Our place in France Chapter 13

 A lot of news to catch up on but then, I warned you!

The first ‘blog-less’ week was fairly ordinary up until Friday when we set off at about mid-morning for Lezignan-Corbieres in the Aude. The easy route would have been to take the motorway from Montauban to Toulouse and then another one to Carcassonne but we thought that was just too boring so worked out our own route cross country which was far more interesting. For those of you who like to know what towns we passed  through, I can tell you that we travelled via Villefanche, Albi, Castres and then down into Carcassonne and on to Lezignan. We didn’t linger in the towns as we have visited them all previously but we did go fairly slowly and took in the all the wonderful views along the way. I know I keep saying this, but the countryside is really looking it’s best right now, and it was a good day for travel with high cloud and no rain. It wasn’t to last though and the following morning we got the first signs of rain which persisted on and off for most of the day. That night, we had a barbecue to christen the new addition to the garden and had just got it done when the heavens opened, and we had to run for the house. We were all sitting in the conservatory which has a fibre-glass /poly-something corrugated roof and the noise of the rain drumming on the roof was so intense that we had to move to another room. The prognosis for a beautiful day on Sunday was not looking good. (Sunday was our hostess’s birthday – a big one – and the whole reason for us being there) What a surprise then when Sunday turned out to be the most magnificent day! Almost too hot, in fact.

The birthday luncheon party was held at a friend’s house about five kilometres away and there were about twenty guests. The friend, who loves to cater, had given the party as a gift and had really pushed the boat out. People arrived in dribs and drabs at an unassuming gate in a high hedge  and I think, each one of them gave a gasp when they pushed open the gate and went in. Inside, was a large house, three stories high and of a traditional design with a central main entrance and two sets of windows on each side of the door, repeated on each floor. The garden was mainly lawn and shrubs and had been perfectly manicured to complement the huge red, climbing rose that almost covered one of the garden walls. As each guest arrived, a glass of chilled rosé was pressed into their hands and platters of snacks were handed out. Quite a lot of the guests were strangers to each other and of course, we didn’t know more than our hostess for the weekend and her other house guests, but introductions were made and soon everyone was chatting happily. The original plan had been to have lunch sitting around the pool, which would have been lovely, but in the ned the idea was discarded. Although the front of the house had been warm and sheltered, the pool area was quite windy and later on became unpleasant. No problem to the owner of the house though, she just relocated everything and everyone to the kitchen where there was a long table capable of accommodating 20 people. And it really wasn’t a squash! Try to visualise a kitchen that one could fit a five to six meter table into, and still be able to move around! For our buffet lunch we had a choice of three enormous quiches and/or Coronation Chicken with salads that were served in bowls the size of a wash basin. Bread, of course, to mop the plate when you’ve finished, so as not to waste a drop of the delicious sauces and plenty of liquid refreshment. Dessert was home-made rum and raisin ice-cream served in cones. As the raisins had been well soaked in the rum for some time before the ice-cream was made, it was a potent dessert! As the birthday girl was returning home with us, she had warned us that we would have to stay on a bit to help clear up, so when guests started drifting off at about five o’clock, we hung back. But clearing up was not on the agenda, apparently. The remaining few of us were ushered into the lounge and brought spicy tomato juice to drink while the hosts gathered all the left overs and decided that there was more than enough to feed us all, so for the second time that day we all sat down at the immense kitchen table and feasted on quiche and salad. What a shame we were not camels and could store up enough sustenance for a week!

Sadly we had to leave the next day, our return trip taking across country again, as we had a guest coming to stay on Thursday and needed, at least, to dust the house a bit!

As it turned out, and due to an untimely train drivers’ strike, our guest’s Thursday arrival was delayed until Friday which was a nuisance as it cut down her visit by a day. We had all considered trying to change her ticket from Tuesday the following week, to Wednesday, but with the threat of further strikes, we left matters as they were.  Even so, her return trip was not a simple single change affair. The part to Toulouse was as normal but Toulouse the service had been disrupted and she had to catch another train from a different station in Toulouse that was going part of the way to Auch. To reach the second station, she had to catch the Metro then the train; then a bus which completed the journey; and then she still had to drive home! Really!! Strikers just don’t care whose lives they upset, do they?!

