Our place in France

There is no blog this week, for which I apologise, but hopefully next week will have some news

Our place in France Chapter 91

It has rained every day this week and for the past two days it has rained continuously day and night. The surrounding countryside is becoming very soggy and fields are flooded in some areas. We only wish we could send some of it to Cape Town which is rapidly approaching Day Zero when they will run out of drinking water. We certainly don’t need quite so much here.

As a result our ventures to the great outside world have been limited to the very minimum – once to the chemist to pick up some tablets and once to get the gas bottle refilled – before scuttling back home to the warmth of the house. And yes, to those of you who know our house and how cold it can get, it was noticeably warmer than outside. Mind you, it was nice and warm in the car too, which is why we drove around a bit after picking up our tablets from the chemist, looking at the aftermath of days of rain. Everything is waterlogged and everything that even resembles a stream is running strongly. I am so glad we live on the top of a rise.

France has official sales twice a year, in January and June/July and there are some amazing bargains to be had, if you are looking for anything to buy. The sales cover all goods including foodstuffs, clothing and appliances, and the shops are crowded all the time as more items are brought out to add to the goods already on sale. It appears to us that many people save up their spending money just for the sales and then go mad. I saw a lady the other day with a whole trolley full of towels – she must have had twenty or more – but perhaps she runs a guest house and replaces her linen every time there are sales. It would certainly make sense.

The start of this week was a bad one for me. My computer was having a tantrum and the cursor kept leaping about so that I had to keep cutting out what I had just typed and paste it in where it should have been. It has done this previously but I thought we had overcome the problem. Then the computer and printer decided not to talk to each other and a few things that should have had attachments didn’t get them or only had half the attachment. When I had had enough of being messed around by a machine, I thought I would make a batch of rusks but was distracted half way through and ended up baking them on microwave for an hour! Needless to say the result could have been used in a building project Disaster!! I then gave up for the day and postponed all activities to the following day when I had more success. It must be all the damp, I think. My brain is becoming as soggy as the fields around 

Our place in France Chapter 90

I have often written about events ad other things that we find strange, odd and different about our life in France. Seldom have I listed any household chores which are different to the South African way of doing things. Take, for example, the simple matter of getting the washing dry in Winter. In South Afica it was a simple matter – do the washing on a sunny day (almost every day),, hang it outside on the line and collect it in again a few hours later, all perfectly dried. Here, the weather is not so co-operative. We wash when it becomes necessary because the dirty clothes basket is overflowing – quite often every second day if there are a lot of us in the house. After spin-drying, clothes etc are hung on a pull-up rail in the cellar which is dry but very cold. After a day or two, or when pushed by the next load of washing, that lot is moved up to an expanding rail in the dining room and after a another two days is moved again up to a wooden clothes horse in our bedroom which stands in front of a heather which is permanently on After a couple of days there, it can be removed, folded up and put away. That is a process over six to seven days as against the few hours in SA. Of course in Summer it is another story. Then, it is so hot and dry that I barely have time to fill the windy-dry with washing before the first things are dry. People ask us why  we don’t have a tumble dryer but the answer is simple – they gobble electricity at a vast rate and electricity is expensive here. It would have been nice to have had our old one here but I just know that the temptation to use it all the time would have been too great to resist. Also it was a very old one and newer driers are far more sophisticated, use less power and are designed to dry washing straight from the washing machine. Perhaps one day!

Apart from anything else, it must be good for us. Down the stairs to the cellar and back up with a basket of washing; up the stairs to the bedroom with a full basket and down again to the living room to carry on with daily life. Not quite the same as a five kilometre run, but then we wouldn’t attempt that anyway.

Having not one but two teenagers in the house for the past week has been, to say the least, interesting. They are so different in a lot of respects; so alike in others. One thing they have in common is their total addiction to their mobile phones. Goodness knows what they do on their phones all the time but it keeps them occupied. Cassidy attended school with Courtney for most of this past week and I think Cass found it slightly intimidating at first although Courtney’s friends soon made her feel welcome. At least she now has a feeling for the school system here, which takes a bit of getting used to. No lessons are shorter than an hour and are often two and three hours long. School starts at 8 am and finishes at 6pm but every Wednesday is free from 1 pm and weekends are free. Very little sport is organised by the school but scholars are free to join sporting clubs and associations, but membership of these is not free as is the schooling. There are no uniforms to wear and the pupils are allowed a remarkable amount of freedom both in and out of the classroom. I get the feeling that they are treated as adults far sooner than in SA, so that, by the time they leave school they are actually ready to face the world with confidence and a certain amount of sophistication. Or make that streetwisdom.

