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On this page is our blathering about life since we left the UK in June 2008 up to the beginning of December 2008. For more recent blogs visit the 2009 page. 1st December 2008
Dinner Dance French Style As those of you who read our ramblings regularly will know, we are very keen to try to become part of the community and not strangers to it. So when some friends of ours (Audrey & Grahame who carry the heavy responsibility of being the ones who first introduced us to this area of The event was to take place in the Salle des Fetes – nearest We arrived around 8 p.m. on a cold and wet Saturday and joined the queue to be checked off on the list, pay our EUR21 each – about GBP17.00 – and be shown to our table of 8. We were by no means the last to arrive, people were still rolling in more than an hour later! Now most of you will have a particular image of a dinner dance, certainly mine is of a fairly posh affair with us men in penguin suits and the ladies dressed up to the nines in ball gowns or cocktail dresses (Am I showing my age?) But that is not the French way!
Now, normally, a dinner dance involves dinner and then some dancing. That is not the French way because our dinner came course by course over the next 4 hours interspersed by lots of dancing which started as soon as the music did. None of the usual English reserve about not being first on the dance floor. Before recounting the bill of fare I will remind you once again that the cost of the evening was EUR21 per person – remember that figure! We started off with a glass of Kir Petillante – yummy - accompanied by two plates of various nibbles comprising little squares of pizza, small pieces of bread spread with a Roquefort cheese and topped with a nut and various other little tit-bits all of which were delicious and had been prepared by various ladies of the village. Some time later, the next course was presaged by a metal basket piled high with beautiful French bread and soon after followed a plate of ‘Terrine de Lapin avec son accompagnement’, rabbit pate, very tasty indeed and accompanied by a slice of tomato, a lettuce leaf and a cornichon - a gherkin. The next course was a trou A while later the main course was served, a plate with a slice of roti de veau sauce Normande (mushrooms) ‘avec sa jardinière de legumes’ a very tasty melange of potato, peas, carrots etc. all accompanied by more bread! After a suitable break plates of cheese appeared on our table and this was followed, some time later, by trays laden with various desserts, again prepared by the ladies of the village. There were rum babas, apple pies, chocolate gateaux tart tatine and loads more. The tray(s) came around several times as they were desperate to get rid of a surfeit of desserts. Not the place for someone on a diet! Accompanying the meal was a seemingly inexhaustible supply of red & white wine, bottles of water and the whole thing was rounded off with coffee! All this was included within the price of the ticket! During the course of the evening a large dried ham was brought round and everyone was offered the opportunity to guess the weight of it with the closest guess winning the ham! To give an idea of the leisurely pace of dinner, we left just before 1a.m. and coffee had not yet been served! In between courses there was dancing! This was in itself an education and a revelation! We were told that at a certain stage in every school child’s education, they take dance classes so that they are able to join in at dances. Nicolas and his colleagues played a great variety of tunes, some of which contained musical phrases that seemed familiar although, even in French, the songs were not ones that we knew. There were tangos, polkas, waltzes and more which I did not recognise but the strange thing was that, almost without exception, the dance consisted of the same steps, usually executed at a slower tempo the faster the rhythm of the tune! Whilst usually, couples danced together, some tunes saw the floor filled with what can only be compared to line dancers. It looked easy but it was not but it was fascinating to watch as some couples progressed steadily around the dance floor whilst others twirled incessantly leaving even the spectator slightly dizzy. At a time when we have been watching Strictly Come Dancing, there were some who could have given the Strictly stars a run for their money! However, not being able to master the steps was not a reason not to dance as was demonstrated by one lady of a certain age who totally lacked the slightest sense of rhythm but was rarely off the dance floor often swooping on a poor unsuspecting and unknown male and dragging him onto the dance floor! Age mattered not, nor did nationality as two of the English males on our table discovered! Fortunately, we left before she could swoop on me! And so, around 1a.m. we made our excuses and were the first to leave heading of into a cold, sleety night for the 11 mile drive home during the course of which we saw one other vehicle! An experience for sure and another fascinating insight into the French way of life. Roundabout Etiquette - French Style!
