First Blog from France 2014

2014 Arrived in France

As usual we was greeted by the sound of the cookoo in the garden, it’s a wonderful sound and a sense of homecoming.

But first, we left Australia earlier this year, much to the disgust of the children but we went on a cruise up the Mekong River from Vietnam to Cambodia, what an experience it was!  The highlights of the holiday for me was the photographic opportunities, the amazing food and the fact that the tour company we had booked with donates a great deal of financial support to local villages along the Mekong, enabling many children to attend schools and supports the manufacturing of local products in their villages, including silks, mats, fish oil and bricks (!) yes we visited a local brick works.  The work ethic of these people was evident everywhere we went, due to the fact that our tour company sponsored so many villages we were privileged to visit the villages and places where most tourists would not be able to go, even in their own homes.

In Cambodia we visited the temples of Siem Riep including those that had featured in Temples of Doom and Lara Croft.

End of travel blog, sorry about that.

Now to France, we arrived to great manicured lawns thanks to Diane and Philippe, we really appreciate the work they put into the garden and the house while we are in Australia.  As usual we had to deal with the fact that we live in the country and the house is empty for 6 months, inside the kitchen on the backdoor there was about 100 flies trying to get out (Diane said she had cleaned up about 100 a couple of days before!), great start, so before we could even put our suitcases down I was cleaning up the flies, this continued for another couple of weeks, such a strange phenomenon that no one seems to have an answer for.

Nature continued to invade our peace, or my peace, Terry was straight out in the garden the day after we arrived setting up explosives for the moles.  So far the count is  Terry 2      -     Moles 0 but the war continues.

Terry has also had to repair some fences to prevent the wild boar and deer returning to the garden, at the moment we have alot of poo on the roof of the house, at first we thought it was a fox but after local consultation it might be a pole cat that gets in the roof during the day but roams at night, so the plan of action is waiting until the pole cat goes out about 10.30 (when it gets dark, yes, it doesn’t get dark until about 10.15 which is wonderful) back to the plan, Terry will then fill the holes with chicken wire to prevent it returning to our roof space, this worked when we had the problem a few years ago, so watch this space.

The other drama is that the UK have moved their satellite so we can’t get Free to air English television (my biggest drama I must say), hopefully by tomorrow this will be rectified, we had to order a bigger dish and various other components from the UK, which as usual was not without its own drama!  Ie the English company sending 19 metres of cable instead of the ordered 25 metres but thanks to a friend and some wheeling and dealing problem rectified. I hope.

Not sure if I should mention the weather, it has been terrible, very cold and wet up to the last few days when we have had the expected sunshine and warmth but checking the forecast we are due to get rain over the next couple of days!!  Last night we had the strongest wind storm through the garden, even moving the old oak tree, we are now without telephone and internet, technician has just fixed the problem, apparently our neighbours tree had damaged the line!

We “popped” back to the UK for five days in amongst all this for Terry to visit his parents, as his poor Mum has had a short spell in hospital while we was in Cambodia, but ever resilient she is back in the dementia home. 

We have had opportunities to catch up with our English, Dutch and French friends which as usual entails lots of eating and drinking!  So an exercise regime must follow soon.   We even had a meet up in the village hall with our new Marie, (Mayor) very nice man, an ex commissioner of police, which might be handy, unfortunately he doesnot speak any English although his beau souer (sister in law) is English so that should be useful!  Wonder what her number is?

Got to go now and pick the cherries off the two trees before the birds get them, it is always a battle who gets there first but I have been checking at least twice a day if they are ready and today is the day.  

Abientot

Pick the Budist Monk!

On Streets of Cambodia

 Ancient Angkor - Late 12th to 13th century temple

Problem with the telephone at Capet

The new dish that doesn't know which way to point!

