Sorry for not entering an update to blog for so long, but as planned we have been very busy with friends and family sharing a bit of SW France paradise. It has been an amazing few weeks with different activities including eating, yabbie fishing in our pond (each visitor has attempted but good old Brian actually got the yabbies from the pond to the table) a bit like prawn, see picture. So the attempts of yabbie fishing has been entertaining and possibly not to be repeated too often as we have had a ‘global warming’ year with lots of rain, thank goodness the last two weeks have been typical French hot weather, but back to the pond, it is not normal for it still to have water in it this time of year, not sure what happens to all the wild life that inhabits it but I have a strong feeling they will return!! Now, where was I? The list of activities, did I say eating? We have visited numerous markets and also as SW French villages come to life July and August we have been to a number of evening fetes, which usually entails eating the local produce meeting people chatting and drinking, very pleasant way of spending a few hours. The bonus of course the sun still shines until about 9pm and doesn’t really get dark until 10pm. We have discovered a fabulous walk, it is about 1.50mins along the old railway line from SOS to Mezin, which meanders through the countryside, certainly worth a repeat walk or cycle ride, Terry and I are even talking about walking to Mezin , having lunch then walking back, probably our next visit in October.
This week we went to Biarritz which was quite stunning and has been relegated to our list of places to go for a week end. Obviously due to the French holidays those sort of places are pretty well packed with tourists so we will probably go a different time of year.
Well we are in the run down to leaving (in fact in two days) it will be so hard for us as we have really enjoyed ourselves and have already started imprinting our stamp on the French way of life, we have meet a number of interesting local people, French and English and feel that we will have some firm friends for our future visits to France. Our main impression is that people are so helpful and friendly, although I think we were pretty helpless at times with the language barriers and people were there for us. Another memorable evening was after receiving a personal invitation by our Marie to attend the village Bastille Evening, what a fantastic evening meeting alot of new people and tasting the local food and wine followed by a display of fireworks. There will be many more of these occasions I am sure but already we are feeling sad about leaving this way of life. However, we have got lots to look forward to, seeing the children and the grandchildren and little Chloe who was born two weeks before we left. All I can say is we are very fortunate to have such a diversity of ways of spending our time, so would like to thank all of those you who have enjoyed or maybe just read the blog due to loyalty or some perverse reason that you have nothing better to do, also to thank our friends and family who have come to see us and enjoy their time with us. Also a big thank you to Gavin and Natasha, who have been so supportive of us and our affairs whilst we have been enjoying our time at Capet. Watch this space, we return in October we hope!! B y the way we are almost speaking French like the natives ha ha ha
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Week Five - Visitors Arriving
Sorry the blog is late but the sun has arrived – yeh, so have had to catch up on lazing on the lounger, reading and actually trying to get a tan. So all in all I have been quite busy!!!!! Plus of course the visitors have started to arrive.
Last Saturday we were waiting for a call from our friends from the UK, Wyn and Pete, they were going to call from the local village SOS, and we were going to meet them and bring them to the house, anyway we heard a car pull up in the drive and thought they must have made their own way and low and behold it was a another couple of friends Arthur and Val from Perth arriving unexpectedly. Five minutes later a call from Wyn and Pete from SOS and no sooner had we brought them home another car speed down the drive and it was our French ‘friend’ Guy with a lady friend. So it got a bit noisy and ended up with Arthur in his French beret (which he takes everyhere), Terry in his, Guy in his white one and Pete playing petanque in the drive, it got rather loud particularly as Terry had partnered with Guy the petanque champion of his village (its helpful knowing ones neighbours!). Eventually Guy and friend left and it was great to catch up with our friends.
Arthur and Val only stayed overnight and then set off to meet other friends in France, then we went out and about with Wyn and Pete in their car, luxury after driving around in our non airconditioned classic. It’s funny how the subconscious works or it is more probably old age. After one day of being in the UK car Terry took the French ‘classic’ to the boulangerie to buy the days croissants and bread, got back in the car, fastened his seat belt and then couldn’t find the steering wheel – think about it. He said he felt such an idiot – think about it.
After their five days here Wyn and Pete left to catch their ferry and Brad and Mary Jane, more friends from Perth arrived, as they have been back packing around Europe they are happy to chill and soak in the tranquillity of Capet, plus of course Brad was keen to try his skills in lighting bonfires, racking hay, mowing the lawns on the tractor mower and generally rekindling his farming days as a boy, Mary Jane who is a very keen and fast walker has been a great walking partner for me and has pulled me out of blur of non motivation and we have had some great walks, last night we walked to our local village SOS in 40 minutes, I think normal walkers would take about an hour, but when I say she walks fast I am not exaggerating but I am pleased to say I kept up most of the time.
Now it is July France comes alive with festivals and fetes, starting tomorrow the local village Mezin has got daily concerts as there is an orchestra visiting from a Paris conservatorire, all the concerts are free, its unbelievable, also on Sunday Terry is quite keen to go to a Escargots (snails) festival, it is a 5 course meal, including wine and coffee in the market square, we haven’t quite decided if we will be going. Also as from next Wednesday evening right through to end of August our local village SOS is having farmer produce dinners in the local square, apparently the sleepy village of about 500 people and then at least another 500 people or so come to these festivals, so it is a tres jollie evening with music etc.