What is it about the French & roundabouts? I think that they still have not registered that, by and large, the old rule of ‘priorité a droit’ or priority to the right no longer applies. Why do I say this? Well, imagine you are on a roundabout going around it only to be confronted by a massive articulated truck pulling out in front of you. Not something you might expect in the UK but here in France an everyday occurrence! Mind you, there seems to be a general lack of comprehension when it comes to roundabouts. Either that or the French have discovered the art of reading each other’s thoughts. Certainly they appear to consider that the use of indicators is not necessary because you can be sitting at an entrance to a roundabout and vehicle after vehicle will come round it without giving any indication of whether it is exiting and if so where. Even the position of the vehicle on the roundabout is no help. There seems to be no concept of getting into the correct lane – ‘Ze correct lane? What eez zis correct lane nonsense! Ze correct lane is ze lane I am in! Pah!’ – for vehicles will hug the centre of the roundabout before darting off to take the first exit cutting across traffic in the other lanes whilst others will go around the outside of the roundabout to go off down the road they used to enter it!!! It is no wonder that so many French cars seem to display dents and scratches with pride! My calendar tells me it is Saturday but one of the big advantages of being retired is that it really is not too important what day it is! After a day and a half spent painting walls and ceilings it is nice to have a quick break at the computer before going out to cut up some more logs for the wood burner. It seems weird that here we are in the middle of November and there are still loads of flowers on a lovely big fuchsia bush in the garden. In the last few days we have seen a roe deer in our field and many of the herds of cattle that populate the fields around us have swollen with the arrival of quite a lot of calves. On Tuesday we attended an Armistice Day parade in one of the local villages (virtually every village that has a war memorial, and most do, marks Armistice Day which is a public holiday here in Hallo ween! So here we are in November. Did you go trick or treating? I thought we would escape it here but no, early on Friday evening there was a knock at the door & there were three small children all dressed up looking very scary! I told them that in the November 1st is a holiday in France – All Saints Day, followed on the 2nd by All Souls Day. We have been told – light-heartedly we think – that it is a good idea to stay of the roads on All Souls Day as this is the day that the French visit their departed family members’ graves. This usually involves taking some flowers – every shop has chrysanthemums for sale – and some booze so they can drink a toast to the departed. The problem is that there are often quite a few family members in the graveyard and a drink with each means that the drive home can be perilous!
10th November 2008 It is more than two months since our last blog and time seems to be flying! In September we had to make an unexpected visit to the Here at La Maison du Blues Numerique we have been busy, busy, busy making the most of some good weather to work outside. There has been plenty to do! The weather has been very conducive to stuff growing and at times it seemed as if we could actually see the grass growing! In August we were loaned a mower which meant I could make big inroads into the jungle that is our field! However, I had to return it to Andrew at My Limousin and I am here to tell you that an electric Flymo and electric strimmers are fine for Billericay but they cannot cope out here in The Flymos could just about cope with some of the grass in the ‘garden’ bit of our garden but out in the meadow it was a lost cause! So something had to be done! It was clear that, attractive as it maybe, one of those dinky tractor lawn mowers, a ‘tondeuse autoportee’ as they are called here, was going to fall far short of being man enough for the job. Our sheep farmer friend, Mike, spotted a 1966 Massey Ferguson tractor with a mower attachment on the website of a local agricultural machinery company. It was rather costlier than we had anticipated but it had the advantage that we could, at later dates, buy other attachments such as a rotovator, hedgetrimmer etc. It was not meant to be, however, as when we enquired by phone it had been sold.
