Our place in France Chapter 53

Isn’t it amazing how time flies when there is plenty going on? Well this past week has just flown past and I will tell you why.

The last chapter was written on Saturday as I knew very well that there would be no time to do it on Sunday. Because on Sunday, Pieter, Tilly and Tilly’s Dad would be arriving at about 5 pm, with her Mother and youngest sister following soon after. Mother and Father had been invited to spend the night with our lovely French neighbours, while the sister would stay with us and share Courtney’s room. Accommodation settled, all that remained was to feed them, so I decided that we really should do the proper thing and make a real French meal. In this case, my choice was  a grilled duck breast with potatoes roasted in the duck fat, and salad, followed by cheese and then crème brulee. I thought that I had made plenty for the eight of us but either everyone was very hungry or it tasted pretty good as there was simply nothing left. Neels assures me that it was the latter!

The reason for this sudden rush of guests was simple – Pieter and Tilly were to be married the next day, after months of trying to  get everyone concerned in the same place at the same time. When this day popped up and suited all parties, we all jumped at the chance. Being a civil marriage it was very simple and only family members were present. Afterwards, the Mayor and his secretary, and the nice neighbours, came and drank a glass of celebratory champagne with us before we (the families) went off to a delicious lunch in Villeneuve. Far too soon after lunch Tilly’s parents left to go back home, as her sister had to go to school the following day, and ‘home’ is a six-hour drive from us. Some time later we took Courtney back to school for the same reason and early the next morning, Pieter and Tilly left too. They had to drive to Barcelona and then fly from there – one to Mallorca , the other to Malta – back to their respective places of work. Such is the nature of modern married life.

Most of Tuesday was taken up with tidying up and putting all the best china and silverware back where it came from, so pleased that we brought it all with us when we moved here. It was so nice to get it all out and use it again. It was also good to be busy that day after the activity of the previous two days, because the house seemed to be very quiet and empty all of a sudden.

On Thursday we had a fairly busy day again, with a physio session for me in the morning and a visit to the rheumatologist in Rodez in the afternoon. When we woke up, we both groaned when we saw the weather outside. It was grey and drizzly and when we actually ventured outdoors, we discovered that it was freezing again. A much better activity for the day would have been to stay in bed and read our books, but we had to get up and get out, so we dragged ourselves up and were soon on our way. By lunch time things had brightened up a little but it was drizzling again shortly after when we left for Rodez and I even had to put up my umbrella to get to the car.

Travelling along, we suddenly noticed that the raindrops on the windscreen had become somewhat ‘splatty’ and a few minutes later we were in a complete snow storm. It had obviously been snowing for quite a while as the surrounding fields were covered in snow; the trees were looking like traditional Christmas card fir trees; and snow was piled on the roof of houses and barns. By the time we reached Rodez it had slacked off a bit but it was still snowing enough for our jackets to have a sprinkling of flakes on them. On the way back we again enjoyed the snowy scenes but the sky was clearing and by the time we reached home again it was a wonderful sunny day with a clear blue sky. Really strange weather!

Something that never fails to amaze us is the way pharmacies dispense medicines here in France. In South Africa if a doctor prescribes 20 tablets, say, you will get twenty tablets in a container with a sticky label on it saying what it is; what the dose is and how it should be taken. Here, the dispenser will not break into a box of tablets. If your prescribed course is for a total of 20 tablets and they come in boxes of 30, you will get a whole box. You also get a copy of the original prescription to take home with you so that you know when to take them, how many and for how long. Woe betide if you can’t read your doctor’s handwriting or know what the abbreviations mean. To be fair to the dispensers, they do give verbal instructions as they hand over the tablets, but when you have a whole clutch of boxes in your hand, it is quite hard to remember which is which. There’s a great opportunity here for someone to introduce those natty labelling machines that print out what is needed, straight on to the labels.

Our place in France Chapter 52

The week started with a physio session which resulted in me being completely crippled for the rest of the day. I was very unimpressed as my therapist had tried a new type of therapy on me, saying that this usually brought relief where all else had failed but that it would take about an hour or so to kick in. I was in high spirits when I left the clinic but about an hour later I was roundly cursing the poor lady. Neels was out that evening so I was able to wallow in my misery for quite some time! Feeling that any progress made to date had now been negated, I went to bed stuffed with pain-killers and hoped for improvement in the morning. But by the morning, it was not improvement that I experienced but a complete miracle. I had no pain in my hip, leg or lower back at all. In fact, that day was the first completely pain-free day that I had had since last September. A real miracle! This state lasted until Friday, with only slight loss of effect, when I was due for the next session. To date, the status has remained quo. Long may it last.

