I can hear the trees shivering

Ste Ninon
Yesterday's weather: this cold is getting boring


This is one COLD azalea!!!

I just noticed on this photo it looks a bit like a tombstone - if I don't keep the azalea warm perhaps it will need one!!!

We have new residents in the hedgerow. Around 100 starlings have just moved in, chattering away all day long. It would be lovely to see them doing their famous roosting 'dance' but as we are nowhere near reed beds I think that unlikely. However, it's lovely to have them along.

The bird table is still attracting the one blue tit, but there are other birds showing an interest too now. Hopefully it will be as busy as the hedgerow before long.

The postman always rings twice

Ste Odile
Yesterday's weather; Still bloody cold

I've been expecting the postman, the fireman or someone at least to come round and sell me a calender.


I've been reading that one should expect a call, other people I know have had a call, but the postman doesn't even knock once on my door. I don't even know where the nearest firemen are so that I can go and knock on their door and ask to buy their calendar. It's all a bit of a let down really. I've had a little stash of cash just waiting for them to pop in and offer me their calendar and wait patiently for a Christmas tip but still nothing.

Of course, what would be the best thing would be if the Stade de France popped in to offer me their calendar (click here for details). I'm ready with my 10 Euros, my offer of a cuppa or something stronger.

In my dreams.

I'd have to find a suitable calendar for Jon though, it wouldn't be fair otherwise, would it? I did a little search, carefully mind you, expecting graphic images and not wanting to view anything that would offend. There was the 'Calendrier des Miss', which I thought might have a few scantily clad ladies but they are all well covered up. Other options were the calendar of angels, the calendar of little fairies (?) and all the others were pop stars or TV series. Very boring.

So I'll have to forgo the Gods of the Stadium for this year.

Now, where were those firemen again?

Chilling with blue tits

Ste Lucie
Yesterday's weather: cold, cold, colder

Happy birthday to Vikki x x x x xx

The fig tree outside the kitchen window has always been full of birds. It's lovely watching them, blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, robins - all sorts of small birds come and visit.

Sitting watching them the other day, Mum suggested putting a bird table in the tree. I was worried that the cats might enjoy this as a new playground but Mum seemed to think that they would just ignore the birds.

Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Jon immediately got up from the lunch table and went to the garage to create a bird chateau for gourmet feathered friends. He duly put it in the tree and we waited for the visitors.

And waited.

And waited.

Aiming to tempt them a little Mum had put out some cheese, bacon scraps and bread for the little dears. I added a fat ball which I bought in the garden centre and some bird seed, interstingly labelled 'Meusli' - well, we thought we would attract the gourmet birds with this house.

A lone blue tit appeared, ignored the chateau and headed straight for the fat ball which it seemed to like very much thank you.

A week later and the blue tit is still visiting.

No other birds, just the one.

I just have this feeling that one day I'm going to look out and find a blue tit bigger than the tree shouting at me to feed him.

Deck the halls, tra la la

St Daniel
Yesterday's weather: Boring. Well I suppose it is December

I've been decking the halls today. Well OK, they aren't exactly halls but they've been decked anyway.

I do enjoy getting the decorations out every year. Some have good memories from years gone by. I remember buying certain items. The Santa character from the MoMa shop in New York; The reindeer candle holder from Maplewood, NJ; the garlands from Santa Fir in Shamley Green, the best Christmas tree shop in southern England; there are the knitted decorations I made when the girls were younger and I was going through a knitting phase (I'm going through another right now) and their knitted stockings. We even have a little bell that Jon says was on his Christmas tree when he was a child. I think that is the oldest one.

It seems odd putting these decorations up in our new home here in France and I wonder what the people on the other side of the hill will be thinking of our twinkling lights across the valley - we never close our shutters, preferring to look out at the night sky.

All the villages locally have their own Christmas lights up now, they do look remarkably like the lights that were up during the summer when each village in turn was en fête but then, why not recycle them in winter? Some houses have lights outside, mostly the tubes of lights that have become popular in recent years. And then of course there are hanging Santas all over the place.

I feel very sorry for Santa, it just looks like they don't like him much over here. He is thrown from windows willy-nilly and dangles from the end of a piece of string as if he has just been convicted of some heinous crime and sent to the gallows. I don't think they are at all festive but rather a sorry sight. I must try and photograph one to prove my point.

Trees have appeared outside houses rather than inside and they are decorated with coloured paper bows - I wonder how they will stand up to the torrential rain we've had recently, not to mention the high winds.

My next task is to try and find the Christmas CDs that Jon carefully hid in a safe place ........

Don't talk to me

St Romaric
Yesterday's weather: more rain but no more indoor streams!!

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum - sorry, got carried away - actually it was England, going and coming. We decided to stay overnight half way from here to Calais since we didn't fancy driving in the dark (it's an age thing, I have decided, the eyes just don't work as well as they used to and we both find it a bit of a strain).

We decided to lodge at our usual posting house near Orleans to give the horses (horse power) a chance to rest and to give the driver (Jon) the chance to be fed and watered and have a sleep before the rigours of our round Paris route and face up to the nightmare that is the M20 and M25.

We have stayed at the same hotel, one of a large chain, many times and have always found it quite acceptable, the food very good, the room adequate and the main pulling point, a bath. Here at home we have one of these small French apologies for a bath, a sit down with your feet in the deep end affair which leaves the top half cold and the toes scalded.