July 2012

This is embarrassing, so long since the last blog, my excuses could include directing the latest 007 movie, advising Richard Branson about the next space shuttle, training people in fire dancing, teaching myself to hold my breath under water for more than 10 seconds but no believe it or not none of these excuses would be true, try boring old apathy!! Between the usual French activities eating, reading, gardening, sleeping and did I mention eating?

Also, mustn't forget we popped back to the UK mid May and went to Jamaica with Helene and Dudley and had a fabulous holiday, although Reggae is a bit old hat at the moment with us.  We had a great holiday  with  lots of laughs. Won't mention 50 shades of Grey, say no more!!

France:

Wow, it has eventually happened, Terry has fallen into the pond, apparently whilst whipper snippering (strimming)  around the pond he stepped backwards up to the waist, I wish I had my camera there on the ready.

At last the summer has arrived in SW France, I say at last as it has been appalling weather, storms rain and even hail stones, which is why the pond is so full he he.

The night markets have started with vengeance, we could eat out at a different village every night (see the Vianne night market photo), they are great, for a small price you can get a variety of local produce for example: duck kebabs x 2 5E, chips made in duck fat 2E fresh strawberries and cream 3E, all very healthy and fat free delicious.  Talking of which we are once again amazed at the Plats du jour menus at 12.50E for three / four courses, as much wine as you like and coffee, we could only get an entrée for that price in Perth.

You may or may not be aware that our friends from Perth, Dei and Rick are coming over beginning of August for us all to cycle the remainder of our adventure ie the Med to the Atlantic along the canals, this final leg is  273.5 kms our longest yet, this is spread over a few days averaging 55kms per day, should be interesting.  Terry and I have been practising along the canal du midi and canal lateral, it has been quite convivial cycling for an hour one way along the canal stopping for coffee then cycling back and having lunch very nice.

There are those of you who are avid followers of my blog (aren’t you Chris) and want to know the mole score, it is quite impressive this year and the sick person who shall be unnamed (Terry) has taken photos of them, I have refused to download them onto my computer, he poses the dead bodies on the window sill and takes an evidential photo! sick or what.  The score so far is 6

I will quickly move on…

Life in France has taken on it usual routine as I mentioned earlier, one difference is that I am taking French lessons on my own as Terry has been banned from the class for a variety of reasons including not paying attention (looking out the window, trying to distract Gerry to talk about tractors or anything else other than French), not doing his homework need I go on.  Now he loves to tell people he has been thrown out of class, maybe brings back memories of his school days.

Terry is still playing petanque on a Tuesday night at the local village and as you can see he won the cup last week, second time this year.

We have had our first Citreon rally this year with Bob and Deborah we had a lovely drive through the Gers and stopped at a new to us restaurant for lunch which was most enjoyable.  At least we didn’t run out of petrol this year, which made is more enjoyable. See photo

I think its time for a nap Abientot

July Photos 2012

On our Rally, our car is the blue Ami 8 1976

Proud cup winner

Vianne Night Market

Our pond in the garden

Jamaica with Helene and Dudley

Helene and Carol enjoying cocktails in Jamaica

Back in France May 2012

You might want to make yourself a cup of tea or a glass of wine before you sit down to read my first blog of our 2012 French experience. We had a good trip over except for the usual hanging around in airports and train stations, we eventually arrived in Agen to damp cold weather with grey skies, as expected as we arrived three weeks earlier than usual.

As we drove down ‘our lane’ low and behold a bloody great tree had come down completely blocking our way, not only that it also had taken down the electric cable and completely snapped off our telephone line.  Great start, it is now 6pm so we head up to our   

friend and saviour Jan at the duck farm, who informs us that the tree is owned by Jean Paul the recluse up the road who is a complete nutter (our words not hers).  Luckily we had Philippe with us a French speaking French man to speak to M Jean Paul, who completely denies it is his tree, luckily with more discussion he agrees to come down our lane with complete with a pre-war blunt chain saw.  Eventually we are able to get down to our house and luckily and amazingly we have electric, but of course no phone.   We are now waiting for the 48hrs that French Telecom promised us that they repair the line, we wont hold our breath. Quite update the phone took 5 days!

