St Maure de Peyriac

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

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.

Friday, August 5, 2011

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

Monday, May 16, 2011

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.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Christmas 2010

Welcome to a different Christmas Newsletter, I was hoping by having a ‘blog’ newletter I would:

- Bring more people to my blog to catch up with the year’s news

- It’s easier and saves time!

- Save paper, as I always print the backs of the newsletters upside down and have to reprint (an age related condition)

So be prepared to read a) a short synopsis of the year or b) read through the year’s goings on in the blogs below or c) say bugger that and don’t read it at all!!

Whichever one you choose you might need to consider making yourself a cup of tea or for those with a stronger constitution and decide to choose b} you will may need something alcoholic!!

As usual The Trims have had a busy year, from January to May we were in Perth enjoying the fantastic lifestyle and weather, continuing with keeping fit with three cycle rides a week totally about 100kms, plus the gym and swimming. I must admit there is an ulterior motive for all this exercise, its called French food gluttony and wine!! We have to prepare for the six months in France and still we come back with an extra kilo or three. So guess what we are back in Perth doing all those things again, thank goodness we love it, as I write this Terry is out playing golf so we need to add this to our list of exercise.

We arrived in France in mid May and had a very hectic 5 months, we went to the UK three times (thank you Helene and Dudley for putting up with us), the first time was for my Uncle Peter’s 70^th birthday which was amazing meeting all my Aunts, Uncles and cousins and renewing our communications (I hope). Then in July we went over for the wedding of (Bob and Kay’s son Neil to Vicky), both these young people hold a special place in our hearts as they have spent time with us in Australia a few times so it was great to celebrate their special day with them. Also we were amongst our friends and had a ball. (Probaly best not to elaborate on this for fear of incriminating the innocent).

Whilst in France we had many friends and family visit which was great including Terry’s brother Ray, his Dad and also our son Gavin who had been over for the wedding. We all had a excellent time including going to San Sebastian for tapas, as it is only about 2 ½ hrs from our house it is quite doable and of course gives Terry the opportunity to visit the Spanish border duty free and top up with Gin and also our latest discovery Chocolate Vodka, Chocolate and Mint Vodka and Toffee Vodka, all for medicinal purposes of course.

In July I attended a residential photography course for a week in Limoges and had an amazing time, our tutor was an English guy from Grimsby who was brilliant.

Then in August I went back to Australia for two weeks to look after Mum following open-heart surgery. Mum has been very poorly now for some years and was having 5/6 angina attacks a day and unable to walk far etc etc and all the cardiologists have always said it was too dangerous to operate. Then she saw a new one who was up for it, to cut a long story short, she had the operation and survived some horrendous complications including death twice and is now fantastic and looking forward to celebrating her 80^th birthday in France next June. Amazing and each day she is getting fitter and back driving her car. For this we are thankful to the professional expertise of Sir Charles Gardener.

Back to France more visitors, this is one of the reasons we bought the house and choose this lifestyle to see our friends and travel. And travel we did, we met up with Helene and Dudley and “did” Rome, The Almalfi Coast, Pompeii for just over a week then we all flew to Geneva and spent a fabulous week at their lake house near Evian on Lake Geneva.

In October we packed up the house and left it in the care of my Aunty Diane and her partner Philippe, (they do a fantastic job, keeping an eye on the house, turning heating on and off, cutting the grass, spraying fruit trees and planting veggies) thank you thank you and thank you again.

Then flew back to UK to Helene and Dudley’s, we went to see Terry’s Mum and Dad and then off to Boston, New England and New York for 10 days. The Fall was amazing, great photo opportunities and a chance to see snow again (yippee!!!!), in fact because of the snow we left Vermont one day early (we don’t do cold) down to Rhode Island and New York and even though we did and saw more than the last visit to The Big Apple including a 3 hour bike ride round Central Park we still need to go back and see more. Including the Statue of Liberty where there is a 3 month waiting list to get tickets.

We arrived back in Perth at the beginning of November and the merry go round starts again. Although we are retired we have still written a course whilst in France and Terry has actually done a couple of days training, to be honest we are having trouble fitting it all in!!

Well that hopefully has got everyone up to date except to say we are looking forward to our fifth grand child in February, it will be Dominic and Annie’s second child.

We would like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic 2011, maybe we will see you in France next year. See below for some of our latest photos.

Love Carol and Terry xxxx