Our place in France Chapter 49

To those of you who looked for this yesterday and didn’t find it, I apologise. This past week seems to have been somewhat disorganised, and although I had every intention of writing yesterday, it just didn’t get done.

This week, Courtney started school as a boarder in Villefranche. As I mentioned before, there is very little information forthcoming from the school so we had no idea whether she was supposed to clock in on Sunday evening or Monday morning we took a chance on Sunday and Neels and Leigh drove her into town to be there by 7 pm. All we had to go on was a sort of daily programme of when doors would be open and/or closed. Security is very tight at the school both between indoors and outdoors as well as between the girls and boys floors in the hostel. Anyway, while they were waiting there, having asked a passerby if children did arrive back at school on Sundays, to be told they did, another father drove up and dropped off his daughter of a similar age. She was prepared to settle down on a low wall outside the gates and wait until 8 pm when the gates actually did open. It was quite cold, so the family took pity on her and invited her into the car. Not what one would do in South Africa, I don’t think. It was a good move though as she was a mine of information about what goes on in the hostel and in the school.

The lessons seem to be less structured than in SA and she has long hours of free time in the day because of the subjects she is taking. Unfortunately the dormitories are locked during the day so a certain amount of pre-organisation is required each morning, which is quite new to her. I just hope she manages to get on top of it before it gets her down.!

All the schools here close on Wednesday afternoons and those that take sport, do it then. Courtney is not yet organised to do any sport, so we arranged for her to come home and sleep the night here. Easing her in gently as it were. She had plenty to tell us about as you can imagine. Of course, coming home on a Wednesday means someone has to get up at sparrow to take her back again on Thursday morning to be there by 8 am! But it worked out all right as Thursday was my first official physio treatment and it was at 9am. A bit tight in the timing but it turned out okay. And how about this? On the previous Sunday, one of the three girls who had taken Courtney under their collective wing, rang up to invite Courtney over for the afternoon. We took her there and met the parents who are very nice, and her two brothers who are younger. Imagine my surprize when my physio turned out to be the child’s mother!

All too soon it was Friday and time to collect Courtney from school again for her regular weekend at home. So it was back to the old routine of getting laundry into the machine as soon as possible so that it would all be dry by the time Sunday rolled around again. I can see that this may be a problem in the future as we no longer have a tumble drier, which in summer is not a problem but could be awkward in the rainy winters. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The next day was a simply stunning day with a clear, brilliant blue sky and no wind. We had arranged for our travelling hairdresser to trim Courtney’s hair but because she doesn’t really work on Saturdays and Sundays, but had agreed to do this as a favour to us, we drove to her house. It is a minute house precariously balanced between the road and the River Lot, which they bought as a ruin and spent a lot of time restoring. It is still not complete but what they have done is amazing and very cosy. Both Jayne and her husband Phil were there so what had started out as a simple and quick hair trim, stretched out into a long chatty morning. When we finally left there, we decided to take a different road home and  went to have a look at Peyrusse-le-Roc. This little village is perched on a hilltop above the ruins of a medieval chateau. Once upon a time it was a thriving settlement with a castle, church, synagogue, leper hospital and a covered market. At it’s height, there were about 3500 inhabitants and the economy was growing all the time. Silver, lead and antimony were mined nearby and the village houses reflected this wealth. Today however, the village has shrunk to a population of just over 200 with a fair sprinkling of artistic inhabitants. It has a very tranquil feel but, as ever, appears to be ‘dead’! It is said that in the old days, the people of this part of the world used to hibernate in winter and I am sure that still holds true. They only appear again when the weather warms up and the flowers start to bloom.

Talking of which, while we were in the UK in October, we were given three daffodil bulbs to plant, by the garden club that Carol belongs to. On returning, we planted then in one of the hanging pots on the verandah and to my great surprise (and joy) I noticed a little flat green shoot poking out of the soil the other day. At least one is growing! The other two are probably planted upside down!!

And finally – I have decided that what this house needs is a front door bell. There is simply no place for our lovely French Maiden’s Hand, which was on the front door in SA, for reasons that are far too complicated to list here. However, I saw exactly what I wanted on the internet but believe it or not, they won’t post to France. I more or less gave up as we have hunted and hunted for something similar without success, but on Saturday while driving to Courtney’s hair appointment we passed a farm with something equally entrancing. We want to go back and ask the farmer where he got it from. Perhaps he will sell us his! See picture above.

Our place in France Chapter 48

At last! Something to write about!

The week started really well when Pieter and Tilly arrived on Sunday afternoon. They  had come by car which is quite a stout effort as they first had to catch an unbelievably slow ferry from Palma, Mallorca, to Barcelona in Spain. Then they drove from there to us, stopping overnight along the way. It was lovely to have them here even if it was only for a terribly short time. The weather also wasn’t conducive to sightseeing, being grey and cold most of the time, but it didn’t seem to bother them as they were both busy on computers and cell phones for quite a lot of the time. Work never stops for these two.