We have planted a load more fruit trees including some good old English varieties such as Bramley apple as well as an English oak! Some maples, horse chestnut, Christmas trees and loads more. We may not see them reach maturity but our children and grandchildren will! I am sure that our neighbours must think we are mad seeing me traipsing across the field behind the mower and trees popping up all over the place! With winter frosts now becoming fairly regular occurrences we have had to put all the pot plants away in one of the open fronted barns – it is full!!! It involves moving something in excess of 120 pots! Sadly we have not been able to plant an awful lot in the garden as so much work is still going on that we cannot really get the garden going. So it is going to be a busy Spring! Work is drawing to a conclusion. Outside the deck is taking shape although it is at a standstill at present as the supply of decking boards has run out and there is a delay in sourcing more as it ‘ is not the season for building decks’! Inside, we finally have central heating which means the damp chill that pervaded the house is gradually disappearing. It is oil fired and am I glad that I delayed buying in fioul? Three months ago it cost nearly EUR1.10 a litre but the 500 litres delivered a few days ago cost just EUR0.73 per litre. Result! Most impressively, the suppliers, E. Leclerc, the supermarket chain, said the delivery would be at 9.00 a.m. and at 08.58 there was the tanker outside in the road. Within 10 minutes it was all done and away. What a contrast to the
Finally, some excitement today when we spotted a deer in the field next to ours, happily grazing on the crops the farmer has planted! Saturday 16th August
Doesn’t time fly when you are having fun!? It does not seem possible that it is now nearly three weeks since our last blog! So much has happened that it is difficult to know where to start.
The bedroom looks great now that the beams and floor have been stained and the ceiling painted. The room is so light and airy although we have discovered one drawback of living in the roof – the rain falling on the roof and the velux windows makes a lot of noise!!! And we have had some rain over the last week or so. On the night of Tuesday/Wednesday 5/6th August we had a night of thunderstorms with almost continuous lightning and torrential rain. At one time I looked out of our bedroom window and it was like looking into a wild car wash, water going every which way, a regular maelstrom in our courtyard! Whilst nowhere near as bad, we have had several other outbreaks of very heavy rain, so much so that in the last six days a 200 litre water butt which collects the rain water off the porch roof (the porch is no more than five feet by five feet) is already 75% full.
The pool took the best part of a day to fill, by which time the weather had turned for the worse – ain’t that always the way! The pool was christened big time on Sunday 10th when we held our house warming party. The day dawned rather cloudy and did not look too promising for an event which we planned to hold outdoors with upwards of 70 people attending. However, fortune shone on us as did the sunshine and by kick-off at noon the sky was clear and crystal blue with the sun shining and a gentle breeze taking off the edge of the heat. Around three p.m. Kim donned her cozzie and acted as pool monitor whilst a dozen or so of the younger attendees to the party either donned swimming suits or stripped to their undies or, in one case, plunged into the pool fully clothed and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
The party was also a good opportunity to meet a number of other residents of Chantegrelle, the English, of whom there are at least three families. It was also an opportunity for us to say thank you to the many people who have helped us over the past year or two whilst we searched for, found and renovated our new home. Although hard work, it was a great success and seemed to be enjoyed by everyone.
We had a full house with them here, 10 in all. Even so the house did not feel crowded, except at wash time! I am not sure how comfortable Paul & Josh were on airbeds in Patricia’s studio and I did catch Paul blowing up his mattress one evening, at least I think it was his mattress!! Our catering was clearly not up to their standards as after our party they announced that they felt the need to go to have something to eat and headed off looking for the nearest McDonalds! Unlike Essex, these are few & far between and so they faced a 30 odd mile trip to
Our home now seems very quiet as they have all gone home. Back to the grind stone and the grass cutting!!!
