Our place in France Chapter 96

I really apol0gise for there being no chapter of the blog last SundayMonday but things will become clearer as you read on.

The second week of our holiday was lovely – as we knew it would be. Another cosily warm house and delicious food prepared by Tilly. What more could we ask for? Better weather, I suppose, but this is northern hemisphere winter so we must just accept what we get and hunker down until it is over. A bonus, in a way, was the snow storm we had on Tuesday which dumped about 5 cms of snow everywhere. As this is almost unheard of in that area of France, traffic was battling and when Pieter and Tilly went to do some shopping in the morning, they passed a number of cars that had slid off the road into the ditch. I think the towing service was kept busy all day. Little Jack though thought it was marvellous of course, and was a keen starter when building a snow man was suggested. The three men braved the icy cold to build a presentable ‘Snowy’ and then Jack pelted it with snow balls and knocked half its face off!

The snow lasted all day and probably half the night, but by morning most of it had melted and by midday there was virtually nothing to show for the beautiful snowy vistas of the previous day. I was told off by the family for having said that we are jinxed whenever we go somewhere new, because it always invites weather disruptions of epic proportions, after which Tilly was brave enough to say ‘Oh well, it is just as well you are coming to us because nothing really disastrous happens here’. Ha Ha!

While we were in that part of France, we took a drive one day to look up some old friends and had a chat-filled afternoon catching up on all the news. It was really such fun to drive around the areas that we know so well and to recognise places that we had seen before.

But there is down-side to every up-side, and in my case it was the wonderfully soft beds both at Constant and at Pieter and Tilly’s house. Soft beds are not good for bad backs and by the time we left there I could barely walk, and certainly couldn’t walk without a walking stick. It was a really depressing thought that although I had done some walking while we were away, my back and hips had given way again. Which is why, by the time we arrived back home again, the last thing on my mind was writing the blog, or even an apology for there not being one.

The good news is that after nearly a week in my own firm bed, I have almost ditched the walking stick and am feeling much, much better. The moral of the story is that one should always take good care of one’s self even if it means foregoing a soft springy bed in favour of a harder one.

All things being equal, there should be another chapter at the end of this week and then we will be back to normal.