Not very satisfactory at all.

So we looked forward to a bath that would take almost the full length for a decent soak.

We decided to put it off until after dinner and went to the restaurant. Here we found the difference between weekend and weekday, summer and 'off season'. The restaurant, instead of its usual hubub of couples and families eagerly discussing their journey and the possibility of visiting one of the great chateaux tomorrow, was full of single men, one per table, contemplating their plate of food and looking neither left nor right, up nor down. There was none of the usual 'bon appetit' between tables, the body language said 'Don't talk to me, or else'.

So we didn't.

The food was OK, not up to the usual standard, but OK. The wine was very good for the price.

We retired to our room and indulged ourselves one after the other in the long anticipated soak in the bath.

Then we discovered the other problem with this hotel 'off season'. They close half of the rooms in the part of the hotel we usually stay in. The half that is at the back of the block. The back of the block that doesn't face the road.

We didn't sleep more than 10 winks between us. The road, even though it was in a suburb of a suburb of Orleans was noisy all night.

We rose at 6.45, propped our eyes open with matchsticks, gulped down a cup of tea in our room and pointed the car in a northerly direction.

Travelling back from the UK and having had a bad experience at our usual hotel, we decided to change plan and stay elsewhere, a different chain this time but another that we had enjoyed in the past.

At this one the food was disgusting - very strange for France. The restaurant this time was equally full of single men but instead of staring at their plates they were watching a boxing match on a strategically placed television.

The only thing it it's favour was that the room was quiet in this hotel and we didn't need the matchsticks for our eyes.

There must be lessons to be learned:

1. Don't travel midweek
2. Don't travel out of season
3. Don't stay in a hotel chain
4. Maybe just don't travel.

Must be better for the carbon footprint, but then how do we get to see the family? Another one to think on for another day........

A river runs through it

Ste Guadelupe
Yesterday's weather: Nice morning, wet afternoon

We always dreamed of a little cottage, roses around the door, you know the sort of thing, and a stream running by.

It's a chocolate box image and when we found this little house and saw the roses around the door we thought we were almost there. The stream is missing, unless you want to walk down the lane to the road where there is a little stream running, except in the summer when it dries out completely - very annoying when one wants to partake in a little game of Pooh Sticks with the grandchildren.

We also have a little 'source' a freshwater well complete with pump just opposite our land and on the communal footpath that runs alongside us. So who could ask for more?

Well, obviously we did ask for more.

The problem with living in a house that is built into rock on the lower level is that you have to put up with the occasional indoor water feature appearing.

Thus, this morning when I went looking for milk in the fridge in the cave (cellar) I found a newly created stream running down the back wall and across the floor.

Anyone got a spare fishing rod?

Honey, we're home

St Ambroise


We're finally home after what can only be described as a whirlwind trip to the UK. 2000 miles in total, an average of 5 hours a day in the car, a different bed every night, a couple of hours with family here and there and a shopping afternoon in Guildford is all we managed.

We saw far too many motorways and too much weather (mostly rain) but at least we missed the high winds the days we were on the ferry.

It is sooooo lovely to get back to our own bed.

We've only been out of the UK for 10 months but were surprised at how we had changed. The shops were far too hot, noisy and crowded (even making allowances for Christmas shopping). There was too much traffic on the roads and everywhere was noisy. We did love the fact that no-one was smoking in restaurants and pubs (not that we were in them very much) but noticed that all the pubs now have a little tent affair outside to accommodate those who did want to smoke. I suppose that this will just make smokers even more likely to catch bronchitis or pneumonia in the cold and damp - not quite sure how this is going to help the health service!

Having had every intention of finishing our Christmas shopping, we didn't succeed. One turn around HMV and we had had enough, couldn't think straight and didn't buy anything - Waterstone's was just as bad. I used to love Waterstone's, I'd spend my lunchtimes 'just browsing' (usually not leaving empty-handed) but we were surprised that the three (yes, two in Guildford) we visited had different books on display and we could never find the same book twice - therefore, trying to take advantage of 3 for 2 offers was difficult.

Waterstone's #1 - Jon was alone, didn't have enough time to make any purchase but spotted 6 or more books that he wanted to buy.

Waterstone's # 2 - I found one book, Jon found another but only one of the first 6 books.

Waterstone's # 3 - Bought 3 for 2 - (only one of the original 6) and next month's book group selection which was full price.

We also managed to find some books in charity shops. Charity shops in the north of England are (surprise, surprise) so much cheaper than those in the south. In fact, for many books it is cheaper to buy them second hand on Amazon and pay the shipping to France than to buy them in a charity shop. Oxfam's second hand bookshop in Guildford was most disappointing - not only did they have a very poor selection (we didn't buy anything there) but they were badly arranged and overpriced.

Oh, well, back home to France and just awaiting the credit card bill which I know will be quite painful. I made the mistake of joking with a lady in one shop that Mastercard must be quite concerned that I hadn't used the card in a year and it was getting quite a hammering. In the next shop the transaction was 'denied'. Just a little moment of panic that we didn't have any more cash or a cash card and may not be able to do any more shopping but luckily it was just a blip and the card worked next time (and the time after and ........ well, you get my drift).

And now there is just the pile of washing to deal with ................ Actually, lovely Jon is doing all that while I sort out a home for all these new books!