Our last week in the Charente had arrived and we greeted it
with mixed feelings. We love the house and the location, and have enjoyed the
short forays we have made into the surrounding countryside. We have met some
lovely people, both English and French speaking, who we would definitely like
to keep in touch with and visit again sometime in the future. On the other
hand, we found that looking after the pets, lovable as they are, proved to be
quite restrictive and prevented us from making any long, all-day trips to
places further away. And quite often, when we did have a good day for sight-seeing, it was a also a good day for
mowing the grass. So, there have been pro’s and con’s.
We had deliberately kept the week free of any engagements as
we realised that there would be a certain amount of ‘time juggling’ taking
place. With the uncertain weather it would be quite a challenge to leave the
house spick and span, with all the bed linen washed and ready for ironing, as
well as managing to have most of our meagre wardrobe also clean enough to move
on. After all, one can hardly arrive at a friend’s house and ask to do a load
of washing immediately. And as the week shortened, the juggling got more
frenzied.
Not wanting to leave without saying some goodbyes to the
more special of our new friends, we invited one couple over for a drink and
snacks and then realised there was nothing resembling a snack in the house, so
off we went to the supermarket intending to rush straight back, but then we
began to wonder why we were in such a hurry. We took ourselves off to a coffee
shop for a cuppa and there met another new friend. We began talking and she
more she spoke the more we found we had in common. Eventually she apologised
for having to leave, but said that she had just taken on a new ‘rescue’ dog and
didn’t want to leave it alone for too long. But please would we come and have a
drink with her at her house the following evening. When we got home, I Googled
her village, and was a bit horrified to discover that Google has never heard of
it. She had drawn us a detailed map, however, and we wondered what we would
find when we got there. We needn’t have worried – there is in actual fact, a
decent-sized village and her house is a dream cottage. I am so glad we met her
as otherwise we would never have found this little place.
Friday was D-Day for the roadworthiness re-test and Neels
went off in good time and some trepidation to discover the results. We really
needn’t have worried. As the mechanic who did the repairs to the car was also
the roadworthy inspector, he could hardly fail it again. To give him his due
though, he did show Neels the underside of the car and just what he had done
which all looked good. It is such a good feeling to have that little sticker on
the windscreen again!
Although I was longing to start sorting through our clothes
and to begin packing, we didn’t dare to do so in case we frightened the cat and
it disappeared. It has been known to happen to other people. So for most of
Friday we sat around reading and sewing trying to appear as if we were here for
the next two years and nothing was out of the ordinary. I think we succeeded as
the cat was still with us on Saturday until we put him into his travelling
basket and put them both in the car. The fact that he muttered all the way to
the kennels didn’t really bother us, and the lady who runs the kennels
obviously knows them both so we feel sad to say goodbye, but happy to know that
they are in good hands.
We leave the Charente on Sunday 11th May and may
be out of touch for three weeks as there is no internet where we are going. If
we get lucky and find a WifI point, there will be another chapter of the blog
next week.
Our trip south was long, fairly slow but uneventful. Slow,
out of consideration for the old lady – the car, not me! It was interesting to
notice the architecture changing as we
progressed, as well as the farming styles. We started with crops and a few
cattle in the north, then more cattle and sheep in the central areas and
finally goats and vineyards as we approached the south. Travelling on a Sunday
was good idea after all, as there were no heavy trucks on the roads – they are
forbidden to drive on Sundays We were delighted to come across one of our
favourite tree-lined avenues somewhere down the road, and felt as if we were ‘coming
home’.
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