Although it has been cold and wet, our second day in we have sunshine, the first for weeks apparently, Terry reckons he will be in everyones good books as they will think he bought it over from Perth !!!!!!   The reason for our early arrival is that we wanted to go to the flower festival in our next village, well we went today and it was wonderful.  We sat in the sunshine drinking coffee and watching the world go by it was wonderful.

One week later and it looks like the summer is beginning (not including last night where it rained at least 2000 litres into our pond).  

We are getting into the swing of our French lifestyle by going out for spectacular and cheap 4 course French meals for a princely price of $16 including wine and coffee!!  Good job our lane is a good evening walk, we have just got back it took us an hour up our lane and to the next corner through the woods, amazing, 8.30pm and the sun is still shinning, we looooove daylight saving.

I mentioned the pond in the garden, not only in the garden but 8 metres from our bedroom window, I bring this up because the noise the frogs or toads make in the pond is so loud at night we can hear them loud and clear through our double glazing, I must admit last year Terry had to ‘cull’ them as they were so bad, but hand on heart they are worse this year, we are going away for a few weeks so they have got a reprieve.

We are going to the UK and then off for a ‘holiday in Jamaica” with our friends Helene and Dudley for a bit of R&R, just what the retired couple need!! ha ha.

August 2011

Have I only written one blog since arriving in France three months ago? Sa vrai, so today I haven't got an excuse but to sit down and write. Since my last communication in June we have been very busy with visitors and traveling, to avoid making this a boring ole travel log I will briefly high light our journeys. We had a week away in mid France near Noirt where we went to watch the amazing and spectacular Puy du Fou, where we meet up with Helene and Dudley, Chris and Dave, if you haven't been you must go. We have cycled and conquered another section of the canal du midi with Dei and Rick we cycled from Toulouse to Carcassonne and finally, last week were turned from Portugal where we spent a great few days with Chris and Tracy in their villa on the Algarve followed by a slow drive back and staying in Lisbon, Porto and San Sebastian.

We are so very very fortunate to be able to do these things and such great friends to spend our time with.

That's the travel log done.

We have had some very different experiences this year with various animals in the garden, when we arrived in France we had a pole cat /pine Martin/ fuiene in our roof and between the floors of the house. If you have ever had a possum in your roof this is very similar ie noise, smell, prolific breeding (not sure about the possum on that one) and they are awful to get rid of, so we had to call in the services of the local pest controller. He pulled up in his Rolls Royce and designer gear - sorry he should have done considering what he charges! He proceeded in putting around poison bait boxes and left with the instructions to ring him if the pole cat is still there! We think that's what he said as he only spoke rapido French, Terry eventually found the corpse and a few other animals in one spot so all we can decide is that the pest controllers French instructions were understood by the offending pests. Capet is now pest free except for the bats behind the shutters and new terrace, the feral cats, the feral goats, a stranded baby hawk, a lost dog and a stray deer. We are thinking of renaming ourselves Capet wild life park. Only joking really. I forgot to mention The Return of The Mole/s, yes, battle has commenced, explosives on hand and fully charged the score so far

Terry plus bodies 2

Terry no body 3

Moles - 12 bloody great piles on dirt on the lawn as we speak

Is the war being lost – “no will get the buggars" exclaimed the intrepid mole hunter!

Talking of strange animals, we booked into a spa hotel in Porto and found the pool and Jacuzzi closed for repairs but the steam and sauna rooms were working, as the 'beautician' (I put her in inverted commas as it was debatable whether she was a man needing a shave or a women needing hormones! ) I digress; as she/he was showing us around I asked if the other Jacuzzi was working (one that I could see in a little room next to a steam room) "no, no" she hurriedly replied as she tried to move us away. So when she left us have our steam session (which I decided against due to the amount of algae growing on the wall and the dreadful smell)oh sorry I digress again, we looked into the room with the Jacuzzi and sitting in the corner of the spa was a huge sea slug! My question to you is a) did it crawl up the drainpipe or b) is it he/she's pet or c) a source hormone treatment that isn't working?

