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.
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