Thursday 24th July Amazing to think that we have been here more than seven weeks! They have certainly been an eventful seven weeks and we seem to have done a lot but, by the same token, not to have achieved an awful lot. The master bedroom is almost ready for decorating and the plumbing in the ensuite should be finished on Monday. Patricia’s studio & the utility area are also just about ready for decoration, just a tiled floor and skirting board to be installed and the new living room is also almost ready for decoration, the new floor should go down next week and the monumental structure that is the window unit that will replace the existing barn doors is made, just needs to be transported to site – a bit of a monster move by all accounts! – installed and glazed. But the floor must go in first. The new wood burner which will go into the living room has arrived. After tearing our hair at the prices being quoted by the Godin dealers/shops we did an internet search and ended up finding almost what we wanted at RueduCommerce.com at a price 25% lower than that being quoted by the retailers. Have some of that we thought! Yesterday (Wednesday) we were working outside when a lady called across from next door's drive asking if we were 21 as she wanted Ashwyn!! Transpired that she was the driver of a sizeable wagon from Mory Group – Supply Chain Management – this is a French company!!! - parked in the road. After a bit of toing and froing she reversed the wagon up our drive and then proceeded to search for whatever it was she had to deliver to us. At first she thought it might be a bathroom suite but we assured her that we were not expecting one of these! Eventually, she discovered our consignment packed away behind two large pallets of flattened cardboard boxes plus the bahroom suite. There ensued a lot of shifting not dissimilar to those puzzles you may recall from your childhood where you have to move the squares around to create a picture. Our lady driver was by no means big and she struggled a bit with the small hand manoeuvred lift truck to try to access the pallet with our wood burner on it. To add to her problems, the pallet had been put in sideways so that it was not directly accessible. I felt duty bound – chivalry and all that – to assist and was rewarded with the accolade of being a ‘tres bon assistant!’
It was an impressive exercise given that the stove weighs several hundredweight and Mory’s lady was definitely not an East German weightlifter!
After a welcome cup of coffee, she set off for her next delivery, taking a small side swipe at the stone wall bordering our drive on the way out! No real damage done to our wall. Hopefully her truck was OK too!
Another notable occurrence took place today. We had been to visit our friend Mike, sheep farmer extraordinaire and fund of wonderful reflections upon life, sheep and Monty Python! We had been up to the fields to visit Benjy, a rather weak lamb who finds life a bit of a struggle and has done ever since he was born, having to be bottle fed every four hours for quite a while. He is a bit of a loner and looked rather forlorn in a field with half a dozen tups (Concentrate, we told you in an earlier blog that this is another name for rams!) However, also in this field was Shaun, another bottlefed lamb, from last year, who for a long time thought he was a dog!! No I am not joking. Look at the picture and see him chasing the dog!!!
Mike recently discovered that he can divine for water. He does not, even now, really believe it as he cannot understand why! But, put a couple of bits of bent welding rod in his hands and he becomes Moses in reverse! I had a go and was thrilled – no I am being sarcastic – disappointed to find that the welding rods were lifeless in my paws. Patricia, however, walked across the road, in doing so walking over the water main, and the rods got their knickers well & truly twisted! If they were eyes you would have described them as having a really bad squint! Just to prove this was not a fluke, she walked back across the road, and the water main, and the same thing happened. Mike then sent her off up the road and she traced the main for several hundred yards until it dived under the verge and a hedge! Spooky or what? Now she is wandering everywhere with divining rods in her hands. I have told her it is no good unless she can find oil!!! So, as ever, life here in Chantegrelle – we believe that this translates as ‘song of hail’ – continues to amuse and to be eventful. Every day we learn something new and life is never dull! Tune in for another episode soon! Bastille Day – July 14th 2008
Everywhere over the weekend, there were celebrations ranging from a massive four day music festival with over 300 participants in Bessines-sur-Gartempe, a town about 10 miles away, a Dutch jazz band playing in the Marie in Les Grands Chezeaux, again not far from us, custom car shows, historical pageants and all sorts of other events. It seems that virtually every single village, town and city has some sort of celebration even if it is just a bit of knees up in the square. There are also a lot of fireworks – done with the style and flair that is so typical of the French.
