Pround grandparents

Ste Marcelle

Lovely Alice has been involved in the campaign to save her school.

Village schools are dear to our hearts as several were closed in our part of Surrey during the 1980s causing all sorts of distress to parents and stupidly long journies to school for very young children. Alice's mother and her twin sister were two of the three first pupils at the re-opened village school which had been closed by the council but was run by an enthusiastic group of parents and concerned villagers. Fortunately, Alice's school has been given a stay of execution - for now. Alice will be moving on in September anyway but her ties with the village of Buildwas where she has attended the school for the last 6 years will be constant and she cares for the younger brothers and sisters of her friends who will continue the campaign to keep the small school - and the heart of the village - alive.

Alice had an item published on the CBBC Newsround Press Pack website yesterday.

Lord Lucan?

Ste Martine

Looking at the local paper yesterday I noticed their top story for the Lot department was about a British couple.

Much against my better judgement the story led to me looking at The Sun on-line. I wish I hadn't - ugh. The story is here if you really want to take a look at that revolting newspaper's website.

If you don't, I'll fill you in.

Some guy decided to fake his suicide (sound familiar?) by 'disappearing' on a ferry in the Irish Sea. A couple of months later he got in contact with his wife who was only too pleased to see him and they went off together to live in hiding. This all happened 14 years ago. His debts were paid off. Then he allegedly got a job as a security guard in the DSS office in Belfast. Finally, a couple of years ago they moved to France where they have been drawing pensions not only in the false identities they assumed but in his own name too.

You couldn't make it up, could you? The mistake they made was to let their four children know the whole story. A secret they kept for all this time until one daughter finally told all.

The only question is: Why did she wait so long? She and her siblings were apparently all appalled at the deceit and only one of them still speaks to their parents.

I suppose it is very easy for someone to come and live over here and take a new identity, settle down in one of the many remote cottages and have little to do with anyone else. I expect there are some people who do want to get away from their previous lives for whatever reason. But I do wonder if Lord Lucan might be living just around the corner?

Dispelling a myth

St Gildas

Before I get going, I want to have a moan about Masterchef. Last night's was very good and three ladies were head to head in the final part. IMHO the best girl won. An 18 year old with good ideas and lots of potential. The two runners up were extremely ungracious in their defeat, unlike all the other rounds so far where the runners up have been very supportive and congratulated the winner. It makes you almost ashamed to be a woman. Almost, I said!

Now, I want to dispel a myth.

It may come as a shock to you there in Brownland but French drivers are not all maniacs.

Having driven over here every year since 1981 I would agree that, yes, in the past there was some frightening, hair-raising driving to be seen on any road you care to mention, but in recent years we have really noticed a difference.

Driving back from town this lunch-time (I only really went shopping to escape the paint fumes for a while), I followed Mr Slow at a steady 70 kilometres per hour for about twenty minutes of twisty, turny roads which gave me a little time to reflect.

Speed on the motorways used to be quite terrifying. The limit here is 130 kilometres per hour, reducing to 120 in poor visibility or rain. In days gone by we would drive the 700 kilometres from Calais, almost all on the motorway at a steady 130 kph only to be overtaken time and time again. More recently it is very rare to be overtaken at that speed.

Just a second. You're asking if we really did stick to the speed limit ourselves - yes you are, I can hear you. The truth is ... well, mostly. Without cruise control it's difficult to stick to the same speed but I would say that we averaged 130 most of the time. Jon will probably say that he did and I didn't but I think it would average out that way.

If you are overtaken these days on a minor road, it is most likely to be by a young person, music blaring, often doing silly-kilometres-per-hour and just before a bend. It makes you slow down more yourself. But that's youth for you, they all have to be somewhere yesterday.

A few years after we first bought our house we were surprised on one visit to find black cut out silhouettes of people here and there along the side of the road. These were meant to represent people who were killed at a particular point. There were three just at the bottom of our driveway. It's a good job we don't believe in ghosts or we might live in fear of being haunted.

The black shapes disappeared in winter only to be replaced the following summer but they haven't been around for a few years now.

Recently the local paper published the number of road traffic accidents in our department for 2007. So many killed, so many fatally injured and so on. It does make you stop and think. In fact the local paper which is published daily always reports any injury or fatal road accident. Can you imagine if that happened in the UK - there would have to be a newspaper just for RTAs.

Anyway. I just wanted to say. Not all French people drive like madmen. And by the way, I said that Mr Slow (elderly gent in a hat, big dog on the back seat, cigarette hanging out of his mouth - the man not the dog), kept at a steady 70 kph. That included through a couple of villages where the speed limit is 50 kph - maybe he does have a cruise control!

What's that smell?

Ste Maureen

Happy Birthday to Pam xxxx

Decided to write today while watching paint dry - not paint actually, wax.