After all the effort to get here and to get home again, we really only had one properly good day together and that was Sunday. On Saturday we did manage to get in a drive to Belcastel, our favourite local village, where we toured the restored Chateau and admired the views, leaving Sunday to visit Najac which is lovely in the sunlight but is a bit spooky in gloomy weather. It wasn’t all lost though, as the clouds came and went until the rain started in earnest and we decided to come home again. No sooner were we home than the sun came out and the skies cleared! However, more than one can play at that game, so we hopped back into the car and drove down to the Lot River valley on a circular route which brought us back home again at about 7 pm. by which time it was quite hot and steamy and we all sat on the verandah in the shade enjoying a shandy.

On Friday of the same week, we trotted off to Rodez to fetch our new residence cards, having been advised by post that they were ready for collection. We managed to get hopelessly lost In Rodez which has a lot of one-way streets and ended up at the right place at 2.45 pm. As the office was only open from 2 pm to 3.30 pm we were quite nervous when we saw the length of the queue, and wondered if we would be attended to before the cut-off time, but luckily the line moved fairly fast and we got in with about five minutes to spare. So now we are good to stay for another year. Phew!

Somewhere between seeing off our guest on Tuesday and Friday, we had been in town and thought it was time to do something about getting the TV properly set up. After some discussion, the fellow said he would come on Saturday morning, so we shouldn’t have been surprised when we were woken by a phone call from the TV man saying he was outside! All credit to Neels who managed to brush his teeth, get dressed and comb his hair in the time it took the technician to climb the front steps. I’m not sure that he was actually awake but he managed to make a certain amount of sense in describing where everything should go. Thinking that it would be someone coming to see what the layout was, give a quote and come back next week, I stayed cosily in bed, until I suddenly heard both men come in to the house and Neels saying that there was another connection in the bedroom. I literally flew out of bed and into the bathroom taking my clothes with me, so that I could emerge   wide awake and having been up for hours. When they didn’t come upstairs I quickly pulled the bed together and smoothed the cover over it trying to give the impression that we always get up at7.30 in the morning. Anyone who knows us well will know that we don’t ever surface before nine o’clock at least unless there is a serious deadline to meet.

While I was busying myself with some ironing, I heard the men coming upstairs with a certain amount of huffing and puffing, so went to see what on earth they were doing. They weren’t doing anything! The puffing was our TV man negotiating our stairs! Just as well he has only come to look, I thought. Next moment I heard the unmistakable sound of an extending ladder being extended so, ever curious, I went to see who our man’s helper was. There wasn’t one! HE was the man who was going to do everything. When he leaned the ladder against the side of the building to get to the top of the gable end, I couldn’t bear to watch, but he hopped up the ladder as sprightly as a squirrel and proceeded to drill holes in the wall for the bracket to hold the dish, without holding on to anything. I was delighted to note, though, that to get the dish up to the top he tied himself, and the dish, to the ladder, although the ladder itself was not secured in any way. Aah! The French.  By the end of the day all was installed and to our absolute delight we could tune to whatever programme we desired from the comfort of an armchair, using the remote control. You can have no idea how much pleasure that gives us, after the rigmarole we had to go through, using the computer. I can see that it going to be real mission to get the ‘Master’ out of his chair but there is a lot to learn about this new decoder-thingy, or so I am told!!

Our place in France Chapter 12

Sunday last week was really very, very cold again, just when we thought the cold weather was over for this year. So we got out all the fire making bits and pieces to make a big, roaring fire and discovered to our horror that we had no more paper left! Remember the picture of Neels jumping on the paper in the empty carton? Well, we had meant to keep a couple of those boxes in the cellar, for just this purpose but somehow or other everything had been thrown away. Oh dear! Too efficient for words. How could we have done such a thing?? We had enough paper there to start fires until the end of time, and we threw it all away. How stupid! Oh well, it’s gone now. And one is not allowed to take anything away from the recycling centre. We know. We have already asked because there was a whole pile of the sort of wooden slats that one’s new washing machine arrives in, which would have made ideal kindling but we were told in no uncertain terms that removing anything is against the rules. I suppose they have a point. No-one wants people picking through the recycling, after all.