On Tuesday Tilly arrived to spend a few days with us, with Pieter following on the Thursday. They left again on Friday very early in the morning bound for Paris, about seven hours drive away. As Pieter, in all his years of travelling around the world, had never been to Paris, Tilly had planned a whistle-stop tour of the city taking in as many of the sights as possible, including a dinner-cruise on the Seine before going on to the Montparnasse Tower from where one can see all the lights of Paris as well as the Eiffel Tower all lit up – no doubt in the red, white and blue of the French national flag in anticipation of the final rugby game of the 6 Nations competition. Saturday morning saw them at the Louvre, queueing to buy entry tickets to see the Mona Lisa, among others, before moving on to the Stade de France for the rugby in the afternoon. As I am typing this before the game has been played, I have no idea of the details of it but I’m sure they will both have a wonderful time.

Courtney arrived home again on Friday evening still full of bubbles and  bounce, which quickly disappeared when the pictures of her ex-classmates started arriving by email and Facebook, showing off their glamourous evening gowns at the Matric Dance, which she would have attended had she not been here in France. A very hard thing for her to bear, but she soon perked up again. We tried telling her that they would not be looking forward to a week in Paris, as she is, but it was small comfort.

Spring has stepped up another notch and now we have the white blossom trees, the pale and dark pink blossom trees, quite a lot of bright yellow blossom and lately a few red bushes too. Little yellow daisies have started popping up in the lush green fields and everyone has beautiful daffodils blooming. Except me! My bulbs are still pushing up leaves but no blooms yet. I console myself with the thought that mine will be flowering long after theirs are over, but I do so wish they would make more of an effort.

The door bell that we bought last weekend has been mounted against the wall next to the front door  and will be just perfect for the job. The little bell has edelweiss flowers  in relief and was originally a cow-bell. It has a great tone and we are sure it will be heard from upstairs even with the double-glazed windows closed. Now we can lie in in the mornings without having to worry about missing the post-lady if she brings us a letter that has to be signed for. Excellent!

Our place in France Chapter 51

 At last Spring seems to have arrived with a vengeance. After three days of pretty miserable weather, Thursday managed a half-decent day and we managed to finish up the whole mountain of washing that we had been accumulating since Leigh left, which was when, in a rush of madness, we changed ALL the beds and towels on the same day. If you have any idea of what the weather has been like around here lately, and you should know if you have been reading the blog regularly, you will realise that nothing has been drying very fast for the past few weeks and doing something like that really was madness. But thankfully, all it needed was a few hours of decent sunshine and it was all done.

The beautiful sunshine stayed for Friday too, so after doing our weekly shop, we decided to return home by a different route and went to visit Foissac, which is very close to us but in a totally different direction to the road we usually take. All we knew was that there are caves there which are open to the public, but after the Cango caves, Sterkfontein and Sudwala, we are no longer interested in caves. So we went to see anyway. A delightful village greeted us as we rounded a corner, with a charming medieval look and feel. Several houses appeared to be constructed of a number of rooms built on different levels with a separate roof for each room. I was so taken with it that I completely forgot to take any photographs of them. I am sure we will go back soon and then I will get the pictures.

As our planned route was a kind of circular drive, we left the village by yet another new road and soon found something we had never come across before – a pigeon farm. Rows and rows of coops, rather like over-size chicken coops, raised off the ground and housing at least 1000 pure white birds. A notice at the gate confirmed that the birds were indeed pigeons and invited the passing public to take one (or two) home to cook, or even purchase ready cooked birds. We could hardly believe our eyes.  We really thought that eating pigeons went out with King Louis and Marie Antoinette, but apparently not. I will look at the dozens of pigeon lofts scattered all over the country with new eyes in future.

Courtney came home again on Friday evening, bubbling with all that she had done during the past week and it took her at least an hour to relate it all. At least she seems to be enjoying life as a boarder.

On Saturday it was a stunningly lovely day. Blue skies, no clouds, no wind and 23 degrees forecast. The beautiful white-flowering trees which herald Spring each year have made a wonderful showing this year, going from bare branches to full blossom in a week to ten days. Soon after, the pale and dark pink blossoms start to appear and we now know that a short while later the green leaves will be on the trees and shrubs. It is a really magical season and possibly our favourite time of year.