It's my turn to be on my knees in the bedroom today and I'm waxing the floor. So far I've managed to get three coats on half of the floor and two coats on another quarter. The house stinks of paraffin so I'm quite determined to get it all finished today and try to clear the air.

The air won't be clear for very long because Jon will be undercoating and glossing tomorrow which will be just as smelly.I never found a solution to the awful headaches I get from paint fumes. We open the windows as much as we can to let them out but I still always end up with a mega 48 hour migraine-type headache. We've even tried the so-called 'odourless' paints. I don't know who decides they are odourless but I think it must be someone with no sense of smell at all!

Wouldn't it be more pleasant if 'they' came up with pleasantly scented paint and other DIY products? I can just imagine it. The floor would smell of freshly mown grass while I'm waxing it, and the walls could smell of roses and stocks.

Do you get the feeling I'm looking forward to the summer?

A little warmth

Ste Angèle

The mornings have remained very cold. Deep frosts freeze the cat's water bowl overnight and the world is very white until about 10.30am.

Lunchtimes have been quite different for the last week. We've been able to sit outside with a cuppa or sometimes a beer enjoying the warmth of a January sun which has plenty of heat in it but which, sadly, disappears behind the hill far too soon. Sitting outside today (with a cuppa) we even heard the odd cricket quietly chirruping away in the distance. A couple of male chaffinches were arguing at the top of a tree and the distant squeal of a buzzard made us think that, just maybe, spring might be on its way.

A glance through last years diary though makes us less complacent. 22 degrees one February lunch time but I recorded that March 21st was 'the coldest day yet'. Brrrrr.

We've taken a day off today, which gives me the opportunity to catch up on some reading. For my sins I now belong to no less than three reading groups. The English Bookshop at Gourdon (http://www.booksandcompany.co.uk/) has two reading groups and I have recently joined one of them with a friend, we'll be going along to our first meeting on Thursday and I have a very interesting book to read. The Perfect Summer, buy Juliet Nicholson is a fascinating book about the summer of 1911; a new King will be crowned, the country has just come out of mourning for Edward VII and the difference between the rich and poor is wider than the Atlantic Ocean. I'm really enjoying the read which is so different from the second book club's choice for January 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'. This novel was dramatised on Woman's Hour on Radio 4 earlier this month. I avoided listening to it as I was in the middle of the book at the time and had been advised that it would be a bad idea to hear the end before I'd read it.

'Kevin' was a really harrowing read but I'm so glad I did get through it. Not to be read if you are feeling depressed (it would probably make you suicidal) but very well written, even though I did have one of the most awful American accents reading it 'to' me.

The latest group I have joined is a really good idea. It is a postal book group. Twelve people, all living in France and some of them French have selected a book each from their collection. The idea is that you send it on to one person on the list and you receive another book from another member. By the end of 12 months we should receive our own book back again. It's quite exciting not knowing what the next book will be.

With all this reading - and Jon is reading the books too even though he only belongs to one of the groups - it's a good job we are fast readers. The next job is to make a selection of books for our long flights - something gripping but not too heavy in weight.

Silent Saturday #3

Ste Paule


Famous building, November 2004

Just call me Dusty

St Artémis

Not Dusty Bin, nor Dusty Miller, but Very Dusty.

Since Jon is still sanding the bedroom floor, I decided to tackle the loft this morning. We've been using it as a dumping ground for so long now that it needed sorting out. I really went up there to look for some spring clothes to take to Hong Kong with us next month but you know how it is; one minute you're moving a couple of things out of the way and the next minute you're doing a major clear up and reorganisation.

All the camping equipment is up there, don't ask me why, we haven't been camping for 10 years now but the tent did come in handy last summer when my sister-in-law came to visit and couldn't sleep in the house because she is severely asthmatic and the cats would have caused her no end of problems. So, all the camping equipment is in one area of the loft now.

All the baby equipment is up there too. Travel cot, two car seats, toys, pushchairs. Hopefully they will get used again this year depending on whether Lizzie can come over soon after the new baby is born. Leo will have to have the travel cot so baby will have to sleep, in time honoured fashion in this family, in the bottom drawer of my Grandfather's tallboy. We've all slept there at one time or another when we were babies. We can make it very comfortable for a little scrap who doesn't yet sit up or crawl.

Then there are the Christmas decorations, they are in another area next to the spare bedding, double duvets, single duvets, pillows, spare sheets and bedcovers. All for those 'just in case' visitors.

Finally, in a wardrobe with far too many clothes (I really must go through and throw lots of them away), are too many years worth of Open University course books. The French and Spanish courses are downstairs because one day I really will find time to go through them all again (come back in 2020 if I'm still alive) but up in the attic are three of Jon's courses, Arts and Music, and my English course, the French and Italian history course and the Film and Television History course. Part with them? No, never. The trouble with studying with the OU whilst working full time and too long hours is that you have to be quite selective in how deep you go into the course so I worked really hard on the areas I knew I was strong in and not so hard in the other areas (French and Italian politics 1943 - 73) but I so want to go back and re-read these courses, and I want to do the music courses too - all in my own time and no exam at the end - no stress, no time limits. Bliss.