The friend who came to visit us on Sunday afternoon also brought us his pressure washer so that Neels could do a job he has been threatening to do for weeks, and that was to clean off the veranda. Since we first saw the house, I had been under the impression that the veranda had a black surface, but was partly covered with a mossy growth about a centimetre thick. Once it was cleaned, I realised that the black was all mould and that the lichen-like moss was growing on top of that! I’ve included a picture of the veranda half cleaned so that you can see what I mean. It was a big job, and took several hours to complete.

The log-splitter that we had been using had also come from the same friend who now wanted it back again, so we agreed to return both items on Friday together with everything else that we had borrowed from his wonderful workshop. This meant that once the veranda cleaning was done, we had some serious log-splitting to get through. We made it a team effort with  Neels operating the machine and me passing him the whole logs and then taking back the split ones and restacking them. This was also a time-consuming job but without doing it all the wood would have had to be chopped with an axe which can be back-breaking. At least now we have plenty of firewood to keep us going for quite a while. Taking everything back  to Vabre Tizac was really interesting as we haven’t driven that road for a while now and we were fascinated to notice how the countryside had changed with the advent of Spring. All the roadside trees which looked as if they would never sprout again are covered in foliage and the hard-working farmers’ fields are lush and green.

For some time now, and forgive me if I have mentioned this before, we have been hunting for one item which has not yet appeared. It is one of the drawers of a small plastic set of drawers – of the type usually sold to keep childrens’ toys in. I have two sets and used to keep all my embroidery and knitting essentials in them. Now, however, as storage space is at a premium, I thought they would make reasonable chests of drawers for we like to call the ‘Girls Room’ as the two granddaughters have laid claim to it. But we can’t have one drawer missing! We have looked everywhere, but it is not to be found. I even unpacked all seven cartons of books, thinking that it could just possibly be in one of them with smaller books packed inside it. No luck! It wasn’t left behind because we went through the whole house when they had finished packing up and it was totally empty. It must be here, although I am no longer quite sure where to look anymore, we just haven’t found it yet.

Thursday was Ascension Day and a holiday in France. Ols celebrated it by having a small flower market in the morning which was very bright and colourful, and apart from flowers, there was someone selling honey and a young lady selling paintings. Quite a few people turned up and the village square became quite noisy with all the chatter. In the afternoon there was a concert in the church  by a choir singing gospel songs. Perhaps we are mean but we thought ten Euros was too much for a ticket (especially for a South African who has to pay seventeen Rand for one Euro) so we sat on the veranda and enjoyed the music anyway.

I have to say that after the cold snap of last weekend the days have steadily improved and by Thursday I was walking around the market without a jersey on, but today we are back to winter weather and the promise of heavy rain to come. It is really hard to get out of bed on these mornings but we know from experience that the day we stay in bed too long, someone will come and knock on the door. And anyway, most of the time, the clouds all clear away by lunch time and the sun often shines brightly for the rest of the day.

We will be away next weekend and the following weekend will have a house guest, so the next chapter may be on the 22^nd May or may only be on the 29^th when there will be a bumper edition.

Our place in France Chapter 11

After last weeks ‘ no-show’, we seem to have had an action packed week this time. Pieter and Tilly came to spend some time with us and arrived last Saturday, leaving again on Thursday. Tilly had not been to this area before so we tried to show her a bit of the countryside, but we had to fit it in between the two of them desperately trying to get a container cleared in Holland so that they could get the stuff they use in their cocktail machines. Customers were calling on their mobile phones all the time. As I have said before the mobile phone signal is not wonderful in the house so they were having to run outside to be able to speak and be heard. Then on Wednesday the phone and Internet went down and we were totally incommunicado. I was so upset because I could see the two of them getting more frustrated with the situation as time went on, but there was nothing we could do about it. We eventually got back on air on Friday afternoon. So, you see, these things happen here too. I think the difference, and one that really surprised us, was that on Saturday we got a phone call asking if the technician had been and asking too, if we were satisfied with what he had done, and was the phone and internet now working properly. I don’t remember this happening in SA!

