Our place in France Chapter 77

Well now! Let me see! What have we done this week that wasn’t too boring for readers? Sadly the beginning of the week was miserable weather and cold as well, so Jenny had a very quiet time with us. I think the high spot of those few days was Pieter treating us all to a superb lunch in Villefranche. Although the deal was not completely final we thought it was a good opportunity to drink to Pieter’s and Tilly’s health and to congratulate them on the purchase of a house here in France. The next day, Jenny left on a very convoluted flight plan, for South Africa. She had to change planes three times along the way and must have been completely tired out by the time she arrived home, but still went off to work to finish the day. Once there, I am not sure she still agreed with her original principles though – she had 900 e-mails waiting for her!

Although we hadn’t done much, it still made a draught when she left. I think I really like to have my chickens around and feel bereft when they leave to go back to their normal lives.

During this past week, while we have had too many people in the house and not enough beds, Pieter, Tilly and Jack have been sleeping in the neighbour’s gite , to relieve the pressure a bit. It has been very useful, to say the least. And they were able to stay on over this weekend too when Courtney had a friend to stay. Next week they will move back in with us and things can return to normal.

Meanwhile, Pieter has decided to take his car apart again and replace some worn parts. This seems to be a fairly common occurrence these days, not because the car is always wearing out, but I get the feeling that he enjoys working on it. It keeps him and Neels out of mischief though so I am not complaining.

To set minds at rest in my old embroidery group, I have to say that I have not been entirely idle lately. After the terrible chilblains I suffered at the beginning of 2016, I decided I would not let that happen again and have taken to wearing a pair of long bed socks which I knitted in wool and which do the job of keeping my toes warm and toasty. Having asked around unsuccessfully, for a pattern, I just went ahead and knitted them and they work perfectly. I made a rectangle with a tapered end, and then joined the side edges, which forms a seam along the underneath of my foot and up the back of the leg. A twisted cord threaded though the knitting just above the ankle keeps them from slipping off while a sleep. Perfect!

As well as that, I have been knitting little eight-inch dolls without much idea of what I was going to do with them. I had ideas of trying to sell them on a Christmas Fete, which I may well still do, or perhaps donate them to a worthy cause of some sort. I still haven’t decided yet, but I now have six little dolls and the ‘family’ is growing.

I also have a secret project on the go which can only be done at certain times when certain persons are not around. Very mysterious, isn’t it? This project is a tapestry but you will all have to wait until it is complete before I can show it to you. It was a pretty ambitious thing to start, I feel, as I haven’t been able to see properly for at least four months. Finding the correct hole to make the next stitch has, at times, been a real trial but I am getting there. I hope to have it complete by the end of November, if not before.

During the week when we had Jack to ourselves for the day, he and Neels put together a kit of a little balsa wood airplane. It was a very simple kit but it engrossed the two of them for a while. The pictures of them doing it are really quite sweet and indicate how well Jack has fitted into our household and our way of life. He is such a dear little boy – quite smart and with an amazing vocabulary in English, French and Spanish. Not bad for a five-year-old.

Sometimes, I am amazed at the care that has been taken to preserve ancient artefacts and historical buildings. At other times I am frustrated by the lack of information available about these things. For example, while returning from Toulouse where we had taken Jenny to catch the plane home, Pieter was driving and suddenly announced that this time, we were going to ‘find out what the little building was at the end of the path’. We were quite mystified until he pulled up and we saw a beautifully laid out path bounded by low stone walls, leading to a small building. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a well with a small cover erected over it. There was no village or other habitation close by, so there appeared to be no reason for having a well there, but attached to the wall was a very tatty notice referring to it as the Spring of Pleyjean. The notice had had more information but that had long since weathered away. What a shame. Getting home again, both of us  made straight for our computers to find out if Mr Google could shed any light but Mr Google was, for once, dumb. Never mind, we thought we will go to the Tourist Information in Villeneuve in the morning and they will know all about it. Ha! Ha! The poor little lady had never heard of it, but admitted that it was probably out of her radius and referred us to another tourist office. Hmmph! We haven’t had a chance to go to this other office yet but at this rate I am not holding my breath.

Our place in France Chapter 76

Summer is quite definitely on the wane although autumn is not yet properly here, if the night-time temperatures are anything to go by. At present we are wavering between lighting the wood-burner and saving wood, with saving wood winning. Instead we have a gas heater in the lounge but it doesn’t have the same effect as a glowing stove does. However, it does make warmth which is the main thing. A few days ago I happened to see the forecast temperatures for Hermanus and Ols, one after the other and they were identical at 19 degrees!

