and called again. No answer. By now it was after the magic hour of midday, so all the shops had closed for lunch – or possibly for the day as it was a Saturday, but as we drove back into town we saw a florist shop still open and I dashed in there and asked if they had a telephone book. They had, of course, so could look up the address of our hosts and ask for directions to the street. As it turned out, it was right across the road from where we were standing. At least the entrance to their lane was, the house was a little further from the main road. The reason our calls had not been answered was immediately obvious as both Mr and Mrs were busy in their garden. They had been badly affected by the extreme cold at the end of January and beginning of February and almost the whole garden had succumbed. They were just about finished removing the remains of what had been a three foot high hedge. What a disaster!
Our new abode is delightful, and very convenient to town. Unfortunately it is very definitely a one-bedroomed apartment, so when we got a call from son Pieter to ask if they could visit us for a few days, there was a mad scramble to find some accommodation for the two of them. Luckily we found a B&B in the town a few minutes’ walk from us, so after a quick lunch, Neels and I walked down there to see if there was a room for two. The owner is a charming lady with two young children, and quite easily and quickly we had arranged accommodation for the next three nights. We said that we wouldn’t be back until fairly late, and she said that she would be out with the children at a school function, but that we could have the front door key in case we got back first. What a wonderful place rural France is!! Having just told us that the whole family would not be home that evening, she then gave the key to total strangers! As it turned out, our French was not really as good as we had thought it was, because when we returned later, from our repeat run down and up the motorway, and dropped off Pieter and Jessica, there was no-one there, but when they returned a few minutes later, having been shown the way to our abode, the lady of the house had returned and was quite surprised to see them as she had thought that it was the two of us who would be staying there. And then they discovered that she could speak English, anyway! Ah well……..
That night we sampled the food at a restaurant on the corner of our lane. Mmm! Delicious. We may go back there again. However, we were all very weary and although we had so much catching up to do, sleep was catching up with us and it wasn’t long before we were all in bed.
Sunday was a ‘chill out’ day, at least for half the day. In the afternoon we took a drive out to a town not too far away called Jonzac. We saw several chateaux on the way which have a quite different style of architecture to those further south. Here, the chateaux have wonderful turrets with pointed slate roofs, and are also generally built of light-coloured stone. We walked around the town for a while, but it was not very inspiring and after a time we came home again. We met a man who was out walking his dog, wearing a jacket with a South African flag on it, and so Neels asked him if he was South African. He replied that he wasn’t but had lived for some years in Pretoria working as an aerial photographer, and was married to a South African, but now that he was retired, he had returned to his native France. Phew! We only asked if he was South African!
Just as we were leaving, we saw the most amazing sight - donkeys in pyjamas! I suppose it is a new version of horse blanket but they looked so funny wandering around the field in their stripey PJ's. Just HAD to show you.
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