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!!