On Tuesday, we had bravely invited our French-speaking neighbours over for a drink; an invitation which they accepted. Although we were quite nervous at the thought of having to converse in French, we needn’t have worried. In the first place, Tilly was here to fill any gaps and to translate where necessary, and with their limited English and our limited French, we managed perfectly and it turned into a very enjoyable evening. Slowly, slowly, we are getting there!

Next day they had to leave which was sad but apart from needing to go and spend some time with Tilly’s parents who live near La Rochelle on the west coast, they also had to make way for our next visitors, Leigh and Courtney, who arrived on Thursday. Courtney will be starting school in Villefranche on Monday so it has been quite a scramble around to get everything ready for her. She will be a weekly boarder, which is pretty much being thrown in at the deep end as far as learning French is concerned but she seems to be fairly relaxed about it all and is even excited at the prospect. Personally I find the school remarkably lax about helping new students to find their feet. We have no idea if the boarders are supposed to return to the hostel the night before school starts as was always the case in our day, and also in our children’s day, and as we don’t know any other boarders, we can’t find out. School books are available through something called the Parents Federation but they only operate on Wednesdays. And students need a special Student card which gives them discounts on things like books but we can’t get one until Neels and I have been granted legal parental authority and that will only happen on the 27^th February. To catch the school bus on a Monday morning and Friday afternoon, Courtney will need a bus card which has to be applied for online but who knows what the website is! As I say, a little lacking on the information side. Perhaps if it was the beginning of the school year, things might be different, but as one of the few schools that take foreign students, one would have expected them to be equipped to handle new arrivals at any time of the year. No doubt it will all shake down in the end but it is worrying for Leigh at the moment as she tries to make the transition as smooth as possible.

At least the weather perked up for them and they were able to have a day out on Saturday when they went to Sarlat. The full name is Sarlat-le-Caneda and is world famous for its Saturday market which has been held weekly since the Middle Ages. Sadly my hip was playing up again and I missed the outing but Neels was so impressed with the whole day that he has promised that we will go again. The market is apparently huge and stretches up and down several streets in the old medieval town with very few of the stalls selling ‘junk’. Both Leigh and Courtney were impressed with the prices they saw as well as the items for sale which were interesting and novel. I am looking forward to going there.

Also on Saturday, Courtney received an invitation to go and visit one of the girls she met when she first visited the school. So today, Sunday, we took her to the friend’s house and met the parents who are very pleasant people. One of the other girls that she met that day lives right here in Ols, but not right in the village as we do, so we hope they will get together some time too. Needless to say, the more friends she makes and visits, the more parents we will get to meet which is exactly what we need to do.

Our place in France

Once again there will be no blog this week. Not that there is any problem, but there is nothing interesting about a week of doctor appointments and visits to the district nurses. Next week, however promises to be more lucrative on the news front, so please come back again next week and try again.

Our place in France Chapter 47

There are some weeks which fly past with not enough hours in them to do all that one wants to do, and then there are weeks which drag past, usually when one is anticipating something. And then there are the ordinary weeks which chug along at normal pace, not much to do and at the end , nothing much to show for it. Well, I think this was one of those weeks. The weather has been mixed with a couple of brilliantly sunny days interspersed with grey rain but even the sunny days have been marred by icy winds. When I mentioned this to a friend in South Africa the other day, she laughingly replied, “Well you wanted to go there!” So, everyone please note – I am not complaining, not really – I am just telling you.

On one of the better days we drove into Villefranche and went to the local branch of Emmaus. Yes, it is here too. I had long decided that we needed more carpets to cover the bare floors and to stop the draughts from coming up from downstairs. As all our carpets are fairly well-used, new carpets would not have been right so we went to see what Emmaus could offer. Although it is a massive shop the pickings in the carpet department seemed a bit meagre and we were about to rethink our plan when an assistant came up to us and asked if he could help. When we told him what we wanted, but added that they didn’t seem to have much, he said that there was another floor upstairs where they keep extra stock. So off we went and found a great pile of carpets. Among the lot we found two which exactly suited our needs and one of them still had its Ikea sticker on the back. They are both virtually new if not brand new, with a lovely crisp feel.So much for not buying new carpets! But where would we get two carpets for 15 Euros?We still need one more but it can wait a while.

The next day our hair-dresser arrived and not a moment too soon. What with all the holidays, the visitors and the fact that she and her husband had been in Spain for three weeks, it had been ten weeks since our last trims and we were both taking on a decidedly shaggy look. We always look forward to her visits because she is so jolly and full of life. We always seem to spend half the appointment time just chatting and the other half laughing and as we are at the end of the line for her, we never feel that we are holding her up. She comes quite a long way to cut our hair and we certainly appreciate her efforts.

My wretched hip has kept on giving problems and now, after blood tests, X-rays and an MRI, I am off to a specialist tomorrow. As it is now nearly five months since I injured myself, I almost feel that if we wait long enough, it will heal itself, but hey, the system pays and this way we get the real answer. We hope! If I am told that it is just old age, someone might just get a quick slap!