Anyway back to the point. Whilst moving all this stuff around and tidying up, I had to sweep away about 10 years of dust and debris - the loft is not yet insulated (this summer's job) and all sorts of stuff gets blown through the roof. So while Jon was making dust by sanding the bedroom floor, I was up in the loft creating a little dust storm of my own.

Now we're having a cuppa and waiting for the dust to settle - guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

Out with the old

St Timothée

Happy Saint's Day, Tim!!

We were up early (for us) before 9am and out of the house by 9.45 to make a sortie to our local DIY store. Jon needed a day off from crawling around on his knees sanding things, so we went to buy all the bits and pieces we need to finish decorating the bedroom-that-will-be-the-lounge.

Two DIY stores later we had found the correct colour paint, more sand paper and a new sander (all of 6, yes 6 Euros and just in case the old one broke with the effort). We came back minus the wax for the floor but, hell, if we only came back with one missing item that was still a record.

On the way home we chose the 'pretty route'. Empty minor roads all the way and views to die for.

In the summer this route passes through vineyards as far as the eye can see, vines heaving with grapes ready to make the next years' black Cahors wine. Last time we passed through (just before Christmas) the vines were all looking very sorry having been stripped of the 2007 harvest and left to mope a while.

Today though, most of the acres were stripped back to just one shoot in preparation for the new year's growth. How they managed to prune these acres and acres of vines in a few short weeks is incredible.

We have never yet passsed through when people have been working in the yards. It reminds me the story of the Brownies doing the housework when no-one else was looking.

I wonder how I could ge me one of those?

Masterchef

St Barnard

You may have guessed that I am a bit of a foodie, as is Jon. We like to prepare and cook food from all over the world. Yesterday was Vietnamese - delicious - tonight is Indian.

So it won't come as any surprise when I say that we have become addicted to the new Masterchef series on BBC2.

'Cooking doesn't get tougher than this' Gregg Wallace tells us every night. Well, they are pretty tough on the contestants. Quite rightly too. We have seen some disasters and some plates of food that, quite frankly, neither of us would touch either.

On the other hand we have seen some spectacular plates of food too, I feel quite inspired to go and make a nice cassoulet of broad beans and chorizo and plonk a nicely cooked (sustainable) piece of cod on top.

It made me wonder what happened to last years' winner Steven Wallis. So with the help of Mr Google I found him and I've added his blog to my list of favourites.

It's a blog full of interesting recipes but also the most amazing photography. I do hope you have a browse and enjoy it.

Floors, walls, food and travel

St Vincent

Jon got quite animated when I said I thought I would blog about how well he is doing in the bedroom.

No, Jon. This is about your decorating prowess.

The bedroom carpet, which was here when we bought the house, has obviously been down for years. We didn't do anything while we weren't living here but last summer we removed it. It weighed a ton as it seems to have been laid on scree, most of which came up with the carpet. Jon has been scraping up the rest of it, diligently clearing out the bits stuck between the floor boards and preparing the floor for a sanding. The other floors upstairs are beautiful chestnut, waxed and warm coloured. We want to make them the same right through.

Jon has finally managed to clean the floor and has now removed the remaining scraps of wallpaper and filled all the holes (cursing at the time about how awful the plastering is). This is all in preparation for decorating the room in a nice warm cream with plum coloured alcoves once the floor is finished.

We are hoping to finish this room before we jet off for our holiday in three weeks time but we're not convinced it will happen.

Thinking about our holiday has inspired me to cook more Eastern cuisine. On Saturday we had a very nice Malay seafood menu and today is Vietnamese. The kitchen is full of aromas of lemongrass, ginger and nam pla (fish sauce). Makes a change from garlic and shallots, our usual French flavours. I love pouring over our collection of cookery books, which is quite large, and go through phases of changing cookery styles, this time last year I was particularly concentrating on Italian flavours, French obviously features a lot and we also cook quite a lot of Indian food. I really mustn't overdo the Eastern or by the time we get to Hong Kong we'll be fed up with it and start looking for mostly western flavours and that would be a great shame.

We've had a few more guide books delivered, to add to the collection - it's like a little walk down memory lane seeing which restaurants we have been to before are no longer listed - either they are closed or they just aren't up to the same standards. Likewise to see new museums opened up and - shock, horror - apparently they have moved the famous Star Ferry to another pier. They can't change the views from the ferry though!

This and that

Ste Agnès

I'm still struggling to get our big PC working properly. I've reloaded the operating system and it worked fine, then we seem to have got a virus - heaven knows how it got through the firewall and the anti-virus software but I gave it a Lemsip and it got better. Now it's started giving me funny messages, something to do with Visual Basic, hunting for the solution to that the virus came back again so I had to repair the operating system (trying Beechams Powders this time).