To change the subject completely, probably a good idea, I hear you say. We are still taking weekly French lessons from the Dutch women from New Zealand (work that one out!) Terry continues to use the French lesson to talk (in English of course) to his expat buddies, it goes like this " well Jerry I hear there is a new road to Bordeaux" this is interrupted at least twice by our French teacher Nicole " OK, now Terry could you tell me in French what we have been doing" his reply " you know Nicole I don't do homework in my house" " So Jerry do you know if that road it much quicker?" and so it goes on, poor Nicole, then she actually tells Mr not in my house Terry that he could be a natural French speaker as his pronunciation and accent is very good!

Talking of speaking French we went to aperitifs with a dozen French people this week where everyone was only speaking French, it's quite surprising how much French we do know when we have to speak it all night. So with the classes we do in Oz and here maybe the brain is actually absorbing something! …and that note we have got to go and get ready for another night market, canard and frites anyone??????

Photos from our last three months in France

Capet with zoom lens!

Vianne Night Market, Philippe, Dad and Terry

Chris and Tracy

Finish the Canal du Midi

Puy Du Fou - The Secret of the Lance

Family - Mums 80th Birthday at Capet

First French Blog for 2011

Click on photos to enlarge

Kittens found in the garden under a bush

Garden at Capet

Our cherry tree

Covent Gardens

Our garden at 8pm

Chris, Helene, June and Christian

Getting ready for The Parade

Goring Hotel, where Kate got ready for her wedding

Terry and his Dad waiting for a train for London

Tall ship, The Belfast and Tower Bridge

After spending a great few days in the UK we have arrived in France, but to give an update on our few days in UK, on Sunday seven of us got a train to London with our bikes as there was a procession of the horse guards and as I was still on a high after Kate and Willy's wedding it was a real buzz to actually cycle down the mall where only one week before the royal couple had been cheered along by thousands of well wishers. I still can't believe we actually cycled ON the streets of London along with buses and taxis, initially quite scary but really quite exciting. We cycled around Buc palace ( as the locals call it), outside Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, London Eye and then through Hyde park. Great!!!! The reason we went to the UK was really to celebrate Terry's Dad's 85th birthday, which we did in style by taking him (once again) up to London on the train, then a couple of hours on a sightseeing double decker bus around the sights, lunch, then a West End show called the Jersey Boys, about the life of Frankie Valle and the 4 Seasons it was brilliant followed by dinner after the show, considering Ron was 85 that day he was amazing not only keeping up with us but also singing along with the show, he knew all the words ..... Sherreee, Sherry baabe!........Let's hang on to what we got........

We got the ferry across the channel and drove the 8 1/2 hrs down to our house, the French toll roads are fantastic, we averaged a slow 130 kph, I say slow because we felt like we were going very slow when we were being overtaken by cars going at least 150 kph!!!!

We arrived at the house very late at night, but by the morning OMG the house and gardens look beautiful as if we had only been away overnight not six months. Mercy beau coup Diane and Philippe.

The wildlife of rural France has been very evident around Capet, firstly our welcoming sound of the cuckoo, even a couple of ducks on the pond (a first), wild goats on the road down to our house, a family of foxes of which one of the cubs had taken residence in our greenhouse, then low and behold today we family a mother cat and four of her babies nestled in one of our bushes and the beautiful sounds of the singing birds. Yesterday we picked a large bowl of cherries from our trees probably another first as the pesky birds usually get there before us.

Unfortunately, I have had a severe dose of laryngitis and it looks as though Terry is getting a cold, this has slowed us down a bit but in a couple of days we should be able to resume our French lifestyle, all our plans of cycling and exercise has been put on the back burner for a few days.