As there appears to have been some
distress at the non-re-appearance of the Canny Vanners blog, I have rather
reluctantly, decided to resume it. I have to admit that there is quite a lot to
write about just now, but it may become incredibly boring later on and I may as
well apologise now.
I am writing this on the 20th
February, exactly a month after we landed in France, but it already feels as if
we have been here a long time. In my first letter which was sent to most people
that I thought were interested, and which I will repost here, as a prelude, I
mentioned a number of things that we thought should be in place before the
furniture arrived, and in the first two weeks we managed to achieve quite a
lot. We have had to learn a great many new words in French, to be able to
effectively communicate with tradesmen and bureaucrats alike, which is not
always easy. However, we have had no problems as yet and have found everyone
extremely friendly and helpful.
We now have lights and water, a working
gas stove, a washing machine and a telephone and the Internet. The chimney
sweep is coming on the 24th (required by law) and the heating stove
will be installed on the same day. We have bought our first ‘stere’ of
firewood, which is approximately a cubic metre. When we went to order it from a
young man on a small-holding nearby, he told us that he only had very large
trucks and could only deliver four steres or more. Then he looked at our little
two door mini-Peugeot and asked if that was the only vehicle we had. And then
smiled, sort of pityingly, but didn’t offer to help at all. But he did saw all
our order into half metre lengths and stack it neatly under a tarpaulin at the
end of the timberyard. So far we have done four trips in the little car and
have brought about half our order over to the house. Of course it then had to
be unloaded, carried to the house and stacked neatly. Now that it is done, or
half done, it looks really tidy and we are proud of our effort.
Then on Tuesday of last week Pieter and
Tilly arrived with our new (second-hand) car. It was all a very complicated
arrangement. Tilly saw the car advertised
on a French web site for secondhand goods, similar to Gumtree, and asked
her brother-in-law to go and have a look at it as he lives in Paris about 20
minutes from where the car was. He gave it the ‘all clear’ and then went back
again the following day to negotiate with the owner, managing to get the price
down by €400. They filled in and signed all the relevant papers, then they were
popped into a special ‘fast mail’ envelope and sent to us. This was on Monday
morning. On Wednesday morning the envelope arrived here at our gite; we signed
the bits we had to; went into town and got a bank cheque to enclose with the
papers; put everything back into another ‘fast mail’ envelope and it was
delivered in Paris the next day. On Friday, Tilly’s brother-in-law went back
again and fetched the car and brought it to his own house. The following
Monday, Pieter and Tilly arrived in Paris to spend a night with her family and
on Tuesday they drove down to Ols.
Unfortunately the two nights they spent
with us were probably the most uncomfortable nights they have ever spent
anywhere. The two fold-up beds that we had bought for a few euros for the two,
were not even worth that. Neels tried lying on one and went all the way down to
floor level. So we decided to tie the springs up so that they could not expand,
which made a smidgeon of difference. There was nothing we could do about the
mattresses though which were so ‘flop’ that they were like two layers of
material with nothing between. Putting some of the many blankets that we had
received from the people from whom we bought some bits of furniture last year,
under the mattresses we made up the beds using more of the linen we had been
given. It looked a bit strange when finished as there were double duvets but
only single covers so we stuffed the doubles into the single covers which made
the beds look decidedly lumpy. And in the end our efforts were for nought as
they pulled the mattresses off the beds and put them straight on the floor
which didn’t really improve matters, but at least they didn’t sag. Fortunately
there was an electric heater in the room which helped a bit, but it turned out
to be the coldest night of the year so far at -6 degrees, and the floors are as
yet uncarpeted! Future visitors will be infinitely better treated.
Tilly only had the one full day with
us, so we spent it sight-seeing. A little further north and across the River
Lot is Figeac and she had read somewhere that it has a giant replica of the
Rosetta stone because the eventual decipherer of the stone was a Frenchman,
Jean Francois Compollion, who was born in Figeac. It was a bitterly cold day
with an icy breeze but the skies were clear, and the car’s heater worked well,
so we were quite happy until we had to get out of the car. We had found our way
into the centre of the old city and found parking, but then we had to get out
and walk through the narrow little streets with three storey buildings on both
sides, and my goodness, did the wind whistle through there! However, we found
our way to the museum which of course, because it was after twelve noon, was
shut, but around the corner in an open area we found the replica stone with its
three types of script. The original stone was only about a metre high, but this
which has been laid out as a flat plaque must be the large print edition as it
is about five metres from top to bottom. Very interesting though, but it was
far too cold to really appreciate. So instead we went to look for a cheap and
cheerful café for some warm comfort food. The drive there and back was very
scenic and it is on our list to visit again, perhaps in Spring or Summer.
After lunch we rushed back to
Villfranche to get there before the Prefecture closed so that we could get the
new car all legal while Tilly and her fluent French was still here to help us.
I have to admit that things go a lot more smoothly when someone understands
what is being said and can reply just as quickly. The only near-glitch in the
proceedings was that the man behind the glass counter wall would only take a
cheque in payment, and although we have applied for a cheque book it hasn’t
arrived yet, so he and Pieter had to rush off to the bank again and get another
bank cheque, and then rush back again to get there before the office closed.
Tilly and I sat and read publicity notices and advertising leaflets while we
waited and when the office started closing up she went and charmed the man behind
the counter, begging him to wait just a few minutes more and at 2 minutes after
closing the men arrived with the cheque and we are now legal.
Back at the house, the next day, I
tried out my new washing machine which rather resembles a Boeing control panel
when it is switched on. It is very quiet and appears to be efficient but has so
many programmes that I wonder if I will ever use them all. There is a wonderful
button that says ‘Push and Wash’ which I may try next time. Needless to say,
having put the load in and started the machine, I then sat down to read the
instructions and discovered this wonderful button which does a really quick
wash.
We found a discount flooring shop and
bought enough tiles to tile the base of the fireplace where the stove will
stand. The two men are hard at it getting the floor level and the tiles down
before the people come on Wednesday to install the stove. Quite a job.
We also decided that it was completely
unfair to expect Pieter to sleep any more nights on the floor so we went to buy
a bed. Just an ordinary wooden slatted divan bed and mattress, I thought. There
is no such thing. You choose a bed frame, and the type of slats you prefer and
the legs in the style and colour you prefer and then you decide if it should be
an upholstered frame or not. Oh….and of course the size you need. Then you have
a bed. Then you go to the mattress section and start all over again. Spring?
Foam? Latex? Hard? Medium? Soft? A Flowery cover? A plain cover? One with a
Union Jack on it? At that we explained we were South Africans and the mattress
with the flag on was quickly pushed out of sight again. Finally we had our bed
and the man would deliver next day. Great! We just had to make sure that we were
there before him, which we managed by about four minutes, but at least we have
one of the two single beds we need.
I will try to include some pictures
next time as we have taken very few so far but I will certainly show you our
new car if nothing else.
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