Our place in France Chapter 21

In this world of ‘Democracy Rules’ decisions are made according to a majority vote, so I am pleased to be able to tell you that the blog will continue indefinitely. Should an occasion arise that prevents me from posting a chapter, I will at least leave a note to that effect on the website, so that you will know that we haven’t fallen of the globe or, worse still, forgotten you all!

In the time since my last blog, we have really been quite busy, contrary to my comments about being nothing more than day to day dreary drudgery!

To start with, Tilly came to spend a week with us and brought Jack with her. As it is some time since we had a four-year-old in the house, we had to make a few mental adjustments. It turned out to be a lovely week. Tilly is such an easy guest and didn’t seem to mind if we had our evening meal at nine o’clock at night, because we had been sitting on the veranda, drinking chilled rosé and discussing the affairs of the world.

On one day we went out for a picnic, to a place near the river which I had seen as we flashed past, on one of our drives out. I was sure I knew where it was and could get back there again with no problem, but I think we took a wrong turn somewhere and after driving for miles decided to go back to our starting point, which was Cajarc. By then, little Jack was as fed up with the car as we were all so we thought of looking for a picnic site on the banks of the Lot River, right there. But there had been a big fair and market and  there may even have been a concert, the previous day, so the whole riverside area was maze of tents, scaffolding and people. However we were all hot, hungry and thirsty and when we came across a wooden deck jutting over the river we unpacked all our picnic goodies and settled down, in spite of a large notice that  stated that ‘use of the jetty was strictly forbidden except for members of the Lot Boating Club’. How lucky that none of us can read French!

On another day we thought that the model train museum at Lanuejouls might be a better idea as, at least, we were sure we knew the way there. Well……………talk about a hit!! We had taken along with us a low plastic stool, as having been there before, we realised that most of the displays would have been above eye level for Jack. And that was a good idea, and one that Jack immediately caught on to. He grabbed the stool and rushed to the first display, plonking the stool down and jumping up on to it. Then he would hop off, move along a bit and do the same again. It is a fair sized museum and there are about fifteen exhibits and probably about seven trains running, ranging from a titchy 0 gauge line with an eleven millimetre track, all the way up to a fifty millimetre track. How he enjoyed it! It was  nearly  as exciting for us, to watch his excitement at seeing all the little trains rushing in all directions. My favourite memory of the afternoon is a ‘snap-shot’ that I have in my mind of Jack, perched on his stool, hands on knees, peering under the arches of a bridge at a train running along a lower line.

The house felt very empty after they left but there was no time to sit around and mope. There was a stack of washing and ironing to get through, and had to be done soon as it is probably my  least favourite part of keeping house.

The following Thursday was haircut day and, as usual, the haircut lady came to us. This is a real bonus and we always have a great chatter while she cuts first Neels’ hair and then mine, which I wash while I wait. Hair gets cut in the kitchen with an old sheet laid out on the floor and the chair in the middle of it. After wards we just gather up the corners of the sheet and toss the clippings out on to the garden.

Shortly after that the English neighbours arrived with their two little girls and as Christian’s brother, George, was also here for a day or two, the village was fully occupied. It had a noticeable buzz for a while, and that wasn’t just the cicadas that have made their annual summer appearance. It is so strange to hear ‘Christmas beetles’ when you know that it’s not Christmas, but it definitely matches the weather conditions – hot and humid.

There have been days in between which have been cooler and even a bit of rain, but most of the time it stays hot. Our poor flowers have had a rough time of it though. We had two large pots of petunias balanced on the front wall on either side of the letter box but, to our amazement, one was blown off in a high wind. The amazing part was that it seemed to have been carefully lifted off the wall and placed on the bottom step, about a metre below. We tut-tutted and muttered about …teenagers… but when it happened a second time, we realised that it was the wind. So we had to bring the two pots up on to the veranda, which I like as they are closer to the tap for watering!

Fétes and fairs have the order of the day since summer and the holidays started. Each town or village has its own weekly farmer’s market but in addition to that there are all sorts of high jinks and goings-on all over the area. We are not yet confident enough to go to an outdoor meal by ourselves, and chat to whosoever sits next to you, but give us a bit of time and we will be there. A lot of events we catually missed because we didn’t know that they were going to happen. Then we started to buy the weekly local newspaper and hey presto! we knew what was happening and when.

Today we attended the mother-and-father of all car boot sales combined with an antique fair. There were literally hundreds of cars and four times that many people, with stalls as far as the eye could see. Sadly the chances of finding an antique gem are very slim – too many people watch Antiques Road Show or Flog it and they also know what to look for before anything gets to the stall. Still it was fun for a while, but extraordinarily hot and we came home again about two hours later having only seen about a quarter of the stalls. Meanwhile, we were entertained by watching the pony carts that were offering rides to six people at a time. Six carts and eleven hoses were kept pretty busy all day with both children and adults enjoying the twenty minute ride in to Villeneuve and back, a trip that takes about three minutes by car!