The journey took us some 30 kms up the upper valley of the River Vienne to Eymoutiers with a stop at Chateauneuf Bujalef to replenish the loco’s water tanks and allow a regular scheduled service to pass us (most of the track is single). There was an amazing contrast between our steam train and the wonderful modern TER trains and both greeted the other with much hooting and whistling! The filling up with water gave us an opportunity to dismount from the train and most of the passengers on the train gathered to watch the wonderful old water pipe being swung over to pour many gallons of water into the loco’s huge tanks. During the course of the journey, we climbed some 300 metres and, as we neared Eymoutiers, the track clung to the steep sides of the Vienne gorge and we passed through seven tunnels and across some spectacular viaducts with the The train was run by an enthusiastic and so cheerful bunch of dedicated steam 'nuts', all dressed in period costume, including an engine driver who had the air of a character from the film We were also entertained by a roving accordionist who wandered through the carriages entertaining the passengers with medleys of mainly French songs. He managed, however, to treat us to a couple of English songs and we raised the roof singing along, much to his delight! We arrived in Eymoutiers in time for lunch which we took at Le Saint Psalmet, close by the station in the aptly named boulevard Karl Marx, enjoying a special Bastille Day menu comprising four delicious courses, some fine wine and superb coffee served in a restaurant which was just what you imagine a typical French restaurant to be. Given we were the only English people there, we reckon we must have picked a good one as all the other diners were French who are notoriously picky about good food! Suitably nourished and refreshed we repaired to the streets of Eymoutiers, a lovely town with a beautiful and historic town centre full of narrow streets and houses crammed in on top of one another. The roads had been closed to traffic (although in typically French style we were nearly mown down within minutes by three cars which either did not see or, more likely, chose to ignore the ‘Route Barree’ signs!) and a Brocante & Vide Grenier was in full swing. These are a cross between an antiques fair and a boot sale and seem to be very much the thing at the moment as everywhere, large & small seems to be advertising that they are holding such events. Perhaps it is a way for people to sell off their old junk to get some holiday money – August sees There was all sorts of junk for sale as well as some genuinely interesting things including some lovely furniture which was going for a real song, unfortunately not the sort of things we could bring back on the train!
A further stop at Chateaunef Bujalef to take on water saw many of the passengers gathered on the station platform, either watching the watering operation, being entertained by the accordionist or simply stood in the early evening sunshine chatting. Somehow it was a scene which could only occur in
A truly memorable day and a great way to celebrate Highly recommended. More details of these trips at www.trainvapeur.com
9th July 2008
Chris and Rob have been creating a new doorway and inserting new windows in the side of the former sheepen, cutting and hacking through stone walls about 18 inches thick! Liam has been rebuilding the stone wall above another window and making a beautiful job of it. It is very exciting as the new rooms are really taking shape. I have very little experience of having major building/renovation works carried out and I really cannot stress too much how hard the guys from My Limousin have worked to ensure that we are happy with what they are doing and to try accommodate our wishes. Although there is inevitable disruption and the occasional hiccup such as no hot water in the morning requiring cold showers, they really are the most friendly bunch you can imagine and always willing to help, whether it is simply through the giving of advice or practically lending tools etc. or even drilling the odd hole! One hears so many bad things about the building trade generally, it is a pleasure to give credit where it is due and to say a big thank you to them all. We must not forget Andrew & Charlotte who run My Limousin in such a friendly and involved manner. Andrew visits site almost every day and is always making sure that what is being done is what we want. He works far too long each day but I guess that goes with the turf. (NOTE: That was then. Much has changed since as you can read later in this blog!!) Whilst I can certainly say that I would not want to go through another renovation, the whole team from My Limousin have been and are being great and are making the experience as untraumatic as is possible. Better stop being too fulsome as otherwise they won’t come back to work here!!! So with good luck and a fair wind we should be in our new bedroom in about a week to 10 days with Patricia’s studio & the living room not far behind. Then we will be able to unpack!!! Oh joy! It is a little known fact that, here in And so it was, late in June on a searingly hot day that Jean Luc, the shearer, arrived at La Chirade, our friend Mike’s farm, to do the deed and turn all the sheep into skinheads! He started at around 8.30 a.m. and by lunchtime had sheared his way through around 120 sheep producing four huge bags of fleece. It must be backbreaking work, bent over a sometime supine, but on other occasions very lively, sheep hour after hour. It is obviously a skilled job and it was interesting to see that Jean Luc was ambidextrous when it came to shearing, very necessary when you are having to use your legs, body weight and one arm to keep the sheep still and in position whilst shearing it and trying to make sure that you do not carry out major surgery whilst removing the wool!