We started the week with a bang by inviting the neighbours over for a  drinks and snacks party. Tilly did all sorts of clever thing with snacks and we ended up with a really attractive table. It looked like a lot of food to me and I had visions of eating sausage rolls and other snacks for days to come but once the guests started thawing out a little, the food disappeared like fog on a sunny morning

After that it was Wednesday before there was more action. This was when Pieter, Tilly and Jack all left. Jack was meeting his grandmother in Toulouse and the two of them were flying off to the UK to go to Legoland – excitement itself! So Pieter and Tilly dropped him off at the appointed time and then continued on their tour of the French countryside, arranging to collect him again on his return on Sunday. Meanwhile Jenny had arrived in France a couple of days earlier and had gone to visit her aunt for a short stay. We all met up in Auch where we had a lovely lunch before brining Jenny back here. She and Ryan were here about this time last year and she was pleasingly enthusiastic about the small changes we have made around the house since she was here. The next morning we had a few chores to do and then went off to show her the dolmens that are to be found around in the woods. The origins of these strange structures is still mainly unknown although the general consensus appears to be that they area burial mounds. Two long stones form the sides with a huge flat stone on the top, and we believe that the whole was then covered in earth and grass to form a mound. They are alleged to be about 4000-5000 years old, and in the intervening time, the earth, grass and any small stones have been blown away or washed away, or perhaps, even dug away by wild animals. From time to time, archaeologist have tried to dig below the stones but there is nothing to be found and the thought is that a body would have been laid on the surface and the stones erected around it. A prehistoric mystery!

On Saturday with Courtney home from school and able to take a bit of time off from studying, we all went to Conques. This town is and always was, a major stopping point on the Route de Santiago de Compostela. It has an enormous cathedral whose windows were badly damaged during the war, but which have been replaced by a very well thought of artist, Pierre  Soulages. Personally , I don’t care for them as I prefer the rich colours of stained glass and his windows are in shades of grey and clear glass, but people rave about them so they must have some merit. Behind the cathedral, stands a massive stone-built building which is now pilgrim accommodation, , but was previously accommodation for the monks. There are still a few monks in residence but only a handful. The houses which surround the complex are quaintly medieval and make a charming back ground to the views one gets around the town. We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours wandering around the town hoping to be able to get into the cathedral, but there was a very long wedding service going on there and by the time we left again they had still not finished. Also, by the time we left, the clouds had come over and it was just beginning to spit with rain, so, as the parking area was a short distance away from the town and we would have got quite wet, had we stayed, we decided to leave that for next time.

On the way out of town, we passed a small bakery and bought a ‘Gateau a la Broche’ which Jenny had been wanting to taste. This is a regional speciality, and is a type of cake-on-a-spit. It is made by pouring a type of batter mixture on to a tapered rod that is held over a heat source and ends up forming a hollow, conical, pastry like delicacy. We really need more information about it as by itself it is a bit dry and we all felt that the hollow par should perhaps have been filled with something like whipped cream or thick custard. However, on its own, it was fairly tasty.

Our place in France Chapter 75

For all the dashing back and forth that we seem to have done this week, we really have very little to show for it. On Monday when Courtney started school again, she had found out that the new girls had to be there at 8 am but those who were ‘old hands’ only had to be back by 10.30. So in we went at the appointed time with her dragging a large suitcase full of her clothes and bed-linen. She warned us that we would probably have to fetch her again on Friday, when she brought it home again as the bus that brings them is quite small and there is no room for large bags. One of her friends arrived at the same time and the two of them beetled off together talking nineteen to the dozen.

On Wednesday, she had asked us to collect her again when school finished at midday, but didn’t actually say why. Fearing that homesickness may be setting in, we asked no questions but went fetch her. We subsequently discovered that she had hoped to catch up with Pieter and Tilly but they had left on Tuesday, not planning to be back before Saturday. Anyway I think she enjoyed her time back here – sort of, easing her way back into school routine. No sign of homesickness at all, thank goodness.

On Thursday , she didn’t have to be back at an unearthly hour of the morning, due to a teacher being off sick, but I doubt we will always be so lucky. But then, she doesn’t come home every Wednesday as a rule. Then we had to go back into town on Thursday evening as we had a doctors appointment to have our prescriptions repeated. They will only give a prescription that is valid for three months and will not repeat it without actually seeing you again. What a nuisance! But visits to our doctor are quite entertaining. He loves to talk and although we generally try to back out of staying too long, this time we were well and truly caught. However, when we went to the rooms on Wednesday morning before picking up Courtney, to make the appointment, I happened to get a peek at the appointment book and saw that our two were the last of the day. I should jolly well think so! They were for7.30 pm! Anyway, true to form he started chatting and told us that he was genuine wine fundi with an enormous cellar beneath his house where he had a stock of over 2000 bottles of wine. Way out of our league, I fear. Anyway it was all interesting and we listened as he told us all about the best wines and the best vineyards; who the wine-makers are and which ones are personal friends of his and so on and so on. At one stage he asked if we had a few minutes to spare, which we assured him we had, but asked if he had the time to spare. Oh ‘No problem’ he replied and so we carried on chatting. We were, after all, his last patients of the day. After an extremely interesting half-hour or so, over and above our scheduled appointment which always include a full once over check-up, we ambled out of the consulting room and were absolutely mortified to find his real ‘last’ patient sitting waiting, patiently, in the waiting room. In total embarrassment, we crept out and scuttled away to the car.