Now the screen is playing up and I lost the use of the webcam which was working nicely with Skype last week.

So, between doing the housework and getting lunch I've been sorting out Skype (webcam now working again), and now we're going through a mammoth defragmentation, which is soooooo slow!

It was great to use the webcam as we were able to 'see' our grandsons over the weekend. Jack has lost his two front teeth - with a little help from the school playground I hear - Leo is talking much more than he was and they both seemed to enjoy seeing us too. Hopefully this means that Leo will find us a little less frightening next time we see him in a few weeks' time. This may not be the case of course as he might think we are very small people who live in a computer. He was looking behind the screen for us the other day when we were talking to him and he kept kissing the screen. Can't wait until we see him for real.

We've been making the most of some milder weather and sat out in the garden the other day. We were just chatting when Figgy appeared with one of his little mouse friends that he likes to bring back from time to time for a game of tag. I don't think the mice much appreciate it but he thinks they are more fun that the balls he usually plays with indoors. Figgy and the mouse took a breather and we were astonished to be joined by a young tabby kitten. We were more astonished by Figgy's and Misty's behavour - they just sat and watched it as surprised as we were. The kitten clambered all aound the veranda of the chalet, where we were sitting, rubbed itself up against us and generally tried to make itself very appealing.

We were steadfastly ignoring it (we're certain it comes from our new neighbours) when suddenly the mouse decided it had had enough of a break and made a bid for freedom. Figgy went to go after it but our new friend, who was a good 20 yards further away than he, also leapt into action and got there first.

We expected a battle, a chase and lots of caterwauling but Figgy just let them go! He and Misty just watched the kitten 'deal with' the mouse in it's own way. If they could have been sitting with dropped jaws I'm sure they would have - so would we. In fact the only time Figgy growled at the kitten was when it tried to walk round behind him - he obviously felt a little threatened.

Yesterday the little thing was back again, trying to climb through the kitchen window (which was shut) and looking very endearing.

We don't want to encourage it so ignore the little scrap, whilst not wanting to chase it away - next door is not so far after all. We are trusting to our cats to let this one know whose territory it is here. Not that previous actions lead us to believe they are capable of it!

France is closed, come back in April

St Sébastien

January can be an odd month here. In November we found that some places were closed, in December more were closed and now in January it seems that everywhere we go doors are closed, the shutters are down and a handwritten sign on the door proclaims the 'fermeture annuelle'.

The annual closure can last from two weeks to three or four months apparently. Some restaurants are closed from November until February, others just for January. Shops are the same. One noted restaurant here is open from Easter until the end of October and some only open for July and August.

That's all very well for the vacanciers - but what about us residents, do we not merit the same options all year round? Well not if you are trying to make a living, it appears. Which makes us wonder what these people do all winter? Do they jet off and spend winter in Australia or the Bahamas? Do they have another business in a ski resort somewhere? Perhaps they are really there behind their closed shutters, sitting there by a fireside in the dark waiting for the warmer weather to appear. Perhaps they have a radar alarm that goes off when the first tourist appears, probably along with the first cuckoo and when the first cricket sings.

This morning we rather fancied a Sunday lunch out for a change. Not having had the foresight to book we headed out early for a well-known touristy village where we know locals go when they fancy a tacky trip out - some of the restaurants there are a cut above the usual touristy menu.

It was a beautiful sunny day here in our little valley and we headed north to admire some views before turning west. As we passed through a delightful little village that we had never driven through before (must remember that one), we saw Gourdon in the distance. The twin towers of the church of St Pierre were clearly visible but below the town was in total fog as if a huge cloud had settled itself into the valley. We were tempted to turn around and head south or east but we carried on hoping to pass through the cloud which we eventually did. Up and down hills we drove and in and out of foggy clouds. Arriving at our hilltop destination we parked and walked to the normally bustling square.

Yes, you've guessed it, the whole village was closed for the fermeture annuelle. Even spookier, the fog that was beginning to lift by climbing the hill and beyond made the village seem more like a ghost town. We could hear people talking somewhere but couldn't see a soul.

Feeling rather let down we came home. Having been unusually prepared for this eventuality, I splashed a leg of lamb with garlic oil, sprinkled it with rosemary and threw it in the oven. We may not have had a nice lunch out in the sunshine, but at least we still managed to eat well.

Silent Saturday #2

St Marius


Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland 23 October 2005

New Lake

Ste Prisca

I mentioned we'd had a little rain lately. Fortunately there haven't been any more indoor streams running through the cave but we have just become the owners of a new lake in the commune.

Here it is at the bottom of our driveway.


Normally this is a very green and lush field. Now we know why it is so lush.

