the cat sat on the mat

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder - well it has certainly worked regarding the little feral kitten we were trying to "adopt " before we went away for two weeks. Previously she was very nervous when we opened the door and did not like coming inside the house to eat ( even to escape the chickens who were always after her food) and certainly hated it if we closed the door on her escape route. An absence of two weeks has worked wonders and we now have a quite different little cat who follows me around the garden playing and climbing trees, comes inside to eat and has started to explore the downstairs rooms - maybe one day she will even sit on my lap!

Our trip to England was a great success. Combe Martin folk club was a gem and TCs performance was needless to say brilliant. We had a lovely time and enjoyed being back as part of the English folk music scene. North Devon too was delightful and we loved the scenery and being beside the sea.

During the following week we spent happy times with family, availed ourselves of retail opportunities before a stay in North Staffordshire for our "leaving party". The celidh was just brilliant and all that we had hoped it would be. There were over 100 people ( including our children who had travelled from Coventry and Norwich to be there), many reunions, great music and lots of dancing. We were showered with presents, there were cake and balloons (which stayed in the window of the car for our return journey and are still decorating our dining room) and we generally had an evening to remember.



During the evening I was able to clog again with Leopard spot which was great ( especially good to know I can still remember how ) and we also introduced the assembled throng to the sardane which we have learnt at our dancing classes her in France. TC had sent the music to the band in advance and they had made it their own! It was good fun even if only a few people danced a recognisable sardane( I blame the teacher). Next month we are due to teach some English tunes and dances at a folk event here - all round I think this could be trickier!

Although we had had a great time and it was lovely catching up with friends and family we were very happy to be home - and yes, here really is home already. This week we have signed the contract for the installation of our swimming pool ( our last grand project), we have painted our big bedroom ready for the carpet to be fitted and we are starting to plan the rest of our garden projects for the summer. We are looking forward to welcoming more visitors over the summer months and the last few days the weather has been just glorious during the day full of promise of an imminent Spring.

If TC can shake off the very English cough and cold he brought back with him without passing it on to me I shall be extremely grateful as I have a lot planned for this week!

unexpected callers

the lake across the field in front of our house

"Autre fois" (as we call our life before moving here) we had very few callers at our front door even though we lived in a fairly ordinary suburban area. When the doorbell went more often than not it was our next door neighbour telling us they were off on holiday for a few days. Now we live in splendid almost isolation an unexpected knock at the door is certainly a surprise! Last week it happened twice. The first occasion I opened the door to find a man I didn't recognise talking extremely fast and very heavily accented French at me - I managed to catch the words "voisin" and "apero" and realised it was the neighbouring farmer ( we had met him briefly to introduce ourselves when we moved in but I hadn't recognised him) inviting us for a drink. I summoned TC who appeared out of the shed a whiter shade of pale covered from head to toe in white dust as he had been busy sanding a ceiling ready for painting - he looked like the ghost of old father time. A quick change and dust off and off we went up the lane and spent a pleasant (if linguistically challenging) hour or so over a bottle of champagne with Alain and his wife.

Just a couple of days later more callers - this time the daughter of another nearby farmer and her partner. She was keen to practise her already good English so conversation was easier. She also told us about a biligual conversation group which meets weekly in nearby Limogne. Its good to feel that our neighbours getting to know us a bit even though they are a few fields away and probably think we are very strange!



Its been another busy week, lunches with friends, dancing ( another "bal" tonight), more reshaping of the garden in preparation for Spring, painting the new bedroom and after a couple of dull drizzly days some welcome winter sunshine gave us the opportunity to enjoy being outside. We have also taken the plunge ( sorry) into the deep and chilly waters of the world of swimming pools and await the quote in the next few days.



site for the pool







We are also preparing for our trip back to England on Wednesday, we have found someone who is willing to "borrow" the chickens which is a relief. I have been practising my clog dancing so that I can join in at the celidh- its been good to discover I haven't forgotten everything.

Bonne année

Our first French Christmas and New Year is over and the decorations will soon be packed away for next year.

