We trotted off to our appointment with the estate agent on
Monday afternoon, taking our hosts with us as back up. They had not seen the
house or the village before so we were hoping, sort of, that they would find
the radical fault that would allow us to withdraw gracefully. They, however,
fell in love with the place immediately and started pointing out all manner of
benefits to us holidaying there. (Perhaps they want to get rid of us!) We
promised to confer with the family before committing ourselves in any way, but
two things were certain – we are totally in love with the house and the
village; and it is way out of our budget, unless by a miracle we win the
lottery. And it would have to be the French lottery as the jackpot from the South
African one would barely cover the price. The end is result is that most of you
will be seeing us again when we return home!!
Back home again, and while we mulled over all the pro’s and
con’s, but always coming to the same conclusion, the two men got busy doing
‘boy’ things in the workshop. This is a large area also built under the front
of the house, behind our gite, and reminds me very much of my father’s workshop
in Durban. Our house there was built on quite a steep slope and the front
section had been built up to reach normal floor level. The space thus created
made an ideal space for a ‘get-out-of-the-wifes-way’ glory hole and Dad spent
many happy hours there fixing broken household items or just tinkering with
things. This particular workshop is very orderly with everything in its place
and mostly clean and swept, so it is a pleasure to work in there. Earlier last
week someone knocked the wing mirror off our hosts car, but all the bits were
carefully collected so Tuesday was spent trying to put it all together again.
It was a beautiful day and quite still, so we took all our lunch bits and
pieces and ate out on the terrace. Very French!
On Thursday we persuaded our French-speaking hostess to
phone the Prefecture in Auch for us again to ask how much longer it was going
to take before we heard anything about our residency permits, as it is now less
than a month to our return date. Imagine our shock when she said that it was
unlikely to be before the end of May and could even be in June, which is why she
had issued us with temporary permits to the end of June. Now what?! Talk about
throwing the cat amongst the pigeons………..we were in a complete flap! All sorts
of thoughts rushed into my mind – we would have to change our return flights
and the hire car booking (easy enough); we would run out of our chronic
medicines long before the new return date (something could probably be
managed); would we be able to stay on in our present accommodation or have they
other bookings (have to find out about that) and so on and so. After Neels had
calmed me down and pointed out that it was also possible that we would get our new cards in time, I began
to think a bit more rationally but that didn’t last long as I realised that I
only have winter clothing with me which is already a bit heavy for some of the
days we have had. Oh dear! Always something to worry about!!
Friday and Sunday were both fairly cold and wet but we took
ourselves out for a drive on Friday just to give ourselves something else to
think about. Strangely, the further north we went, the better the weather
became, although it was never warm and sunny. Coming back was the reverse and
by the time we arrived back at our gite, it was sheeting down with small pieces
of hail mixed in with the raindrops. On the day in between, there was much
labour going on in the garden, putting up new supports for the portico over the
front door. Drilling holes for anchor bolts into solid stone is hard work and I
think both men were glad there were two of them to do it. The work is coming along well and I am hoping to be
able to send a photograph of the finished project complete with wisteria
growing over the top and tumbling down over the edge. The workmen will have to
get a move on though or the wisteria will beat them to it. Actually, I went out
to have a look at it a few minutes ago and I see that the wisteria has already
beaten them to it!
We obviously have some sort of attraction for cats as there
is a little pure white cat that really lives two doors away, which visits every
day. As in the case of our ‘part-time’ cat at home, we suspect that she is
lonely when everyone goes off to work and to school. She doesn’t really visit
us, but rather our host whom she adores. She is not allowed into the house or
the gite but may go into the workshop where she will climb up onto tables until
she can reach his shoulder where she will perch quite happily until she is
pushed off again. She is little more than a kitten and hasn’t yet outgrown the
playful phase, so spends endless hours entertaining us with her mad dashes
around the garden. We were less impressed when she brought home a baby rabbit
she had caught and killed, which she then proceeded to crunch up in the utility
room next to the workshop. Nasty little beastie!
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