As Courtney had been away visiting a friend when we took Leigh and Andre to Najac, we went there again to show her what she had missed. Too early for the colourful window boxes on all the windowsills, the village was still showing off its best. And our favourite little café was still there and open so we could have lunch there again. The road through the town is very steep but has narrow pavements on either side so the café owner has made good use of what there is by arranging three little tables up against the building on the pavement He has had to build a deck to accommodate them and to level them, which projects out into the road which makes walking on that side a bit awkward if there is traffic but the whole place is so delightful that everyone makes allowances. Before leaving for home, we stopped at a most exciting-looking second-hand shop further down the hill. It is a bit like going into Aladdin’s cave but without the jewels. This man’s jewels are the throw-out of the rest of the world and we spent a little while there being amazed at what he had. I have been wanting a front door bell for some time now – not an electric ding-dong bell but a real brass bell with a clapper and a piece of chain with which to ring it. Well, we need look no longer! We found the ideal bell and a bracket for it too, even though the two were not one piece when we first noticed it. The shop-owner very kindly took the bell off the bracket that we like and replaced it with a beautiful little bell. Pictures to follow when the bell is up.

All in all a good week and long may the sunshine last.

Our place in France Chapter 50

As another week draws to a close, I realise that we have been here just on a complete year and am amazed at how much has happened during that time. I am sure that there have been numerous events that I haven’t mentioned, but for the most part, I have tried to keep you up to date with all that has been going on in our lives. This week, for example, has been quite eventful.

On Monday, the whole house was up early to see Courtney off to school on the school bus, which leaves from just across the road at 6.45 am. As most of you know, this sort of time doesn’t normally feature in our lives but this was a special occasion. Courtney was little apprehensive, having not caught the bus from here before but we managed to persuade he that she would easily recognise the bus as, at that hour of the morning, it was unlikely for any other bus to come along. In the event, when Leigh walked across with her to make sure the bus stopped for her, they found a number of cars lined up also waiting for the bus so there was no problem about it stopping. There is apparently a dedicated bus for this route and the same driver always drives it which is a comforting fact as the children then get to know the driver and he gets to know the children and where they all live. When she returned in the same way on Friday evening, she was amazed to see just how caring the driver is. One girl who was dropped off alone, was taken right to her front gate and the driver gave a couple of toots of his hooter and waited to see her into the house before driving on. It is good to know.

Also on Monday, and a big event in the week was our court appearance in Rodez to make application for parental authority for Courtney. Because she is still a minor, the school would not accept her until someone had taken responsibility for her, and naturally, it had to be us. It was quite a big deal – we had to get a court interpreter in case  a detail fine detail was missed – and the case was heard by a real judge. I had been quite looking forward to seeing a real court from the inside, but when ‘Ferreira’ was called, only Leigh and Neels were allowed in with the interpreter. Phooey! All of ten minutes late they emerged again with big smiles and the deed was done. It wasn’t long before we received a WhatsApp message from Pieter  to ask if it was true that he now had a new sister, to which Andre replied, ‘Yes. And my daughter is now my sister too!’ Not actually true of course. We haven’t adopted her, only taken responsibility for her, but it is quite a big thing as you will agree.

Midway through the week Leigh’s sister, or half sister to be more correct, arrived from the UK to spend a couple of days with us. The weather was not terribly fair to her as she is well used to grey days and she was expecting to be able to enjoy something different here but the weatherman decided otherwise. However, they seemed to enjoy the time spent together and all too soon it was time for Leigh to take her down to Villefranche to catch the train to Toulouse and then fly home again. As Courtney came home from school again on Friday as well, it was  quite a busy time. And then on Saturday it was time for Leigh to leave as well, and yet another trip to Toulouse Airport. By now the car can almost drive itself there.

We have had rather a lot of rain over the past few days and fields around here are flooded in places. The weather forecast had warned of heavy rain and possible flooding and they were quite correct. We also had strong winds again and were hoping that the repairs to the satellite dish would hold. They did, but it was worrying to  be able to hear the bracket swaying around on its stays.. they had also warned of light snow which didn’t happen, but on the way to Toulouse to drop Leigh off, we ran through a kind of sleet storm with sploshy drops and minute particles of hail. It really is time for the cold weather to stop!!