Our place in France Chapter 61

As Thursday was Ascension Day and a public holiday, the French being French, take advantage of the only Thursday holiday in the year and ‘make a bridge’ between Thursday and Saturday giving almost the whole country a four day weekend The schools are always closed on Wednesday afternoons and although Courtney usually spends those afternoons with her friends, shopping and generally walking around town, this week she came home on the bus which got her here before lunch and with a lovely long holiday ahead of her.

Our friend Liz left by train from Villefranche on Monday afternoon which gave us time to rearrange the room for Andre who arrived on Wednesday from a conference in London. Needless to say his daughter was over the moon to have her Dad here for the whole weekend. I must say we were also delighted to have him here. It seems like quite a long time since he left in January. While he was here, he helped out in a number of ways such as knocking my little computer back into shape and helping us to plant up the rockery which we would never have got done. He also dug some beds for the tomato plants which we bought at the flower market on Thursday. Before he arrived we had acquired a whole patio full of plants which Carol had presented us with, especially for our rockery but then had had to leave before anything was planted. Neels and I had eyed these plants with something like despair as neither of us are gardeners at all. However, all the bits and pieces that Carol had pulled out of various gardens, together with some bought-in-pots plants were all in soil and we knew we could keep them going, but now they are all planted where they should be and I think, are going to make a good show.

The flower market was held at Rinhodes which is the other half of our village and is about 3 kms away. They have a very ancient eleventh century church which needs a lot of TLC and all proceeds went to the maintenance fund. We hadn’t intended to get any more plants to care for but……. It is our sister village so we felt honour bound to buy something. We left eventually with six tomato plants and two bottles of strawberry jam! It would have been rude to have gone to the market and not bought anything, anyway. So now we have a bed of mealies (sweet corn) and a bed of tomatoes, and a rockery full of plants. Who is coming to stay next??

Courtney had declined the invitation to join us but was very secretive about what she was going to do. However, midway through the afternoon I got a call from her asking if we could stay out a bit longer. Always ready to oblige, we took a scenic drive down to Cajarc and stopped off for a cold drink and spent (wasted) a good half hour just sitting and talking. When we arrived back home we discovered that she had been slaving away making a special dinner for Neels and myself, as a romantic dinner for two while she and her Dad watched a movie upstairs, and ate off their laps. We were very touched and the meal was delicious..

On Friday, Andre, Neels and Courtney went off to buy some new clothes for Courtney who has been seriously growing out of what she has here. They stayed in town for lunch and continued shopping afterwards but I am pleased to say that were eventually successful and I was treated to a fashion show when they got back. Would you believe that they are allowed to wear shorts to school? Things were never like that in my day.

Saturday was given over to some sightseeing. Our destination was a lovely little village perched on the clifftop above the Lot River, known as Saint Cirq Lapopie. It is a quaint little place with narrow winding streets leading down a steep hill to a church about hallway down the cliff. As is always the case with us, we only arrived there a little before midday and decide to eat first and explore afterwards. What a good decision that was! We had hardly sat down when the rush started and before long there was a queue of people waiting outside. Service was rather slow with such a lot of people to serve so while Neels and I waited for our coffee, Andre and Courtney went to do the tourist thing. As I am still not walking with ease, I was quite glad not to have to make my way all the way down the hill, only to come back up again, and then go even further up to the parking place. We returned home via the scenic route along the river bank, looking out across the river to the fields beyond, all the way down to the next bridge that crosses the river and then all the way back along the other side to Cajarc and then up the hill back to Ols. It was after we had got home again that all the gardening was done, after the day cooled off a little. The last few days have been very hot with temps of 29 and 30 degrees but today there was a slight breeze which helped to cool things down. They say we can expect a thunderstorm or two in the next few days.

This morning we went to the weekly market in our nearest town, Villeneuve, bought some cheese and bread, and a cooked chicken for supper and then sat at a table in the shady square and enjoyed some delicious coffee. And then had some more while we people-watched. What a delightful way to spend a morning. The rest of the day passed in a relaxed way until it was time for Courtney to go back to school.

We are so glad that Andre was here while the weather was good. The last time that he was with us it was mid-winter and very cold with bare trees and barren fields. Now he has seen it at its best and I think he is impressed with our area. Everything is so pretty now and this seems to be a good area for roses as almost every house seems to have a garden full of them. It is all very beautiful.

Our place in France Chapter 60

Our place in France Chapter 60

Wow! What a week! Halfway through I had to make notes to remember what we still had to do and what we had already done! Of course a little elderly forgetfulness doesn’t help either, but all in all it has been quite a busy week.

It actually started off the previous weekend when the tablets I had been put on to, to help with the awful sciatica pain and the general arthritis, seemed to be making me so ill that I would rather have just not woken up one morning. Obviously, with a bunch of new visitors on the horizon, this was not going to work, so Neels rushed off to the chemist shop to get some help. The doctors are unavailable here between Friday evening and Monday afternoon which can be quite inconvenient – especially when you need them – but the chemist was a star. He recognised the difficulty and gave us a box of my original arthritis tablets and within two days, I was as right as rain and all pain was gone. Not a moment too soon either as our first visitor, Carol, arrived on Monday afternoon together with her friend, Ann. Mutual friends picked them up from the station and everyone arrived here at about  3pm for tea, after which the rest left and Carol stayed on here. We then had two blissful days together, chatting  nineteen to the dozen. And on Wednesday evening, another friend, Liz, arrived and the chatter reached another level. On Friday Carol and her friend had to leave again so the four of us here joined up with friend and friend’s hosts for lunch in Villefranche before seeing them safely on to the train again. We heard later that day that all had gone smoothly and that they were safely back in the UK.