On Friday morning we were up with sparrows in order to be at the hospital in Villefranche at 8 am, For my final eye treatment. At least all these early mornings seem to be bearing fruit and my vision is improving……I think. After that we had to do some shopping for a party that Courtney was having for her French friends on Saturday night, and wonder of wonders, we were home again at 10.30 which is the time we are usually stumbling down the stairs to have a cup of coffee. It is really amazing what one can achieve by early rising, but I’m not sure that it suits our way of life!

Also on Friday we collected Courtney again, after school (no room in the bus, remember, for bags), but this was not so bad as she also had an appointment with the doctor – the same one, to be registered for reimbursement by the social security. This time he jumped us up the queue which was almost as embarrassing as the previous evening, but this time I went in with Courtney and we had no chatting about wine, historic villages, beauty spots or anything else! Ten minutes later we were out again with the required forms in our hands, and our heads held high.

Saturday was busy as we prepared for the party. We had borrowed the neighbours’ gite for the night as there was no way that we could have accommodated 11 rowdy teenage girls for the night. They did at least come and have supper here (do-it-yourself hamburgers with chips and salad, and numerous sauces, followed by watermelon and the piece de resistance, a milktart baked by Courtney herself) They took popcorn, sweets and a huge bowl of pretzels off with them after supper and said they were going to watch movies and play games. The weather was not really conducive to anything more adventurous than that as it was cool and rainy – a decided change from a few days ago. The girls were collected by their parents at about 11 on Sunday morning after having had all the makings for breakfast already in the gite. When we went to see how thay were getting on at about 9 am, they were all still in pyjamas, still all talking all the time, sitting around a low table in the lounge that was littered with croissants, rolls, ham, cheese, butter and jam. I think they all had a good time.

Our place in France Chapter 74

I think we have landed in the doldrums as we come to the end of yet another uneventful week. The weather has changed and is getting decidedly cooler. We have even put the duvet back on the bed and are enjoying snuggling down into its cosy warmth at night. The days are getting shorter too, although they have been brilliant, with clear sunny days and gorgeous still evenings. It must be the start of autumn as a few of the trees have begun to change into their wonderful reds, yellows and browns. The up side of that though, is that once all the leaves have dropped off, the views through the bare trees are amazing. All sorts of hidden gems suddenly become visible that previously were obscured. So, roll on winter!

Pieter and Tilly arrived back on Monday afternoon, full of glee, after a successful business trip to Paris. We barely had time to say ‘Hi! And Bye! before they left again on Tuesday morning for Pieter to keep an appointment in Toulouse They then spent the night in the Toulouse area so that Tilly would be close to the airport to fly back to Malllorca on Wednesday. These two certainly get around.

Now Pieter is back with us and having a wonderful time exploring the area by bicycle and just loving it. We have obviously got a bit blasé about the beautiful country we live in now and don’t see a lot of the things that he has seen and marvelled at. On the strength of that thought we went off this afternoon to look for two things, a dolmen which was supposed to be almost outside our door, and a Neolithic cave which was supposed to be down a little used track not much further away. The dolmen we found with no trouble and had a good laugh at ourselves for having missed it previously. It is right next to the road and the stone wall was built up to the one end of it and continued on the other side again. The shrubs have grown around the whole thing and so it just looks like part of the boundary fence. I think we could be forgiven for not seeing it.

As for the cave, well that is another story. We had very hazy directions on how to get there and the final part of the directions was to ‘take an untarred track off to the right’. At that point we may well have chosen the wrong track but once committed we had to continue on, purely because there was nowhere to turn around. As we progressed, the undergrowth encroached ever more onto the roadway and poor Neels was wincing and cursing as sharp branches scraped across the car’s paintwork. When we finally came to a place to turn around, which was eventually accomplished after a 99-point turn, Neels and I looked around a bit for any sign of a cave but the land was much too flat for anything like that. Then, armed with a pair of side-cutters and a Leatherman, we walked back up the track clipping off some of the branches that had scratched the car on the way down. Walking the track gave us a good chance to really look at it, and quite honestly, one could hardly imagine that anyone had been down there for many years. The stone walls were not completely tumble-down but were covered with a heavy growth of moss; the surrounding trees and bushes crowded in on the track and almost seemed to close it off when looking ahead. The whole place had a wonderful greenish light which prompted me to take the only photograph that I have to show for the whole week.

Not an action-packed week as you can see but a very pleasant one all the same. Don’t despair – there will be something interesting to tell fairly soon, I hope.