Sheep however, make no secret of the fact that they are just plain stupid. You can see it in their faces, they have this utterly bemused expression and look totally vacant at all times. There is nothing quite so amusing as seeing a sheep with its head firmly held between the shearer’s legs and this utterly bewildered, stupid face on! In general, if you get a sheep on its back it just lies there semi-comatose! In fact it has been known for them to get so comatose they die! It may be something to do with the fact that they appear to have very little in terms of usable brain. During the course of the shearing, two tups – rams to you – who were in a barn with a couple of other sheep decided to take on the persona of vulgaris inebriatus – that well known breed of English yob who, after consuming large quantities of alcohol in as short a time as possible goes through a brief highly aggressive stage. These two were posing about the place, wrapping their necks around each other then parting, backing off as far as the barn confines would permit before running full tilt at each other clashing head on with an alarming thud. You would have thought this would knock them senseless, but then we have already established they are senseless. The shearer comes equipped with a shearing machine, interestingly enough of English manufacture – a Lister – attached to a frame which itself was attached to a large oblong sheet of wood, which formed the shearing area. The reason? To avoid the floor getting slippery with all the lanolin from the fleece, apparently a real problem so much so that Jean Luc wore slip on shoes with non-slip soles over his normal shoes. As the shearing progressed, so his jeans became more and more soaked in lanolin and his singlet in sweat.
Mike’s son, Toni, was in charge of collecting the fleece and cramming it into the sack. The best way of compacting the wool was, of course, to get into the sack and this he did regularly disappearing from sight and, it seemed, having the occasional snooze!!! Most of the animals were relatively submissive but towards the end of the session there was one which was not going to make it easy. This particular sheep had been jittery ever since it had entered the pen along with 25 or so of its fellows. This sheep was having none of it and put up quite a fight but eventually gave in. However, after a short while in the care of Jean Luc it decided to resist and started twisting and turning and bucking. Jean Luc fought back and for a while a real battle ensued during the course of which Jean Luc’s shearing machine was disconnected and some choice French swear words ensued. In the end sheer brute force and a size 12 planted firmly on the recalcitrant ewe’s neck pinning it to the floor won the day but for a moment it did appear that the woolly one might win!
Shearing finished, there was only one thing remaining – lunch! The entire assembled company, including Jean Luc in fresh T-shirt and shorts, repaired to Mike’s house for a magnificent spread laid on by the ladies and everyone tucked in. It must have been a little strange for Jean Luc who spoke no English to be at a table with some nine English people but, after a little while of awkward silence we managed to converse in our broken French. A very interesting day and an insight into just one of the tasks a sheep farmer faces trying to keep his woolly charges fit and alive! 5th July 2008
You know how it is. You move to When I explained that we had some friends arriving in about an hour he responded “C’est une And so commenced several hours of high speed, high octane, high volume entertainment as 117 rally cars tore past the house at very high speed! Spitting flames, turbos popping like mad, tyres squealing and engines screaming the cars skimmed stone walls, our laurel hedge and, around some of the French owned houses, huge bales of straw! Not just once but twice, the second time seemingly travelling even faster and using every millimetre of the road and more passing within centimetres of us as we stood at the road side watching! Can you imagine being allowed to watch from such close proximity in dear old nanny state A wonderfully relaxed and leisurely lunch of tarteflette (a local cheese, potato and bacon dish) and wine was punctuated every minute or so by passing rally cars including number 37 driven by the chef at one of our local restaurants! He had obviously had a close encounter with something as his front bumper was hanging off! Will it be on the menu tonight? Then as suddenly as it started, it was all over and we were left walking up the road having only to dodge a stream of motor caravans and cars driven by the marshalls, no doubt returning to base for a night of carousing before it all starts again on Sunday morning but, fortunately, in other villages so that our peace will not be shattered. Hopefully from these blogs you will be getting a feel for how different life is here in 2nd July 2008 Never mind any other world shattering news, such as diesel now costing more per litre than the finest champagne or Gordon Brown making a decision and sticking to it, the story that you have really been awaiting can now be told! The plants have arrived in