Tilly was keen to go a market so the day after they arrived we went to Villeneuve, only a short drive away to see what the weekly market had to offer. As it happened, the day was really bleak and very few stall holders turned out so it was not impressive and we didn’t stay long. Instead, we drove along to Belcastel which we think is really the prettiest village around here, with it’s restored castle and the River Aveyron running through it, where we found a delightful place to have lunch before ambling back home again.

During the week we also sold the little Peugeot 106 – Goldie. The buyer was very keen and drove half way across France to come and inspect it then said he would be back again on Saturday to collect it, but in the end couldn’t wait longer than Thursday to have it. We were sad to see her go but our needs have changed and it really was just too small for carting firewood and suchlike. The new owner was very sweet and sent us a text to say that they had arrived home safely and she had behaved very well!

Our neighbour over the back fence arrived for a short stay but admitted that she seldom comes in winter unless she needs to get the house ready for holiday tenants as was the case now. She had two friends with her, whom we also met and had drinks with. They are from Oxford in England and seem very interesting people. The owner will be having a birthday party here in early August, to which we have been invited. It promises to be fun.

Big news of the week though, was having to go to Rodez to renew our residents permits. Due to the ever increasing influx of illegal immigrants, everything has been tightened up and we were really quite nervous of the whole procedure. Thank heavens Tilly came with us and explained that we are still recent arrivals in France so our French is not yet perfect. (Huh! Not anywhere near!) When we went into the office the lady on the other side of the counter looked a bit grumpy which didn’t bode well at all but we decided to take no notice and just be pleasant to her. She dealt with us individually, doing my papers first, and one of the questions was “How many children do you have” to which I answered “Four’. Then she wanted to know if any of them lived in France and then went on to other matters. When it came to Neels’ turn, she asked him if he had any children of his own. Before he could reply, I spoke across him to Tilly and commented that obviously I looked so young that she thought I was a second wife. At last we raised a smile on the officials face and from then on it was plain sailing. Now we just wait for the actual cards. Only for one year again because of the tightened regulations but next year we can try for a longer one but it will entail an interview in French!! Yes…….well……….we’ll see.

Anyone who has driven on the Continent or in Britain will tell you how the road authorities love traffic circles. They certainly seem to keep the traffic flowing but they take up a lot of room. Some towns plant lovely arrangements of plants on them, others decorate them in different ways. In Villefranche we have a traffic circle with a stony path across it and wild grasses and flowers on either side of the path. Walking along the path is St James on his way to Santiago de Compostela because Villefranche is on one of the many routes to that famous shrine. Rodez, the town we went to to renew our permits, is in an area known as the Aubrac, renowned for its beef cattle and just outside the town is one of these circles decorated with two enormous cows made out of straw. They each have a beer in one hoof and are reclining in garden chairs. For some reason that we could not understand, they are gazing at a blackboard on which is written ‘E= MC². Well, I suppose it makes people smile while at the same time it reminds them of the reason for which the Aubrac is famous.

The weather has been really weird lately – cold windy and wet one day; warm and sunny the next; and then freezing with hail storms the day after. We are hoping that this is a last fling for the winter weather and that warmer days are on the way. Much as we love sitting in front of a cosy fire in the evenings, wet and windy days are not conducive to getting things done. We have seen reports of snow on the Drakensberg and feel that this is quite unfair. How can the northern and southern hemispheres both have winter at the same time? Will someone please speak to the weatherman about this!

P.S. the caption for the first picture seems to have disappeared but it is one that Tilly took while out on an early morning walk. The little village on the top of the hill is Ols with the church spire sticking up above the trees.