Last French 2009 Post

As I sit here listening to last night’s episode of BBC’s Archers and reflect over the last six months I say to myself in fluent French where has the last six months gone?? This is my build up to justifying that I have not written a blog for some time, so much has happened since the last blog it is difficult to know where to start without being too long winded and boring.

I think a synopsis will be enough but in the style of the back of a new novel that you are not sure whether to read or not:

“This gripping, exciting page turner of a blog will make you stay awake until the last word has been read. Read about the trip to the UK and amazing visits by friends and family from Australia”

Or

“Unputdownable”, “Pacy. Sexy. High-octane stuff” “A blog which makes for sleepless nights”

Actually that describes the latest James Patterson book but I thought it might add a bit of zest to the reading!!

Since returning from Lake Geneva and Provence our great 2009 French experience has continued, the highlight of course was the children (adults) and grandchildren coming en masse to stay for almost three weeks. As a bonus Terry’s father Ron was here also (his second visit this year) which made it a very emotional time with him bonding with grandchildren he has not seen in 10 years and great grandchildren he hadn’t ever met. We had a ball, not only sightseeing but challenging ourselves with rope climbing in the trees, go- karting, chopping down trees, building a tepee in the garden (well done Steve), catching yabbies in the pond, playing in the pond or should I say mud, shooting and missing frogs and yabbies in the pond with the air rifle and air gun, pumping water out of our neighbours pond into ours ...anyway the list is endless and this is without mentioning the nightly firework display by the boys I mean adult boys but that is debatable watching them playing with the fireworks. We also celebrated Terry’s 60^th with Steve’s mother and stepfather and Steve’s brother, sister in law and children, who had also come to France, so one big get together.

It was amazing how technology played such an important role in this trip with family mainly through the social media Facebook, there was many a time when three laptops were on the go all logged into facebook downloading photos from France, so it has been interesting for Terry and I reading facebook since they have left and checking out all their photos. Dominic and Annie had a week end in Barcelona while we all looked after Abigail, Gavin, Dominic and Annie had a night in Andorra and then Kaliska and Steve had a night in Andorra while we looked after their children.

The day after they all left we went to the UK for Bob’s 60^th birthday party, Helene and I had a great day shopping in Croydon, Marks and Spencers (shoppers dream, well mine anyway), as we drove up to Deippe over to Newhaven with the car, it was amazing not having to worry about the luggage allowance, the car got filled up from places like B & Q (Bunnings look alike), Sainsburys (Coles look alike) Marks & Spencers (nothing compares!!!) and of course NEXT and Mothercare for the girls who had given me a list and money to buy children’s’ clothes. The worst thing about the UK we had arrived during a bitterly cold snap and our bones could have snapped with the cold, ugh.

When we got back I had organised another party for Terry’s 60^th a Curry night for our French friends, this was interesting as I had never cooked a curry in my life before but thankfully a great expat friend Bob came to the rescue with a detailed telephone call telling me what I needed to do step by step. I phoned this particular friend as he has a reputation for his fine curries, I did try asking the audience but they weren’t in the slightest bit interested. (sorry I digress and for those non sad people I was using the Who wants to be a millionaire program as an analogy).

Terry’s birthday was on the following Monday to make it even more special Bob and Chris his two lifelong buddies (Bob was our bestman) arrived for two days, we had a great time doing what we do best ... eat, drink and chat ....and chat they did, continuously for two days, who said women talk alot (sorry Chris).

Things have been pretty full on since we have been back from the UK including a motor vehicle accident I sustained in our local village. For reasons of accuracy this is what happened from the horse’s mouth, me, Carol who was technically in charge of the vehicle at the time. I had driven into SOS to pay someone some money, when I returned to the car it wasn’t there, mon dieu I exclaimed in my best French accent. Then I noticed 5 or 6 French men gesturing and scratching their heads towards a grey grand voyager that was in the doors of the butcher’s shop. Mon dieu I exclaimed (again) (actually it was worse than that but I am reluctant to put it in black and white the word I used) the car looked suspiciously like ours, in fact it was our car and to be honest I was all set to walk past with a cheery Bonjour but decided there was no way out of this situation but just find out what damage I had incurred to the butchers front door. Luckily, when I drove it off the wall and pot plant and out of the door it was surprising that other than a chunk out of the wall, a small scratch on the door and slight bend in the door frame it looked fine. But the French being the French we exchanged insurance companies but this was a week ago and so far no news. Fingers crossed, for those of you interested, once I had rubbed off the brick dust off the ball bar and side of the car there was only a couple of little scratches!!!

SOS has been high on our ‘entertainment’ list recently, another highlight has been the fact that the new mayor is renovating the market square, they have removed the surface of the carpark to reveal the remains of a 11^th century church and cemetery, I have taken some photos of the wall outlines and also of a number of exposed bones. How amazing it has been, Terry’s own Time Team on his doorstep. They are planning to cover it up again in the next few days but there has been some talk of putting some lights and Perspex over a particularly well preserved crypt (see circular room in photo). I can’t believe how you can just walk up to the site and see bones in the dirt, we even saw a stone coffin with a pelvis just laying there, anywhere else the area would have been roped off and the bones moved ceremoniously to another place of rest, but no not the French, it is not their way.

I am sure there have been many incidents and anecdotes that I have either forgotten or omitted to write about but our thoughts are now in a hotter climates as we slowly pack up the house and garden ready for next year’s French experience.