Chantegrelle!!! Yes, last Saturday (28th June) a road train (I kid you not a so**ing great lorry & trailer combo) from the appropriately named Morley Green Transport arrived around 6pm and over the next 4 hours Paul & Dave (Morley Green) and us (well, mainly Ashwyn) proceeded to unload a good few hundred pots of varying sizes. We join, Ficus Ficus Variagata, our embedded reporter who was with the plants throughout their epic journey. “It is hard for non vegetables to understand the epic nature of the tortuous and extremely arduous journey which we had to endure over the last few weeks. As many of you will know there was insufficient space on the initial convoy and so we were callously abandoned, left to our own devices in an unattended and uncared for garden. For 2 weeks we faced raging winds, marauding snails and slugs, wanton cats and ever present armies of ants! For days we went without water until a kind neighbour took pity on us and doused us with a hose. It was not enough but it was better than nothing. Visiting strangers were heard to exclaim “What on earth are all those plants cluttering up the place? I hope they are going to get rid of them before we come to live here!” And then completely out of the blue, two west countrymen appeared and started to load us into a large lorry and trailer. There was great commotion amongst us plants as we had no idea whether we were being taken to face extermination or whether we were being found a new home or some other completely unknown fate awaited us. The day was extremely hot and both we and the Morley Greeners were wilting through lack of moisture and it seemed like hours before, with a clang and a crash the doors of the trailer, which was where I found myself, closed and our whole world started moving. After what seemed an age we arrived in, what I later discovered to be a large warehouse type building where the vehicle doors and sides were thrown open and we were liberally doused with extremely welcome cool water. The next few days followed in a similar routine and it seemed almost as if we were in a staging area awaiting orders to go over the top! Finally some furniture was loaded onto the lorry and the doors and sides were once again closed and late in the evening we set off. After several hours and amidst a cacophony of sounds of a maritime nature we lurched onto a very large metal box which one of the exotic members of our motley crew assured me was actually a cross channel ferry. Through the night we snoozed fitfully, rocked gently by the channel swell. All too soon however, the peace was riven with the noise of many big diesels firing up and the air was heavy with pungent fumes and we lurched into motion. For hour after hour with the temperature soaring we trundled on our way. Occasionally we stopped and the sides were opened as the Morley Greener we had come to know as Paul tried to use road side apparatus to give us water. Sadly the inappropriately named Shell could not give us what we so longed for. However, pungent garlicly odours and incomprehensible speech by those near to us made it clear we were no longer in After about 11 hours and with many of us close to breaking point our convoy slowed to a halt and the doors were opened to give us the first glimpse of a rural retreat. Was this journey’s end? We hoped and prayed it was and in deed, it turned out to be as one by one we were loaded into wheel barrows and wheeled the 40 yards or so from the lorry to our new resting place in a very warm and sunny corner of a former farm yard. A little later our spirits were greatly raised as we caught sight of our loving owner who doused us with copious amounts of water just as the sun set and the velvet darkness closed in around us. Had there not been so many of us we might have been beside ourselves with fear of the unfamiliar but each encouraged the other and resolve strengthened we settled into our new home, relieved that our gargantuan trek was ended. I cannot tell you how many plants were involved in this operation but I can tell you that I counted them onto the road train and I counted them off again!” We think you will agree that the above account is both a moving (no pun intended) and graphic account of one of the great journeys that should be up there with Paul and Dave did not deserve to have to spend Saturday night and most of Sunday stuck in a lay-by on the N145 miles from nowhere (the French have this wonderful idea of banning heavy goods vehicles from their roads on Sundays). Just imagine the M25 without lorries – yes, a car park just for cars! A few days later we are happy to report that we have had strawberries off our strawberry plants which made the trek from the We also have a new roof! More of that later. Bye for now. 25th June 2008 Hi All Another episode from us anglophiles in idyllic Today saw our conservatory (full with plants) shrouded in a dense cloud of dust which managed to pervade the whole house!!! as Mathieu our French electrician, cut out a channel for electric cables using a diamond tipped circular saw. I don't think I have ever seen so much dust; we had to flee the house outside into the fresh air!!! Mathieu looked a sorry sight when he emerged from the conservatory, his hair had turned grey and his face was covered with dust apart from where his face mask had been! My plants were a bit dusty too despite being covered with sheets of plastic. I went around as much as possible spraying with water after the dust had settled a bit! It's a bit of a nuisance that that particular bit hadn't been done before we moved in!! The old tiles have been stripped off one side of the roof and this is now felted and battene
