As the days draw in ever shorter, and the nights become
colder, we are frantically trying to make sure that our long awaited guests
will be warm and comfortable during their stay here. The two granddaughters are
getting very excited and were even a bit disappointed when we said that we
would pick them up in Toulouse, which cuts out a two hour train ride. However,
with Andre having to fly on to a business meeting in London, conveniently
arranged for the day after their expected arrival here, the train would have
been too difficult for them to manage, especially with an extra suitcase to
carry. Also, we get to see them all two hours sooner than we might have!
The beds have all been made, and extra blankets piled at the
foot of each one. Each bed has an electric blanket and we know from experience
that there is nothing nicer than getting into a warm bed. The room heaters will
be switched on about two days before they arrive to give the rooms time to warm
up. The bathroom towel heaters have been on for some time now and although they
are set fairly low, the bathrooms are delicious to be in. Put a TV in there and
I would probably be quite happy to stay there! When I mentioned the towel
heaters in a previous blog, someone commented on them and said how lucky we are
to have them. In fact, towel heaters (and thus bathroom heaters) are compulsory
on all new build houses nowadays. Thank you France!
We have also ordered and had delivered a large quantity of
fire wood. It comes in cubic metres, known here as ‘steres’ and we ordered two
steres. We expected it to arrive in a truck of some sort, but the supplier
arrived in a little van similar to our car. We know that we can get half a
stere into our car, loading it as far as the front seats and as high as the
seats, but we also know it makes a huge mess. But the farmers are not happy to
deliver small loads, hence the order for two steres . Even so, he had to make
two trips, in spite of the wood being packed in up to the roof. Of course, the
van version of our car has no side windows to be damaged and has a netting
guard between back and front. It still made a huge mess of the interior but that’s
how he makes a living – he doesn’t have to use it for passengers later. What a
nice fellow he is – he even helped to stack it neatly and now we have a
reasonable amount of usable fire wood. The pictures I have included make the
pile look quite small, but please note that it is almost door height and that
is not a short door. There is also a smaller pile that still needs to be split
so that the boys can play with their new toy.
We had to have some official documents translated from English
to French, and for this we contacted a lovely lady who has done this for us
before. Our arrangement was the same – we emailed the documents to her; she
translated them and then we fetched them at a halfway point between her house
and ours, in this case, as before, at Caylus. This is a medieval town about 30
kilometres from us and way down in a deep valley in the next department, that
of the Tarn-et-Garonne. It sounds a long way to go for a translation but it has
to be done by a certificated translator and these are few and far between. A
job opportunity here…………….if you can manage the four year training to qualify.
On the way home again, we saw a sign to the Abbey of Loc
Dieu. Being in no rush, we turned off and almost immediately found ourselves
outside a wonderful building surrounded by
acres of parkland. It was built as a Cistercian Abbey but has since been
turned into a residence. It was originally founded in 1123, but was burnt down
by the English in 1409. Rebuilt in 1470 it became a fortified abbey until the French Revolution
in 1793 when it was stripped of its assets. In 1812 the Cibiel family bought it
and made it their home and have owned it ever since. During the war, some of
the most valuable paintings from the Louvre, in Paris, were hidden here to save
them from the Germans. In summer both the house and grounds are open to the
public for a very small fee, but as mere photographers, and out of season, we
were let in free of charge. We would like to go back there again in summer and
have a proper guided tour of the buildings.
As a final offering this week, I have included a picture of
a little stone hut that we pass every time we go into town. For some reason I
just love it and think it looks very cute sitting there in the middle of the
fields.
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