The stream is gushing away down there at the bottom of the hill. It would be great fun to play Pooh Sticks with the grandchildren but of course by they time they arrive in the summer it will be completely dry again.

And just a few days ago it was so sunny we took this photo from our favourite 'supermarket with a view'


It's worth popping out for a pint of milk just to be able to admire this view, don't you think?

More wildlife

Ste Roseline



The birdtable is doing very well thank you. The birds are very active out there and totally ignore the big grey cat sitting under them muttering frustrations to herself because she can't climb the tree.

The deer were in the field yesterday too, whenever we wander down there we can see their trails through the wood, across the field, through the hedgerow and over the track into the distance. We've not seen the hare for a while but then it is hunting season and we wouldn't want him hanging around.



Our friends on the other side of the hill have been visited by a wild boar just the day after they planted some new trees so they weren't very happy about it, although luckily it only managed to dig up one of them it could have been so much worse.

We have even spotted the odd rabbit or two, rare creatures round here.



But yesterday, in broad daylight, Jon saw a FOX chasing a couple of cats up the lane - not ours fortunately. He obviously thought better of it, turned around, cut across our garden and down the field towards the main road.



Although we have spotted the odd fox at night, we've never seen one here during the day, and I was quite shocked to hear that he had been chasing cats. It may explain why our two sometimes come rushing to the back door, hackles up, when we can't seen anything around. They aren't the bravest of cats and luckily they have plenty of hiding places close to home.

They are looking quite interesting at the moment, our cats, with their mohican hairstyles from the anti-worm medicine I rubbed into their necks when we got back from the vet! This new medicine which is absorbed thought the skin, lasts up to 6 months, so much easier than giving them a pill. Figgy is moulting really badly at the moment so the nice vet also gave me some 'cat malt' which helps fur balls pass though their system - he's having problem with fur balls in the throat at the moment - so far though he has refused to eat the food with the malt on it so I may have to persuade him to open his jaws and just accept the malt raw.

This is not a prospect I'm looking forward too, I must admit.

Eventful day

St Marcel

Yesterday we bundled Figgy and Misty into the car and took them, shouting obscenities at us all the way, to the vet.

They don't know yet that they are going on a little holiday themselves to a very nice cattery some 40 minutes from here, but they were totally unimpressed at the car ride to the vets, not even half the distance.

Once there they settled down in their carriers in the waiting room and not a peep, even when a big Boxer dog wanted to make friends. We were quite surprised when he walked in accompanied by his two mates the cat and the rat, but they seemed to be a happy family.

They went ahead of us and we were joined in the waiting room by a very skinny greyhound instead. Poor things, they always look so terribly undernourished, don't they?

The vet was a very, very nice man and said all the right things about our babies.

'They are very beautiful' Well that's enough to make me his best friend for life anyway but then he said:

'Your French is very good'

I smiled and simpered. That's the second time in three days that someone has said that to me - what a boost to the confidence. Although I've studied French to quite a high level I don't get enough practice what with our non-communicating neighbours and only usually chatting in shops and the post office, and I'm extremely shy about speaking French for some unknown reason.

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions but maybe I should make a mid-January one to get out more, speak to more French people. Basically, just, go for it!

We decided to take a drive out in the afternoon, intending to visit one of the local summer 'hot spots' and see how closed it is in January but on the way it started raining so we just carried on and did a tour of the Northern reaches of the Lot department. The far north east of the region is quite different from here (sorry, no photos since the weather was just appalling), it is green and hilly (very hilly in places) . We followed a gushing river for mile after mile, climbing higher and higher until we came to a huge lake. We really must explore this in the summer, if we can stand the traffic!

On the way home we stopped in a supermarket for some vegetables and a loaf of bread. At the checkouts we were overcome by the smell of ... well, I can't put it any nicer ... stale urine. We looked around to see where it was coming from and at the next till was a lady wearing the most revoltingly dirty anorak. The staff and customers, fortunately there were only a few, were all surreptitiously covering their noses with their hands, scarves or whatever else we could find. The checkout 'hostess' moved from her till as soon as was humanly possible to another part of the shop. When we went back to our car we were amazed to see the malodorous offender clamber into a huge new 4x4 vehicle.

It made me wonder:

1. Why did none of us say anything, either to each other or to the offender?
2. How on earth did she not know how revolting she smelt?
3. Would the manager of Sainsbury's have been called to request, politely of course, that she might leave the store and come back after she had taken a bath and burned the offensive anorak?
4. Does anybody ever speak to her?
5. How come someone with a lovely vehicle (which was very clean, by the way) not care about herself enough to pong so?

Maybe I'm doing the lady an injustice. Maybe she had just that afternoon fallen into a pile of horse pooh and wee-soaked straw. Maybe she has a serious illness where she can't smell anything or see the stains on her coat.

Is it me?

Tagged!!

Thanks Susie!



