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.