More water, gushing rivers and good news

St Alexandre

We were lucky yesterday evening that Jean-Jacques came around to see us at the time when the water had risen to it's highest around the pool. He and Martin, who is working with him this week, immediately set to and diverted the water from the pump and they and Jon then re-routed the water tumbling out of the upper field, across the road and onto our garden. They created a further three waterfalls which tumbled musically for the rest of the evening. We used bricks, an old paddling pool surround and anything else we could find to create miniature dams around the chalet and pool. The pool guys sealed the pump block and we are waiting for it to dry out completely before they come back to commission the pool.

We had been invited out to lunch today and travelling along the river Lot we stopped to take some photographs. The Lot is usually quite a lazy river but this gushing torrent was taking huge tree trunks with it on its way to the Atlantic Ocean. We read in the local news that the Lot, our very small babbling brook the Céou and several other rivers around here are on yellow alert for fear of bursting their banks.

Super good news tonight. Tree surgeon man came round and says he will take our horse chestnut down next week!!!!!

Planning - a secret to be shared

Message of the day: Wine a little, it makes you feel better
Sainte Irénée
Yesterdays weather - very mixed and just too cold for June! Must try harder....

Before we retired and moved over here our very dear friends let us into a little known secret. At the risk of excommunication from the Brotherhood of Retired Persons, I am prepared to share this secret with you all.

It is the secret of Planning Fluid.

It is a little known fact that the 'little grey cells' (Poirot fans will recognise the term) work much better when the body has been liberally lubricated with said liquid. The liquid can be white, pink or red (pink and white are preferable for hot days) and should be consumed with abandon before any decision is taken. We prefer the French variety of fluids, although Italian will do at a pinch. The fluid is produced in all areas of France, our own area is well known for a particularly heavy one, known sometimes as the 'black planning fluid'. Over-use of this one can result in the consumer taking to their bed and no decision being reached for several days.

My favourite planning fluid at the moment comes from Alsace (for hot days) and Bergerac (for the red variety). For extremely important decisions and when a final decision is imminent, we like to take the king of all planning fluids which comes in a big green bottle, is very expensive and is effervescent (I don't know when it effer vasn't - sorry, old pantomime joke slipped in there).

As we are about to pay a huge cheque to swimming pool man today, I think the fizzy type is called for later on. I suspect tomorrow's blog will be written from behind dark glasses.

Forms, forms, forms

Saint Anthelme
Yesterdays weather: I don't want to talk about it (18 degrees). Currently stair rod rain!

It is imperative that one of the first things you do when you move to France, or a new area within France, is meet the mayor. So after 8 years of holidays and 5 months of living here we did just that today (procrastination being one of our character traits since we moved here). Monsieur le Maire is a very nice chap, talks a bit too fast for me to keep up with but as long as I get the main substance of what he is telling me, if I miss a word here and there, it isn't too much of a worry.

We went to see him to find out whether we need planning permission for the shed/garden house. In France you need to fill in a form to exempt you from filling in a form, so we have to complete a declaration de travaux so that we don't have to complete a permit de construire.

We will have to submit forms for both the pool and the shed, separately of course. They are both completed in triplicate with plans of the village showing our location, plans of the property showing where we intend to build the pool and the shed and plans of the shed and the pool separately. Apparently this will take 3 - 4 weeks to be approved but it will be approved, no question. I suspect that it will be normalement 3 - 4 weeks but we will go ahead and buy the shed anyway as it is on a 4 week lead and all should come together at the same time (probably in November).




The mayor gave us some news - apparently the village is absolutely crowded with anglophones..... English, Scots, Irish and we haven't met one of them, so I don't know where they are hiding. But then, they haven't met us yet either and I know where we have been for the last 5 months. He also tells us that there is a soirée quiz held in the village store/bar which is well frequented by the Anglo-Saxons. He then went on to tell us all the social activities planned for this coming season, starting with the big fair for all the local villages in two weeks time. It seems we could be looking forward to a lot of late nights this summer.

Summer in the Lot

First things first
We've been here for nearly 5 months now. We just can't believe where the time has disappeared to. We are gradually getting used to living in the house rather than just visiting and daily we have new ideas about where to live, sleep (we've changed bedroom) and what to do with the garden, loft and kitchen.

At last, summer has (officially if not obviously) arrived. So today the temperature has dropped to a cool 19 degrees. The overnight rain at least saved me from having to water the tomatoes, courgettes and other plants.

After two very late nights we are relaxing in the study this morning and here is my first attempt at blogging. Please bear with me, I'll do my best to update it as often as I can.


Momentous decision
We have decided to install a swimming pool. It is an expensive option but one, we are assured and convinced, that will be a great asset to our lives out here. Apparently this area of France has the largest number of pools and we can understand why. Firstly we are at least 3 hours from the sea and on a hot day who wants to sit in the car that long? Secondly it does get very hot here, OK not this year so far, but generally you can count on several weeks of temperatures way over 30 degrees.

Are we enjoying our retirement?
Yes, yes and yes. How many people used to ask us what on earth we would do with our time without getting up and going to work every day. Well we seem to be able to fill it very nicely thank you. Every day is busy. There are many jobs, big and small to get on with and we are never idle. Well on a hot day between midday and 4pm it is impossible to get on with any gardening, DIY or anything else much so we are catching up on some reading (I'm sure that Waterstones in Guildford are missing my custom already). Over the last few years we stockpiled novels, autobiographies and reference books as well as craft supplies (not that I've had time for that).

If we miss anything it is friends and family but we are making new friends here and are really enjoying each other's company too.

Cat blog
Jazz is thinking about writing her own blog too but she thinks she is just too busy at the moment. Well the farmer cut the field yesterday and there are so many newly discovered mouse holes to explore that she just doesn't have time. Misty won't consider a blog, it would interfere with her duty sitting under the fig tree pretending to be a guard cat (Actually, we were amazed the other week when she actually saw off a Rottweiler who happened to wander past!), looking out for intruders like the postman and welcoming visitors, as she did the other day when we were out. Unfortunately she couldn't get in the kitchen to make them a cup of tea, but we know that she would have if she could. Figgy won't be blogging either, that's a girly thing and he's a boy, so there!

Well, my dears, I must now be away. I need to think about lunch, plan supper, check that all the plants are still standing after last night's rain and measure the plot for that swimming pool - shame it won't be installed until 2008.......