Our place in France Prelude

I have decided not to write the blog every week as there will obviously be some weeks that will be incredibly boring. Instead, when we have some news to tell you about, I will send a letter which should reach you all. This way you won’t have to go looking for our news, only to be disappointed.

Having arrived on the 20th January, we have now been here just over ten days and have accomplished quite a lot, I think.

We had a few major projects lined up when we got here – to find the nearest supply of gas and purchase a bottle and connect it up so that the stove would work; to find a washing machine that suited our needs and our pockets and get it installed; to apply for a telephone and internet line; to seek out a suitable wood-burning heating stove which will provide our main source of warmth in the house; and to up-grade our valiant little Peugeot to something a little roomier. Quite a list of requirements, you might think, but all very necessary.

Starting at the beginning, we found that gas is sold at all supermarkets and, although there are two kinds of gas and a dozen different kinds of fittings, we managed to find the right one and soon had a working stove. Next on the list was the washing machine. Almost as easy as the gas. January and June are sale months – by law – and prices are genuinely reduced on items. People who want a specific item can rush in and get it right at the start of the sales, while those with more nerve can wait it out while the prices drop bit by bit to the end of the period. The sales are due to finish any day now, but the last time we drove through town there were places advertising 80% discounts. If, however, you do sit it out until the end you have to be prepared to take what still for sale, which not necessarily be exactly what you wanted. In our case, we had thought the Bosch machine looked rather nice, but was already sold so we had to settle for an Indesit. It is due to be delivered this week.

When applying for the phone and internet line, being accustomed to the rather tardy service from Telkom, we were prepared to go on using our cell phone for several months, but, guess what, this is a first-world country. Neels organised it all via the English-speaking help line for France Telecom/Orange last Wednesday and was little amazed when he was told that someone would be along to install the line this coming Tuesday. (Tomorrow, in fact). He was also told that the router would be sent to us by post, to the address where we are currently staying, which is not the address for the installation. So we prepared ourselves for a wait. What unbelievers! On Friday morning the postman arrived with a shoebox-sized parcel for us, containing the router, as promised. No parcel slip in the box saying where the parcel should be collected but a hand delivery to the door. Or it would have been but our host had just had a load of firewood delivered by the next door farmer, who had dumped about two bakkie loads of chopped wood in the road outside the gate, completely blocking the road. No one seemed terribly put out about it though and the postman just reversed back up the lane and went on with his round.

The phone will cost about R500 a month and will include free phone calls to almost the whole world, but only to landlines. It also includes completely uncapped internet, and we think it is a bargain.

The heating stove was giving us a bit more trouble and the examples for sale were not what we wanted. The designs we had thought were attractive had been sold out some time before. So we turned to Plan B and put an advertisement on the local version of Gumtree. We haven’t been inundated with replies but there have been a few and one of them wasn’t even a reply as such – it was a ‘Welcome to the Aveyron’ message, inviting us to join them for coffee at a local restaurant any Sunday morning. Something we intend to do very soon.

When it came to the car, we enlisted our son and his girlfriend to help us. He knows all about cars and she speaks fluent French and is a wonderful negotiator, so they make a good team. Almost immediately they found us a car in a town about 50 kms away. Wonderful, we said on Friday, we will go and see it on Monday. It was sold on Saturday! Then another one popped up, not too far away but the advertiser never responded to emails, so that was also out. Now we are waiting to hear about one that is a three hour drive away, but we can do the trip by train and if nothing comes of it, we can ride the train back again. That is probably scheduled for Wednesday.

In between all these activities we have been hard at work cleaning the spider webs out of the house and the cellar, and dusting and cleaning all the surfaces. The second-hand furniture that we bought from a couple returning to the UK last year, has been spread around the house to where it will ultimately stand and the ‘living room’ looks so much better without a large clumsy pile dumped in the middle of it.

We also found time to have some lunch in a café in Villeneuve our closest town. When we walked in, the place looked crowded, but the owner insisted that he still had a table for us, and so he did. Most of these little café/restaurant places have tables for two – a place on each side. If there are four of you, two tables are pushed together; for six, three tables and so on. Against one wall, a couple were sitting at a table for four (one on each side, of course) so their table was separated and voila! We had a table! As the tables were only about 6 inches apart it wasn’t long before we started talking to each other and we discovered that, although they live in Toulouse, they also have a house in Villeneuve that they have been renovating for the past thirty years. They insisted that we come and see it, so after lunch we trotted across the square to inspect the house. I think the word to describe it is ‘intriguing’. Three floors high, jammed in between two others, it has an entrance hall/dining room and a kitchen with no windows on the ground floor. Two bedrooms and bathroom fill the second floor while a large lounge area completes the top storey. I can’t imagine working on any house for thirty years but this one takes the cake. Charming couple though and they insisted that if we see their car outside the door at any time, we are to come and say hello.

We have also met one of our fellow villagers who came strolling around while we were packing up the car to come home one evening. He is French but his English is very good and he obviously enjoys speaking it. He has lived in the village for most of his life as did his parents and their parents before them. His father was the village blacksmith and he took us to see the old forge which is two houses away from us. The house that it is attached to belongs to his brother, so he has a key to get in and opened the door on to a piece of history. The room has become a dumping ground for a lot of things but the old anvil which dates back to the 1800’s is in the centre of the room. The fire is up against one wall, with a massive bellows attached to the roof and the wall in such a way that the draught is concentrated on the flames. Along the broad windowsill are arranged all the tools of the trade, exactly as they were last used. It is like a museum exhibit.

He told us that our house used to be a grocery shop run by a certain Rosalie, but he couldn’t remember her surname, but that other people had lived there after her for a while, before it became neglected and fell into disrepair.

So there is our house, then Mr Radford (who restored our house) and family who we are to meet at Easter when they come for a holiday; then our new friend’s brother who lives in Clermont-Ferrand and only comes to Ols in the summer as he is a keen cyclist and like to ride in the area. Next house around the square belongs to our new friend and after that is a youngish couple with a small daughter whom we have waved to but not yet spoken to. After that comes a house that is all closed up at present but we have been told that the owners will soon be back from Morocco. Time alone will tell if they are, in fact, Moroccans. Then it is the Mayors office.

The next house stands with its back to the square and we don’t even know at this stage if it is occupied or not. I think there is another one and then our other side neighbours whose house is almost behind ours. They live in Paris and again, only come for holidays

And that is what we have done and learnt in the last ten days.