Talking about food, since we first looked at the house we had been told about the The Restaurant in our village Ste Maure de Peyriac and apparently people come from miles around to eat there, so eventually we got there this week and its certainly lives up to and even surpasses its reputation. For 11 Euros (or about $19) we had soup, then a fresh salad, followed by croques messieur (a very fancy grilled cheese and ham sandwich) then the main course of rabbit on pasta (I loved the pasta!!!) then a dessert of rice pudding, all this with as much wine as we wanted and coffee. I must say the food was extremely fresh and you couldn’t get more traditional French cuisine anywhere. Although saying that we have had some fabulous meals in this area of Lot et Goronne, maybe also because we are boarding on the Gers region where there are far more traditional type foods.
As for my speaking French I have got a few stock phrases that I can generally get by for most situations but sometimes come a cropper. The lady (Charlotte) who came with Guy is Swiss but has lived in France for years and is a French teacher, she has offered to give me lessons, but she corrected me a couple of times and I thought she would have hit me with a ruler if she had one so thought better of that one, poor Mum was brave enough to ask her the name of tree and because Mum could not pronounce the word correctly Charlotte got very upset and cross, no don’t think she would suit me and my short term memory.
Thank you Wyn and Pete for the great French/English dictionary it has already become invaluable.
A bietento
Sorry the blog is late but the sun has arrived – yeh, so have had to catch up on lazing on the lounger, reading and actually trying to get a tan. So all in all I have been quite busy!!!!! Plus of course the visitors have started to arrive.
Last Saturday we were waiting for a call from our friends from the UK, Wyn and Pete, they were going to call from the local village SOS, and we were going to meet them and bring them to the house, anyway we heard a car pull up in the drive and thought they must have made their own way and low and behold it was a another couple of friends Arthur and Val from Perth arriving unexpectedly. Five minutes later a call from Wyn and Pete from SOS and no sooner had we brought them home another car speed down the drive and it was our French ‘friend’ Guy with a lady friend. So it got a bit noisy and ended up with Arthur in his French beret (which he takes everyhere), Terry in his, Guy in his white one and Pete playing petanque in the drive, it got rather loud particularly as Terry had partnered with Guy the petanque champion of his village (its helpful knowing ones neighbours!). Eventually Guy and friend left and it was great to catch up with our friends.
Arthur and Val only stayed overnight and then set off to meet other friends in France, then we went out and about with Wyn and Pete in their car, luxury after driving around in our non airconditioned classic. It’s funny how the subconscious works or it is more probably old age. After one day of being in the UK car Terry took the French ‘classic’ to the boulangerie to buy the days croissants and bread, got back in the car, fastened his seat belt and then couldn’t find the steering wheel – think about it. He said he felt such an idiot – think about it.
After their five days here Wyn and Pete left to catch their ferry and Brad and Mary Jane, more friends from Perth arrived, as they have been back packing around Europe they are happy to chill and soak in the tranquillity of Capet, plus of course Brad was keen to try his skills in lighting bonfires, racking hay, mowing the lawns on the tractor mower and generally rekindling his farming days as a boy, Mary Jane who is a very keen and fast walker has been a great walking partner for me and has pulled me out of blur of non motivation and we have had some great walks, last night we walked to our local village SOS in 40 minutes, I think normal walkers would take about an hour, but when I say she walks fast I am not exaggerating but I am pleased to say I kept up most of the time.
Now it is July France comes alive with festivals and fetes, starting tomorrow the local village Mezin has got daily concerts as there is an orchestra visiting from a Paris conservatorire, all the concerts are free, its unbelievable, also on Sunday Terry is quite keen to go to a Escargots (snails) festival, it is a 5 course meal, including wine and coffee in the market square, we haven’t quite decided if we will be going. Also as from next Wednesday evening right through to end of August our local village SOS is having farmer produce dinners in the local square, apparently the sleepy village of about 500 people and then at least another 500 people or so come to these festivals, so it is a tres jollie evening with music etc.
Talking about food, since we first looked at the house we had been told about the The Restaurant in our village Ste Maure de Peyriac and apparently people come from miles around to eat there, so eventually we got there this week and its certainly lives up to and even surpasses its reputation. For 11 Euros (or about $19) we had soup, then a fresh salad, followed by croques messieur (a very fancy grilled cheese and ham sandwich) then the main course of rabbit on pasta (I loved the pasta!!!) then a dessert of rice pudding, all this with as much wine as we wanted and coffee. I must say the food was extremely fresh and you couldn’t get more traditional French cuisine anywhere. Although saying that we have had some fabulous meals in this area of Lot et Goronne, maybe also because we are boarding on the Gers region where there are far more traditional type foods.
As for my speaking French I have got a few stock phrases that I can generally get by for most situations but sometimes come a cropper. The lady (Charlotte) who came with Guy is Swiss but has lived in France for years and is a French teacher, she has offered to give me lessons, but she corrected me a couple of times and I thought she would have hit me with a ruler if she had one so thought better of that one, poor Mum was brave enough to ask her the name of tree and because Mum could not pronounce the word correctly Charlotte got very upset and cross, no don’t think she would suit me and my short term memory.
Thank you Wyn and Pete for the great French/English dictionary it has already become invaluable.
A bietento
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