A bientot

Photos since last blog

Happy 60th Birthday Terry

Curry Night at Capet
Bob's 60th (far right), poster at the back was photo taken about 28yrs ago.

Gavin and Dominic 'shooting' frogs and yabbies

More Photos

Dominic and Terry
'The Boys" at Uncle Peters Willis Jeep
Abigail - 13 mths
Great Grandad with Owen and Chloe
Carol and Dominic helping me get up enough courage to do the flying fox!
"Hurry up Mum, we have been here two hours" "Chill Dominic I am waiting for the photographer"
Kaliska and Steve
Ready for a climb - Owen, Chloe and Ella
Ella and Owen in the pool
Meal at Capet
View of the square SOS
Crypt
Bones exposed in one of the stone coffins

Chicken Saga Update

Quick update as I have some concerned readers about the chicken...
Terry got up to make the tea this morning and saw it sitting in the rhubarb, so it was interesting watching him run round naked trying to catch it, which he did.

Forgot to mention the funny story when collecting the chickens, Terry asked the person we bought them off "What are they called?" and the reply was "They haven't got names you came name anything you like!" in case you didn't realise Terry wanted to know what TYPE they were ... Rhode Island Reds as it happens.

Photos of Cinque Terra

Back at Capet

Didn't continue with my last post as quickly as I would have liked, but here has been a couple dramas since my last blog. My mum was admitted into hospital with pneumonia and had another heart attack so we decided to cut short our stay with Helene and Dudley at Lake Geneva as I felt I needed to be close to my Australian passport, thankfully she is doing OK now and staying with Gill my sister for the time being. The other drama has been our car which may have a gear box problem, yet to be decided.

Back at Capet and had some unexpected visitors to stay for a couple of nights, one of my bookclub members and her husband, we had a great few days, picking figs and making some delicious fig jam ... thanks Jill. Life back in Capet has got back to 'normal' with Terry pottering and me reading and generally being lazy. He has finally finished the barn doors for the woodshed, he started them when we arrived in June and now they are 99% completed. The garden is looking glorious as we are now slowly going into Autumn which is evident by the falling leaves and the trees taking on an orange tinge and the winter crocus. This year has been a particularly good year in our neck of the woods for fruit and vegetables, we currently have a prolific fig tree, apples trees and pear trees, so I have been making jams and pickles, each time we go to our Sunday market we generally bump into some friends who are very quick to off load some of their culinary efforts in the shape of jam, it has become a great battering item. Also our vegetable garden has been amazing this year with tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes (or should I say marrows) along with French beans (of course), lettuces, aubergines, peppers and carrots, almost self sufficient. Talking of which we have just picked up three chickens on loan four weeks, for the grandchildren later this month, well tonight is the first night and as it is getting dark Terry decided to go out and lock them away and low and behold they were missing until we saw them up in the tree, well two of them that is, we have hunted high and low for the third one but no sign of it, hopefully it will appear tomorrow!!!!

Terry has now got bought his long conveted tractor complete with mowing attachment and carrying box, trouble is once the lawn is mowed there's not much he can do with it, oh sorry forgot he mowed the grass verges today along our lane leading to the house, the local marie will be pleased!!!

Well thats us..happy and enjoying ourselves in France.

A bientot

On Our Travels Again!!

I am sitting here on the edge of the Italian Alps (I think) in a Chambre d'hotes perched on a hill, central to my view is a huge bridge about 2 kms away which is the main highway to Roma, so not so romantic. We have arrived here via the South of France where we stayed four nights in two different locations in Provence, the views and the surrounding countryside is quite spectacular (sorry as an add on to my current view a bloody great train has just gone past about 1 km away). Back to Provence, we had a drama getting to our last B & B (would one of my blogs be complete without a drama??) getting to the house we took a very narrow lane which was for two way traffic up a very steep hill, our poor van which is 7/8 yrs old was really struggling especially in the low gears, we had to pull over for a car, of course it was rush hour going the other way on 'La steepe 'ill', and we ended up having to turn the car round and in the process hit a rather large boulder on the driver side wheel, this incurred a very unusual hissing sound ?puncture ?break line ?air conditioning the list went on and as the wheel was not going down and the metal bit on the wheel was badly buckled, it was obvious that was the problem, then we got to the actual drive of the house and it was a vertical drop, at least we hopped it wasn't the breaks, all fixed now and just to continue the car troubles we are experiencing an unusual knock on the right front wheel any ideas???? As we went to a mechanic in Italy and as its holiday time everywhere is closed.

Tomorrow we are walking the Cinqua Terra Trail which is 5 villages perched (as usual) on the side of a mountain with the sea below, it is quite a challenging walk up and down steps, in fact I don't think it will the walk that will be challenging but the weather, the last week we have had temps of up to 40 degrees plus. This has been difficult journey with the respect of directions, got lost a few times, I have been telling Terry we need a GPS for weeks now and he thinks I only wanted it as it is a gadget (he calls me gadget women, I call myself an up to date with technology women not a technophobe like Terry) so yesterday before we set off for Italy it was straight into our Harvey Norman/PC World equivalent called Darty and bought a TomTom which covers 42 European countries, that should be handy for next year me thinks!! So here we are with our GPS called Jane on our way to Le Spezia in Italy via Monaco and Monte Carlo and he is arguing with Jane and she got her own back and got us lost in Monte Carlo!!!!! To be continued.....

Hopefully photos to follow depends on time!

Bye for now

Carol