It was certainly different this year - the first Christmas in 30 years when I haven't cooked Christmas dinner for a houseful! We had a good time though despite missing family and friends.We were uncharacteristically sociable, met new people, enjoyed good food and company, went for a wonderful Boxing day walk in the snow and even had to turn down an invite for New Years Eve as we had already booked to go to the local salle des fetes for the bal with some friends.

TC retired officially on the first day of 2010 and the months which followed had rather more ups and downs than we thought strictly necessary although as it turns out all those people who said there was a reason were right ( don't you just hate it when other people are right?). In this case they were right as this house was definitely the one for us. Thanks to all those whose encouragement kept us going even when it all seemed hopeless and we were ready to give up.

We have loved our first few months living as French residents and have no regrets about our decision to come here. We were very content and comfortable in England and had a good social life and many friends but retirement offered us an opportunity to have an adventure and follow a dream. This weekend we will have been in our new house for three months - it seems much longer we feel so much "at home". Getting to know other English people has been easy - there are plenty around and it is nice to be able to relax and have a conversation in English after a day struggling to master French. It is harder to get to know French people ( although those we meet are all very friendly to us). We are so pleased that our traditional dancing classes have worked out so well as they have brought us into contact with lots of people and provided us with regular social events ( we could easily go to a dance every week).

We are now busy preparing for a two week trip back to England where TC has a booking to perform at a folk club giving us an opportunity to visit family and also have our "leaving party" in Stoke. We had always planned to have a grand farewell celidh but our eventual sudden departure prevented it. Our old folk club traditionally has a January celidh so we have decided to sponsor that as our leaving bash. It will be great to see everyone and I am sure we are going to have a great time but I am also sure that we will be glad to get "home"- Spring will be just around the corner and we have so many plans and projects lined up.




The year ahead will see some significant birthdays and anniversaries - I look forward to celebrating them in the French sunshine.

Poussière

Its always good to think that I have learnt a new French word or useful phrase each day. Today it was the word for dust ( and plenty of it).

Having warned us that it would probably be February before he could fit in fixing our bedroom floor we got back from a walk yesterday ( fabulous by the way) to find a massive oak beam in the drive a certain clue that the work was more imminent.

At 8 oclock this morning sharp a team of workers duly arrived and proceeded to produce huge quantities of poussière. ( Haven't you heard that gris de poussière is all the rage for Christmas decorations? - if only I hadn't been so keen to get festive!).





By lunchtime the beam to support the sagging ceiling beams in the salon below the main bedroom was in place and we used the lunchbreak to take down the decorations and remove remaining ornaments and the morning's poussière




Some of the bedroom floor is already down this evening and is impressively flat and immobile - a brilliant job!



Once again we are so impressed with French workmanship and energy. No coffee breaks all morning, one hour for lunch and then back to work without a break till home time. Its no wonder the job is almost finished in one day. The end result in the bedroom is going to be better than we had dared to hope for. Once the beam is stained to match the old ones we will tell ourselves it was always there and anyway anything is better than the ceiling caving in!

Now the problem is finding somewhere to sit this evening after eating - it may be an early night is called for or we may end up fighting over the computer.

A night to remember.

Auberge Lou Bourdie presided over by the wonderful cook and hostess Monique Valette was a great discovery. We were introduced to it by friends and have returned many times. Jamie Oliver discovered it too and it was featured in one of his TV series. Whenever we have visitors we try to take them there - try is the word as we have been dissappointed by it being fully booked before now. Even at this time of the year when all of the tourists have departed it is always full which is not surprising when the food is so good and such good value.

During a recent visit, thanks to the intervention of TC's sister( never backward at coming forward) a conversation about music and musicians resulted in us somehow wangling an invitation to a special soiree in honour of les vins nouveaux ( Beaujolias, Gamay and Gaillac) on 18th November, and TC would be able to play as well!

We duly went along a couple of days later not really knowing what sort of event to expect and feeling somewhat apprenhensive as to what we had let ourselves in for. But what a night we had!

