Our first full week in France started with our usual trip to
the Prefecture in Auch to renew our resident’s permits. The car almost drives
itself there as the route is so well known and without hesitation, we sailed
down the little alleyway next to the Cathedral to the big free parking area
where we always get parking. Oh dear!
It all looked very full but after crawling around it for a while we decided to
try parking up against some railings in the centre of the area. As we were
wiggling back and forth in an effort to get as close as possible to the railings,
a gentleman came up to the car and said to us, “I really wouldn’t park there if
I was you. The police come along every now and again and tow away any cars parked
against these railings”. Then he looked around and mentally measured up our car
before suggesting that he help us park in a really tight, but legal, space.
After seeing us safely into the parking space, he chatted for a while – most of
which we couldn’t understand – and then went off. We were totally amazed! After
all, can you imagine a stranger in Cape Town doing that for a Cape Town registered
vehicle? Possible, but unlikely.
By now we know the
renewal procedure well and all went very smoothly although we had to wait for
quite a long time for the queue ahead of us to clear – the first time this has
happened. Most of the other applicants appeared to be Eastern Europeans or
North Africans which we found a little unsettling but only because we feel
somewhat protective about France and feel that it should belong only to the
current inhabitants………and ourselves, of course.
With one thing and another, we managed to get home in time for
lunch which we ate sitting in the sun on the patio, so Neels decided to give
the car a good vacuuming that afternoon. The couple who care for the car while
we are not in France had told us of a severe ‘mouse plague’ that they were
experiencing, adding that they had liberally scattered mouse bait sachets around
the engine compartment of the car. In fact when we drove away from their house
the Thursday before, a mouse had leapt onto the ground as the car started
moving, and disappeared into the garden.
So having cleaned the interior, he turned his attention to
the engine compartment especially the air intake ducts for the heater and fan.
He was rewarded with a rush of loose material rattling up the vacuum cleaner
hose, which could only have been mouse nests. At that moment a tiny shrew poked
it’s nose out of the other end of the duct, but ducked back in when it saw movement.
Neels rushed to the other side of the car and poked the vacuum cleaner in that
side where he got another satisfying rattle of grass and twigs but no shrew.
After much poking and prodding we decided that the creature had escaped and
that the ducts were clear. Talking about it later, we realised that the little
rodent had travelled with us for about 300 kilometres without falling on to the
road!
On Wednesday our ‘car carers’ came to have lunch with us and
spent a lovely afternoon chatting and generally catching up. A very relaxed
day.
On Thursday the weather changed and there was no more
thought of lunching on the patio. We spent most of the day tidying up the house
and gathering our bits and pieces ready to pack up and leave the next day. By
Friday it was raining fairly consistently and packing the car was not fun. The
inside of the car got fairly muddy again, too. We set off at about ten, with the GPS telling us that we had about 380 kilometres
to go to get to our next destination. We did part of the trip on secondary
roads, but it was really slow going so we crossed over to the motorway and
whizzed north. An enormous black cloud seemed to be constantly ahead of us or
over us and during the trip, dropped three hail storms on us. Very small hailstones
which were soft enough to splat on the windscreen, but enough of them to lie on
the road looking like snow – an amazing sight. We were warmly welcomed at our
new house, and were introduced to the big black Labrador, Duke, and the Burmese
cat, Sam who will be in our care for the next two months.
Over the past two days our host, Chris, has taken us back
and forth, up and down, and in and out of various little villages in the area,
giving us a taste of what there is to see and do; where the supermarkets are;
and where to eat when we want to eat out. A crash course on the Charente! He
will be flying out to South Africa on Tuesday so is trying to give us as much
information as he can before leaving. I hope we can remember at least half of
it. He has also introduced us to a few people who live nearby whom we can refer
to if we get into any sort of a jam. He has taken so much trouble over making
us feel at home that we have simply no reason to not feel comfortable here, and I am sure we are going to enjoy
every minute of it.
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