Our Place in France Chapter 29

Our place in France Chapter 28

In the end, Jen and Ryan didn’t continue with their planned cycle route. The weather had turned a bit nasty and they found the undulating countryside quite demanding so spent a day looking around Rocamadour and its immediate surroundings and then cycled back to Ols on their third day.

In the meantime, we were both very excited to find that our Cartes Vitales – our National Health Service cards – had arrived in the post. Contrary to most of our friends’ thoughts, it turned out that we were eligible to apply for inclusion and that we definitely could, and would, get cards. Once everything was set in motion, it all happened quite quickly and now we have our cards, we can apply for the so-called ‘Top-up’ insurance which will cover anything not covered by the National Health scheme. And the best part of all is that the insurance will be less than what we have been paying monthly for our South African Medical Aid, which of course, doesn’t ever amount to the entire amount received in our name by that medical aid fund.

When the two cyclists returned, they took a day off to recover a little and to do some long overdue laundry. Luckily the weather had cheered up again and everything was soon dry. We did a bit of driving around to show them the local sights and again the sun stayed shining. What a great time we had. All too soon it was Friday and time to take them to the station for their train to Toulouse and subsequently, the plane to South Africa. It was a sad moment.

But there were still things to do and get on with at home……..none of them got done! I think we were showing our age.

On Sunday we had been invited to lunch with one of our neighbours, a French husband and his Moroccan-born wife. We were quite nervous as they don’t speak any English, and were even more so when we arrived, to find three other French-speaking guests. Our meal was to be a typical Moroccan one and was to be five courses – a pizza-like starter; a salad, a massive stew with cous-cous, cheese and then dessert. All I can say is that the Moroccans must eat only once a week if that was a typical meal.

The days are starting to draw in already and the nights are getting cooler. Leaves are falling everywhere and our figs are ripening well. I’m still not sure about making jam but the other option is to let them all fall on the ground and go bad. A bit like being between a bottle and a squishy place!

I have included a picture that was taken in Chamonix of a Trompe l'Oeil scene. I am simply fascinated by these paintings and am always impressed by the shadows that seem to fall in the correct places regardless of where the sun actually is. I had to walk right up to, and past the building to make quite sure that this was a completely flat wall. What talent!