When we arrived TC was introduced to the band and invited to show what he could do with his instrument and the usual musicians mutual admiration exchanges took place. The room was filling up around us and we were not sure what do next when we were introduced to a Belgian couple who were on their own and told to sit on what turned out to be the table where members of Monique's family would sit. People kept pouring in until the two rooms were packed, the mayor came in and did a tour of the tables and we got to know our fellow diners.

We were then served a fabulous meal of soup, confit duck. cheese and gateaux to accompany the vin nouveau of our choice. As the meal progressed the music started and so did the dancing - no dance floor just gaps between the tables. By the time we had finished eating the room next door was still being served and great trays of confit duck were being carried perilously through the dancers. On their return to the kitchen the waitresses would stop to join in the dancing in their aprons. Every so often Monique herself would come out of the kitchen and join in ( also still in her apron) on one occasion pulling me up to dance with her. During one dance another partner danced me straight into the kitchen! The music was fabulous, and TC did a "turn" too which went down well, the French clapping along to the Irish jigs with no problem.

It was a brilliant evening and the highlight of our time in France so far. To round the evening off on our way home we saw two sangliers (wild boar) at the side of the road. Unfortunately I had forgotten to take my camera so there are no pictures to share.


We went for lunch at the auberge again this week and Monique was effusive with her welcome as always and full of praise for TC's musical talent hoping that we will go again next year - just try and stop us! Lunch of course was delicious as always. We have promised ourselves to indulge in the "menu de Truffe" at some point over the winter truffle season.

We have cracked the Mazurka!

"Autre fois" ( or before we moved here) our social life centred almost entirely around our folk music and dance friends. TC is a musician and played with a celidh band as well writing and singing his own songs. We helped to run a folk club and I was a member of a clog dancing side. We always knew that it would be this side of life in England we would miss most and were very keen to get involved in what appeared to be the thriving traditional music scene in Quercy.










Just four days after moving into our house we spotted a banner outside a nearby Salle de Fetes advertising a "Cours des dances traditionelles" with a phone number. We discovered that the course had started but we were not too late to join and it was that very evening. So there we were after just a few days welcomed into the class alongside about 50 French and three other English people. Now Tuesday evenings are a highlight of the week. We dance non stop for two hours and stop at 11pm for cake and apple juice! I can't help contrasting with our weekly clog practice in England - barely an hour dancing then off to the pub. (Mind you we do miss the chance to sit with friends for an hour in the pub).

Many of the dances we are learning use figures that are very familiar from English dances and are easy to pick up besides which, as in an English celidh, no one cares much if you get it wrong although they do take it very seriously. Easy that is until we tried the Mazurka - it looks easy and indeed I could do it when dancing with the teacher but let loose it was hopeless! We did feel encouraged when one of the old club members said it took him two years to learn it!

Anyway - this week we have practised all week and finally we have cracked it. The breakthrough for TC was getting a written breakdown of the steps from the internet - he always needs to analyse what he needs to do before his feet will cooperate.

This week was also my turn on the rota to provide cakes - a bit scary as every week there is a feast of home made goodies and I am still getting to grips with finding familiar ingredients and also coping with a ridiculously small oven. Anyway apple and cinnamon shortbread and bakewell shortbread went down well AND I was asked for the "recette" so a good week all round even if it has been freezing! Now all I've got to do is translate the recipe - should give evryone a laugh anyway.

Ségala snowfall

The news has been warning of snow expected all over France so we should not have been surprised. Yesterday was cold but very bright and I spent a glorious day working in the garden, reshaping beds which we want to change, clearing up leaves and hedge cuttings and wrapping plants against the cold.Just in time it seems, as we woke to that strange silence which seems to accompany snowfall and a winter wonderland view. We walked down to the village and found the roads were still passable, also the snow was melting fast. Also just in time to edit the Carter Christmas card!


We are discovering the best ways to keep our stone house warm - the office is the easiest room in the house to get warm which is great for spending "too long" on the computer. We do not have central heating so we can concentrate on heating the rooms we are using and the log fire is very cosy.








Tomorrow we are due to have lunch with some friends in a village nearby. It is too far to walk really so we hope for a further thaw. More important we hope that driving conditions won't be bad on Thursday when we are off to Limoges airport to fly to England for a few days pre Christmas visiting.