Susie tagged me to reveal seven facts about myself.



Not an easy thing to think about. Unlike Susie, I was never expelled from school, never stole pages (or anything else) from other pupils, never taught anyone interesting (although....),and I don't even know what a 'wanger' is! I must have led a very boring life.



So, I'll have a try. Some people will already know some of these and most of you will, no doubt, find them all fairly uninteresting.

1. I don't know what a wanger is but I was a bit of a skinhead for about 4 months in the 1970s.


2. I saw the Rolling Stones at Streatham Odeon before they were famous.


3. I used to teach ballet (Jon was far more interesting and taught music to Tracey Ullmann, Lena Zavaroni and Lesley Ash)


4. I hate chardonnay


5. I have always dreamed of living by the sea (note, the Lot is landlocked and at least 4 hours from the sea in any direction)


6. I once spent an hour on a Sunday afternoon having a telephone conversation with Mike Read (the DJ) who had recently moved into our village. His neighbours (who lived in a caravan) had stolen his toboggan.


7. I smoked (choked on, actually) my first cigarette when I was peer pressured by our neighbour's daughter. I was 13 (sorry Mum, Margaret made me)

Dull stuff eh?

I tag Bee at Telford Crew and Sam de Bretagne! (But Bee, only tell me things I want to hear, sweetheart, eh?).

A little giggle

St Rémi

We came across this yesterday and laughed so much (both of us!). I just couldn't resist sharing it with you all today - you will need the sound turned on on your computer.

Feeling quite intellectual

Ste Nina

We spent a very nice day yesterday with friends discussing the last two months' reading group books. We have developed into a nice group of 8-10, all early retirees of similar age and interests- mostly renovating our houses and gardens to various degrees.

For the first time yesterday we settled down to proper organised discussions on the three books. Raymond Queneau's 'Zazie in the Metro', Albert Camus' 'The Outsider' (both books read in English, in case you were wondering), and Alan Alda's autobiography with the wonderful title 'Never Have Your Dog Stuffed'.

Everyone had enjoyed the books, which was also a first. Usually one of us hasn't managed to finish a particular book because of time (actually some people were still a bit behind with the last book) or just can't be bothered to finish a book because they don't like it. We are very proud to say that we have both finished all the books so far chosen, even though we don't always like the subject matter.

During the afternoon one couple were talking about a local restaurant they have been going to. It is a school for hoteliers and the restaurant is open most weekday evenings and lunchtimes for the students to practice on 'real people'. The menus are amazing and several of us plan to try the restaurant out in the next few weeks. Fortunately I wasn't nominated as the organiser of these outings, especially as I was the nominated scribe for the book group this month.

I spent this morning writing up our notes ready to post to the internet which, stupidly, I did live on the website. Then I tried to backspace something out and the whole lot disappeared never to be seen again. You'd think that all those years working as a PA, document formatter and indexer would have taught me to do everything in Word, save it over and over again and then, and only then, post it to the website! I had to write it all over again this afternoon and it took me an hour each time.

Maybe a year out of the workplace has made me forget these basics!

Silent Saturday

Ste Tatiana

Sunset at Wimereux, France. 9 December 2006

D'you know what it is yet?

St Paulin (not the cheese)




It's a cat shelter so that when Mummy and Daddy are out all day and it's raining and they can't get indoors, they can stay dry.

Our cats? Spoiled?

Nah!

Organising the 'puters

St Guillaume

I spent the morning 'playing' with the computers. Ever since I mended the big computer by reloading XP I've been meaning to get round to setting up a home network. I've got a bit of a cold so it was a good excuse to sit in the study with the heater on and sort the things out today.

The Gates bit was easy but my ISP isn't the most user friendly and doesn't know the meaning of the word 'simple' - maybe it's just anti-Gates, so many people are, but eventually I have managed to get it all up and running, the two 'puters are now talking to each other and I can spend many hours sorting out all the thousands of duplicated photographs we have stored on them. I'm sure they will both run much quicker when I get the photos organised and onto a couple of CDs freeing up hard drive space.

I don't know how long this is likely to take because I did try to start and every time I think about it, I think of another way of organising and filing them all. Should I do it by date? Maybe by location would make more sense? When I've finally got these all done, there are all the old photos that I want to scan in and store too. I don't think I can make my cold last long enough to do it all so it will probably take me many months.

I know there are lots of software options out there to help me organise all this media and I love MediaMonkey which has helped me sort out all the music we've got stored, I think Picasa will be the best option for photos - but of course I still need to decide exactly in what order to file all this stuff! More particularly how to file it so that we can both find what we are looking for next time we want it. It's lovely browsing through the photos though and especially to see what we have been upto in the last 11 months.

Sales and trollies

Ste Alix

Misty likes to get as close as she can to me when I'm writing the blog!!! If she was any closer she would be sitting on the keyboard.

