Our place in France Chapter 73

Our place in France Chapter 73

Dear, dear! Another week rather like the one a fortnight ago! Very little done and very little energy expended. Although we could possibly blame the lack of energy on the weather as we have been experiencing a heat wave, a genuine one and one that has been recognised by the weather bureau. Temperatures have been sitting at 31/32 degrees for the last four days and it is said to continue until the end of this week. Oh help! At least we have enough fans to cool us down all night and certainly if we can sleep at night we are a bit better prepared to face the next day’s onslaught.

Needless to say,  we have barely ventured out of the house. Normally the air is very dry but these last few days have been unbelievably humid -  the kind of humidity that causes a person to drip from every pore while sitting doing nothing. Yeugh!

Enough of that! Pieter and Tilly took off on Monday for a short tour around south western France, camping along the way. (Could we call it ‘tour-amping, or tramping, for short?) They are ending up in Paris today and back here again tomorrow, only to leave again on Tuesday morning for an appointment in Toulouse, and then Tilly flies out to Mallorca on Wednesday. Phew! They never stop!

Meanwhile, Courtney arrived back from South Africa on Monday and for a few days we will be back to our normal household complement. She was no sooner back than the invitations started coming in for parties and sleep-overs. In the end she went off on Friday afternoon and we didn’t have to fetch her again until Sunday morning.

Which turned out to be well planned, when our new friends, who we met at the Najac night market, asked us to have dinner with them. She sent me fairly detailed directions to the house but neglected to include distances or route numbers. After driving what seemed like an awfully long way, we decided to turn around and start again from the last place that we knew was correct. Meanwhile, I got out the GPS and began to fire it up to direct us. When we were virtually back at the ‘last known place’, the GPS finally came alive and said that we had to retrace our route back to where we had turned, and hey presto! a hundred metres around the corner was our destination! Would you believe it?

We were treated to a wonderful meal, starting with the most amazing sweet corn and all vegetables picked from the garden. A fantastic effort. Even the dessert was served with raspberries from the garden. It makes our efforts look very pathetic and has inspired us to try for bigger and better things next year.

No pictures this week as, although we always have the camera with us, there has just been nothing to ‘picture’. Perhaps next time.