This week we hope to get back to our normal routine. We will be back to the usual three in the house and just the two of us during the week. This is the way we like to be although we are always ready to welcome guests.

During the past week, we have been receiving visits from various heating and double-glazing representatives. We are investigating the possibility of putting in a couple of reverse-cycle air conditioners as well as double-glazing the few windows that were never done. If one of them comes up with a reasonable quote we may be able to get a grant from the state for being eco-friendly, but we will have to wait and see. Meanwhile it is interesting to hear the differing ideas that the various chaps have about what they think is our best option. I have to admit that being warm without vast effort is very enticing but we also have to be able to survive financially afterwards too. It would be wonderful if our President would step down and let the next man get on with straightening out the country, as this might well improve the rate of exchange between the Rand and the Euro and make life a little easier for us. But if not, well, so be it.

Our place in France Chapter 89

Wishing all my readers a very happy New Year and all the very best in the year to come..

Here we are again, starting a new year, our third to be, in France. In the end, we didn’t have a white Christmas although it was certainly cold enough at times for snow to fall. Instead, we went down south to celebrate with Pieter and Tilly in their new house. It was a wonderful idea from all points of view – being a couple of hundred kilometres south, it was also a few degrees warmer and the house is centrally heated which was bliss. Tilly relay pushed the boat out for us and treated us to a lavish spread on Christmas Eve followed by an almost equally lavish spread on Christmas Day. We started with foie gras on slices of baguette which made me a bit apprehensive as I have only tasted it once and before and really didn’t like, but then it was the tinned variety. This time it was fresh and very tasty. I will certainly have it again if I get the chance. Her roast duck was superb – tender and juicy – and accompanied by numerous vegetables, among them some Jerusalem artichokes which I haven’t even seen for ages but which I love. We used to grow them in Rheenendal and I recall them being particularly delicious, as these were. These are the artichokes that grow under the ground and have a long above ground stalk surmounted b a bright yellow flower similar to a sunflower. I think they get their name from the French for sunflower (girasol) which has been corrupted by the non-French speakers to Jerusalem. This was followed by a hot goat’s cheese salad and then the cheese, and finally a Buche Noel which is a traditional cake which is similar to a Swiss roll but iced and decorated to look like a Yule Log. To wash this all down we managed to polish off a Magnum of champagne! Well…... there were six of us!

Next day we were treated to another large meal and it was only through our pleading that she cut it down a bit. We had an oven baked salmon and, of course, it was delicious! One thing you can be sure of and that is that if Tilly feeds you, you will never want for food! The following day Courtney, Neels and I started our trek home again while our hosts went off to Mallorca.

Back home again, w2e scurried around preparing the house for the Cape Town family who were due to arrive on the 30^th. There was great celebration when they arrived as this is a permanent move and not just a holiday.

On the following day we had a second Christmas with a dinner to suit and presents for all which seemed to go down well. Our dinner was somewhat lower key and only consisted of three courses. In this case, our starter was a hot goat’s cheese salad followed by a roast chicken (which I would have labelled as a Cornish hen and which tipped the scale at just over two and a half kilograms) with a variety of vegetables, and then for dessert, Courtney and I had made our own Buche Noel and she had decorated it to look like a log. There was nothing left of it by the time we had finished our meal!

The girls had been invited out to a New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house, so at about six that evening we took them to the house with Andre and Leigh arranging to fetch them just after midnight. Sadly they couldn’t stay overnight as the rest of the guests were doing, as the family were due to move on the following morning. And, all of a sudden we were alone again!

This pleasant state lasted for a few days before we packed a little suitcase and went to see how the family were getting on in their rental house. Once again, being a little further south, the weather was more pleasant, although still cold, and the house was centrally heated. We are going to have to make a plan about this house!

When we returned, we brought both the girls with us. Courtney had to start school again on Monday and Cassidy has permission to attend classes with Courtney for the week, to get a feel for the French system. Courtney always maintains that the few days she spent with her friend Connie, in Carcassone, were the best days she could have had prior to starting school here, so we are hoping the same will apply to Cassidy.

By some miracle, I managed to finish the tapestry cushion for Courtney’s present and it seems as if it was a success. Not my finest work to date, I have to admit, but she seems to love it so I am happy.

So now we are up to date. All the Christmas decorations were taken down on the 6^th in order to prevent the house from being carried away by the witches, the ghosties or Ghoulies and we are now all set to face a brand new year. We haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions as we know that we are hopeless at keeping them. We prefer to live life as it comes and hope it always turns out the way we want it to. Here’s hoping you all had  as good a Christmas and New Year as we did and are also ready to face a another 365 days.