Activities this week have centred mainly around Courtney. She is on holiday at the moment and needs something to keep her occupied apart from reading. So on Tuesday she had aranged to meet a friend in Villefranche and then go home with her, spend the night and then go by train the next day to Toulouse. Friends mother had arranged to do some shopping on Tuesday morning and said we should all meet up at the station, where she would collect Courtney, with a bicycle, and take everyone home again.The first snag came when the friend and her mother arrived at the station in a sedan car with a boot full of shopping bags. In other words, no room for a bicycle! After a short discussion on whether or not to take the bikes to Toulouse, they decided that it would be more fun if they had some form of transport, so we ended up following them home to the village where they live about the same distance from Villefranche as we are, but on the opposite side of the town. When we arrived, we were invited in to see the pottery that Mme Pabion makes It is simple and has very clean lines, decorated in pale blues, white and and beige. Very pretty indeed. Then we had a cup of tea while sitting on the wisteria-hung balcony and enjoying their wonderful view. Then we left them to it.
The following morning, the girls rode down to the station which was quite an exhilarating ride with some really steep downhill sections and were in good time for the train. Once in Toulouse, they made their way to the friends violin class and Courtney found a quiet place to chill out. After the lesson they rode around the town looking at various sights and enjoying a sandwich in the park until they found themselves all out of places to go but two hours left before their return train. So they went to the movies - what else would two teenagers do?! Unfortunately, when they returned to the pole where they had left their bicycles locked up, the friends bike had been removed, lock and all. This we found quite shocking as this sort of petty crime is very unusual. Somewhat upset, they made their way back to the station, caught the return train and we picked up Courtney at Villefranche again - her friend having got off at the previous station. Perhaps a lesson in being too trusting but there is no way any one of us could have foreseen this.
On Thursday we set off at some unearthly hour for Rodez to make application for our residence permits to be renewed. Being so early, we didn't have to wait but these affairs are never without some complications. First one was that we had omitted to include self-addressed envelopes with all the rest of the papers. Not such a big problem though, as the post office was right across the road. While I continued to watch our papers being perused, Neels nipped acros the road and bought a pack of stamped enveopes, two of which we addressed and haned in. Then came the bad news: they wanted an income tax declaration for 2015 and 2016. We explained that on January 1st of those two years we had not been living in France - the rule here being that if you are not resident on the first day of the year, you are not eligible for tax, but that cut no ice. In that case, they said, we want a declaration to that effect or a tax certificate from South Africa. Oh fiddle! That meant another hours drive just to bring back two sheets of paper. One can never win with bureaucrats!
On the way back from Rodez we took a little detour through Rignac to show Courtney the 'iron horse'. Quite a while agaon we went to visit some friends whom we had never visited before. Giving me directions, our hostess told us to 'turn left at the iron horse'. I didn't query it at the time tinking it was the name of a hotel or something, forgetting, of course, that the name would have been in French! Anyway, when we got there, it was, indeed, an iron horse and similar to a cow and calf we had seen elsewhere. It is very cleverly constructed out of all sorts of odd bits and pieces of iron and is larger than life size. beautifully made and well worth seeing again.
Also on the way back, we came around a corner and weregreeted with the sight of some extraordinary metal sculptures standing in a field. We think they are made by the same artist we have seen before, who uses all sorts of household bits and pieces for his work. hand are often made from forks, while noses are upside down spoons. They looked really weird standing there and we just had to stop and inspect them.
On Friday it was Courtneys turn again. We had heard her rattling around downstairs before we even woke up properly and vaguely wondered what she was doing but presumed she was getting herself some breakfast. What a surprise then, when she appeared at the bedroom door carrying a tray all laid out out with breakfast for both of us. Carrying two trays actually. She had thought this all out beforehand and had even asked the family members what sort of eggs we preferred. We each got an egg of our choice with delicious bacon and tomato with a slice of toast and a cup of real coffee. I can't recall ever having been brought breakfast in bed prepared with such love and care and we were almost overwhelmed. what a simply lovely gesture!
,Later the same day, one of her other school friends was having a belated birthday sleepover party and she had to be delivered at 3 pm and collected again at 11 the next morning. There were 12 of them altogether and the parents had borrowed the next door neighbours gite for the night. It appears to have been a jolly night for all, including sitting around the camp fire at the parents home, walking back to the gite in the middle of the night and clambering over some plastic wrapped hay bales en route and then dancing until the early hours. They all seemed to have enjoyed themselves.
Seeing that it has been Courtney who has enjoyed all the activity this week, I am not sure why we were all so tired, but one way and another we all slept until well after midday today. Maybe it was the amount of TV we watched last night!
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