I am always saying how things are much slower over here. We used to get so irritated standing in the check out queue at Sainsbury's near Guildford but now we just accept that on certain days and at certain times queues are inevitable.

The sales started in France today. The timing of sales in France is set by the government (bless them). There are only two sales periods in France, one in winter and one in summer, each lasting about 4 - 5 weeks. So there is none of the discounting all year round to compete with your neighbour's shop that happens in the UK where someone always seems to have a sale. We popped into our local furniture and electrical store to buy a new printer/scanner. There was nothing wrong with our printer but we did need a scanner and picked up a bargain in the sales. The queue was long at the checkout and it was interesting to browse what everyone else is buying. The young couple in front of us had picked up some bright pink voile curtains and something I couldn't quite make out, also in shocking pink - it looked like a very long fringe!

That was nothing though compared to the trollies in the hypermarket.

The sales had started in there too and bedding and towels were going down a storm. We had only popped in for some bread, milk and potatoes which gave us much more time to browse other people's trollies while we were in the slowest queue (why do we always manage to pick that one?).

The couple who had bought the shocking pink items in the previous shop were there buying disposable nappies and bathtowels. The elderly lady behind them had her obligatory brown barrel of the cheapest wine, a dozen bottles of water and a bag of leeks while the lady directly behind us had her week's shopping, the trolley piled high with vegetables, dairy goods, tinned goods and meat.

It was the couple in front of us who really intrigued us. He was about our age and she was very much younger, from their conversation (yes I'm a dreadful eavesdropper as well as a trolley peeper) they were not a 'couple' but worked together.

Onto the conveyor belt they piled box after box of long-life, ready prepared convenience meals, all ready for the microwave. Boeuf bourgignon, gratin dauphinoise, chicken in pesto sauce, the boxes piled higher and higher. They must have completely emptied the shelves. Following these were syrups of every colour - the French have syrups instead of our orange or lemon squash, there were bright red ones, bright green ones and a blue one (?). Tins of sardines followed on behind, three bottles of sunflower oil, several tins of pâté, a dozen packets of butter and, finally, 48 toilet rolls of the cheap and ghastly pink type so loved by the French.

I've never seen a trolley like it. The French are very proud of their cooking skills and, although convenience foods are widely available, I have never seen people buy more than the odd one or two, obviously preferring to use fresh ingredients on a daily basis. We ourselves are very proud of the fact that we haven't had a 'ready meal' since we left the UK.

Who, we wondered, were going to be the unfortunate recipients of these epicurean (?) delights? Hopefully not a school. Staff in a works canteen would surely refuse point blank to eat them.

Sadly we were never to find out but we were amazed when the gentleman handed a card to the checkout lady, she typed in some numbers and they both walked out without handing over a penny.

That's the sort of shopping I would like to do - but for my own choice of consumables, thank you.

Big space appeared

St Lucien

Jon had a really good clearing session yesterday and got to the end of what is affectionately known as 'the lower path'.

This is an area which has been overgrown since we first saw this property almost 10 years ago now. It is usually covered in brambles and nettles:

but now it's much clearer

All that remains is to have one huge bonfire - we did consider shredding the debris but, frankly, it is just way too much.

We had to get the area cleared so that the digger can drive along there when work begins on the swimming pool in March, I just hope that in the meantime we don't have an early spring and the whole lot grow back again! The eventual plan is to plant fruit trees along this area but it will need a year to rest after I poison the nettles - not something I particularly wanted to do to the land but unfortunately all those years of neglect (and I hate to think how many before we bought the house) have just let the nettle roots take a firm hold and chemicals are the only way to remove them (unless you know differently).

Poor Jon is suffering today with what I can only assume is tennis elbow so he is taking regular elbow rubbings of ibuprofen gel and will have to use the other arm to lift his glass of wine tonight.

Planning the trip

St Raymond

We've had a little rain over the last couple of days. If we hadn't looked out of the window we would know anyway since the cave is once again directing a trickle of rainwater down through the back wall.

Feeling a little under the weather, box of tissues by my side, I have been looking for travel information on tinternet and seriously considering a little side trip during our planned holiday in Hong Kong next month. We are undecided between Beijing and Ho Chi Minh City, both of which have their selling points.

There is some romanticism about standing on the Great Wall of China, easily reached from Beijing, and likewise we would love to visit Vietnam which has long held a fascination for us. Hong Kong is a sort of comfort zone for us. We have visited several times before and after the territory was handed back to the Chinese in 1997, first staying with friends in a quiet residential area on Hong Kong Island, then a hotel in a busy area and the last few visits we have discovered a quiet, if slightly faded, hotel on Lantau Island. From there we can sit and watch the small boats fishing in the bay, the comings and goings of the fast ferry to Hong Kong Central and other islands. We take long walks on the country parks and along the beach and can hop on the ferry whenever we need a blast of city life.