There was a quick transfer of bedding as Liz had been using the spare bed in Courtney’s room and could now move into the normal spare room to make way for Courtney who arrived home on Friday evening for her usual weekend at ‘home’.

Meanwhile, on the Tuesday after Carol arrived we had to go to the Prefecture in Rodez to check on the progress of our new Cartes de Sejour. It was a deliciously hot day and I could wear sandals for the first time since summer in South Africa in 2015/16. Hooray. But no cheers for the prefecture. When we applied in April we were asked to supply an income tax form which we did not have. We returned home and went to Villefranche the next day, to the tax office, to ask about it. We were told that we did not need a tax form as we had not been resident in France at the beginning of 2016, which is exactly what we had said while in Rodez. The lady who dealt with us was very kind and gave us a hand-written letter saying just this and double stamped it and signed it. At the first opportunity, we took it over to Rodez and handed it in, but not to the man who had requested it as he was not there. We were promised it would go into our file but as the days passed and we got no notification of receipt, or anything else, we began to get nervous. Our previous permit was due to run out on the 17th May so we drove across again to find out what’s what. What a shock! The fellow on duty opened our file and right on the top was a little yellow Post-it note asking for the tax form! We were horrified as we realised that processing had not even started. However we were given a temporary carte which will carry us over to some time in August. And this time we have been promised our cartes in time.

 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning all passed trying to juggle our guests, one of whom had seen most things around here while the other had never been to this area before. I have to admit at this point that both Neels and I are feeling particularly weary. Last year was exhausting as we seemed to be on the go from the moment our furniture arrived and we have not had a let up until now. Add to that my unfortunate fall last September and subsequent sciatica and it all added up to a very stressful time, with poor Neels having to become both carer and cook when I couldn't manage. I am still unable to walk easily and get tired very quickly. This is not the relaxed retirement we had been hoping to achieve. However, we still love the life here; our neighbours are wonderful and the weather is bearable. In South Africa the summers were too hot but here the winters are too cold. One can adapt to all that.

On Saturday it had been advertised that there would be a parade of 'caleches' which mr Google tells me are called caleches in English too. Don't believe it. They are small carriages or carts, which are drawn by one or two horses. It turned out to be a sort of rally where the  contestants travelled around a pre-determined  circuit and had to maintain a certain speed. It was all very professionally organised, with water to wash the horses down afterwards; a vet to check the animals over before and after; and plenty of lush green grass for the horses to munch on. The teams arrived on Saturday evening and very soon the grassy area below the community hall was filled with cars, horse-boxes, a caravan or two and, of course, carts and horses. They all assembled at nine o'clock on Sunday morning and set off at regular intervals under the watchful eye of a starter. Two hours later they were back again, with the previously immaculate carts all covered in mud and the horses panting and sweating. They had obviously had a tough run!

It was something quite out of the ordinary and the whole village turned out to watch them. A great end to the week.

Our place in France Chapter 59

Well, here we are again. Trying to fit in a bit of writing in our busy lives.

As I said last week, the beginning of the week was a bit of a washout and then speeded up to the weekend leaving me suddenly with no time to write. But all for a good cause. Tilly arrived on Saturday to be in good time to vote the following day. Then Pieter arrived on the Sunday with the intention of staying for a few days. More about that later. The voting process turned out to be quite interesting as we all went along to watch the votes being counted after the voting station closed on Sunday evening. There are only about 120 registered voters in the village and its surrounding commune and of those, only 97 turned out to vote so counting didn’t take very long. There were five people involved in the actual count – two who opened the votes and read out the names on them; two who wrote down the totals for each candidate and the Mayor, who had to send in the final tally. By this stage of the election there were only two candidates still in the running so it really wasn’t very complicated, but all very serious and as I said quite interesting, seeing that even the smallest villages get taken seriously. It was a bit like the American election where neither candidate was really the one everyone wanted to vote for, which may account for the fairly poor turnout. In the end, the lesser of the two evils came out on top but no-one was really rejoicing, just glad that the other candidate didn’t win.

Pieter’s few days at home was disrupted by him having to attend a meeting in Monaco on Monday morning, and so the two of them took off at the crack of dawn on Monday to be there in time, and only returned on Tuesday evening. Then Tilly had to leave again on Wednesday and Pieter left again on Thursday Goodness me! Where did the weekend go?!

The next week, this last week, was relatively quiet, but as the weather was grey and gloomy for most of the time, we were rather glad. It brightened up towards the end though and the past couple of days have been simply beautiful. The countryside is stunning ta the moment with all the trees in full leaf and the fields full of lush green grass. It really is the prettiest time of the year. In a few weeks, the farmers will start to cut the grass for hay and then it goes brown until the next lot grows through but it is never as good as the first growth. The French are very enthusiastic gardeners and everyone’s gardens are a blaze of colour. We shall definitely have to make a plan about improving our piece of ‘veld’. Cutting the grass regularly has made a difference to the look of it but there is a pile of rocks to one side just begging to be made into a rockery and  masse of ground that could be growing vegetables. At the moment all that is growing there are some sweetcorn  which, the seed packet tells us, will be ready to harvest in August. Not sure we can wait until then but we will have to take good care of them in the mean time.

We have two very busy weeks coming up with guests coming and going and overlapping so there may not be another chapter next week but I will try my best.

Thank you all for being so patient.

Our place in France

Sorry. No blog this week. I wasn't very well at the start of the week and then the weekend rather rushed up on us with both Tilly and Pieter coming to spend a couple of nights with us.
will tell you more next week.