The joy of such a holiday from our little corner of France is that it is all totally different from here. When we lived in the UK we could take a 30 minute rail journey (leaves and snow on the line permitted) to Waterloo Station and get a little fix of city life whenever we wanted. We were just 40 minutes from the English south coast. Here we are 5 hours from Paris, 2 from Toulouse and 4 from the sea, so Hong Kong is the perfect holiday for us.

Getting information and booking a trip isn't proving as easy as I thought it might. I'm waiting for a response from a travel agency in Hong Kong at the moment. Booking through Expedia and other on-line agencies is expensive, so we want to book direct with a Hong Kong agency who will also help us to obtain the necessary visas, which we can't do before we travel as time will be too short. So I sit and wait, which we both find very frustrating.

If there happen to be any Hong Kong travel agents out there reading this today, do drop us a mail and let us know if you can help!!!

Catching up

St Edouard

The nice thing about Christmas and the New Year has been hearing from so many people. Notes in Christmas cards, e-mails and telephone calls all make us feel a little closer to home than we sometimes feel.

On the other hand, it is sad that we seem to have lost contact with some people and, despite our contacting them, have heard little or nothing from them. There comes a time when you just have to step back and accept that maybe you were not as important to them as you thought you were.

We have just had a lovely visit from our oldest friends (in time not personal ages!). Some so many years ago that we don't like to keep count we all met up individually and ended up as couples. This coming year will see both our 34th wedding anniversaries. We've lived near each other and far away (sometimes on the other side of the world), seen other friends marriages fall by the wayside but we're all still here and had a lovely few days catching up on family news, comparing notes on granchildren and pets, sharing jokes and memories, or just sitting in a companionable silence browsing books and newspapers. A very enjoyable few days were had by all.

While they were here we went for a drive and stopped to take a photograph of our house from 'the other side' of the hill, in fact, just up the hill from Mr and Mrs Veranda's house. You can just make out our little house nestling gently in the hillside.

The slow train to Paris (updated 2pm)

St Basile

We've had a little cleaning frenzy this morning. Taken down half the Christmas decorations and are transferring the study back into a spare bedroom for a few days.

Friends are travelling down from London, due to arrive this evening by train. Unfortunately they called a while ago to say that their Eurotunnel train is stuck outside Folkestone due to some illegal immigrants on the line in the tunnel.

I suppose it makes a change from leaves on the line or the wrong sort of snow.

They are going to be hard pushed to make their connection in Paris and arrive at a reasonable hour, otherwise I will have to make the two hour round trip to the station later this evening which in turn puts dinner out of sync and will make for a very, very late night. That, in it's own turn, means we will be up late tomorrow morning, breakfast late, lunch late and so on until the early train they need to take on Saturday morning (necessitating the round trip drive to the station again) will be a real struggle!

We are really looking forward to their visit though and no doubt a couple of bottles will be opened (sparkling.... water of course) and a year of catching up will be done over the next couple of days and evenings.

Only spoiled because a few ill-informed people from Eastern Europe or Africa or wherever think that life will be better for them living in England. Poor fools.

PS Good news. They made it in time - thank heavens for Parisien taxi drivers!

Happy New Year

Le Jour de l'An

Not a saint's day today, just the day of the year.

Happy New Year to all our readers. May 2008 bring you all happiness, health and all you desire (unless you are just being greedy in which case, tough!).

2007 was a big one for us. Giving up work and moving to France isn't something to be taken lightly and we had planned it for many years.

What were the highlights?

• Lots of parties in January last year to say our 'adieus' - not 'goodbyes'. We remember every one of them with fondness and appreciation at having such wonderful friends and family back there in Blair/Brown land.
• Arriving here in the house we had owned for so long but never lived in. There was snow on the ground and it was incredibly cold but we warmed it up as best we could, opened a bottle of champagne and just got on with things.
• Having my Mum to help us settle in for the first week, having her back again in April with my aunt to cat sit, and again in November. Thank you, Mum.
• A few days in Munich with my ex-colleagues, it was a wonderful time.
• All the visitors who came to see us this last (edited for the benefit of our most pedantic reader) year - every one was a pleasure and we hope you will return soon. We had such fun and laughs with many of you, and caught up after too many years with some.
• Waking up each morning in this beautiful place and not having to go to work!
• Watching the cats settle in and explore the outside world for the first time (they had been indoor cats in the UK).

Things to look forward to for the coming year:

• A holiday in Hong Kong. We are very excited!
• Converting the attic, extending the sitting room and getting a log burner for next winter.
• The installation of the swimming pool - surely next summer can't be as bad as the last?
• Lots more visitors, some already booked in and some more who have promised to come during 2008.
• Waking up each morning in this beautiful place and not having to go to work (still).

And New Year's Resolutions?

I resolve not to make any resolutions that I will, no doubt, break.