We also had a French man come in as he his car had broken down and his mobile wouldn't work. Got Mathieu (French electrician who speak some English) to translate for me as I (Patricia) didn't understand exactly what he wanted. The elderly man was very grateful for the use of our phone. He went back to his car after ringing someone in St Sulpice les Feuilles. Exciting living here you know!! Then this evening I thought that looks odd I don't remember washing the kitchen floor, it was shining, so checked around and found water sitting along the edge of the cupboards. Under sink the waste pipe had come undone and so another job for one of Andrew's blokes to do tomorrow! Along with the long list of stuff we'd already given Andrew this morning........ Ashwyn has just taken the dustbin bags to the cross roads in the hamlet - tomorrow is collection day and everyone has to put their bags out beside the road for collection. It is about 50 yards from our house and it looked rather funny him dragging a wheelie bin plus a black plastic Basildon Council dustbin bag along the road. Looked just like a tramp! We have NO TV here as yet so this evening we have been listening to Neil Matthew (the DJ from our wedding reception) playing some great soul on GatewayFM from the Eastgate centre in From our bedroom (the one we are using at present) we see the most wonderful sunsets - brilliant pinks, oranges, purple and blues. Words cannot do justice to this sight most evenings. I (Patricia) went shopping on my own today. I got stamps for letters to We are out for a meal tomorrow night with some friends and then entertaining on Friday afternoon which could be interesting given that the builders will still be here doing the roof and works!!! Soul music is now coming to a close so I will sign off now and stop this saga of idyllic French life. A very big thank you for Chris H for his sterling efforts in helping to keep my plants alive until they were picked up! Thank you Chris!!! A Bientot Till we meet again in cyberspace or in person. Love to all Us - en retraite
15th June 2008 Bonjour a tous nos amis! This is We are online – sort of – however only by dint of a very long piece of wire and numerous adaptors etc! However, not all is working as I cannot use Outlook so hence the e-mail from what will shortly be a defunct address.
Life here is great and we are surrounded by boxes and despite our best efforts are struggling to find essential things like tape measures etc. Matters are complicated by the fact that the ‘new’ part of the house – the barn conversion – is not going to be ready for at least three weeks due to roof problems! However, it is wonderful to be here and we are gradually adapting to the slower pace of life and have been having some of the best nights’ sleep we have had for many a month, due, in part at least, to lots of physical labour – yes, be amazed – Ashwyn does DIY! The peace & tranquillity is broken only by my expletives when something goes wrong! Loading on Monday was unbelievably hard what with temperatures of 29C! It was with great relief that we fell into our hotel at about 9.30 p.m. Journey down was very good, lovely weather all the way until we were about half an hour away from our destination we ran into a massive storm which, within minutes, turned the Autoroute into a river and made driving very difficult. The rain had stopped by the time we reached the house but within half an hour the electric failed, due to the storm and stayed off for the best part of two hours so there we were unable to cook, no lights, no furniture, just a blow up mattress! Not a good first night! From then on, until today, the weather has been pretty good and I have even got a little sunburned! Today, Sunday, the peace was total, almost as if everyone had gone away! Copious bird song and buckets of silence! Sheer bliss! Saturday (yesterday) saw us in shepherding mode as we helped our sheep farmer friend weigh lambs for market (UGH!) and to worm much of his flock. Distinct touches of mayhem intermingled with lots of stupid sheep baaing about nothing and trying to crack their skulls open by butting steel fencing and barriers. There is no question that sheep are not blessed with a single working brain cell! Tomorrow(Monday) sees Nick the plasterer and plumber (I hope that is what I heard and not that he is a plastered plumber!) plus Mathieu the French electrician arriving at our house at 8am to complete works within the house – fitting lights, skimming walls, repairing gas leak etc. So despite being retired no lie ins for us! However, listening to the BBC via the internet and hearing news of tanker drivers on strike, railways on strike, the 2 GBs meeting (Bush & Brown) it makes us even more certain that we have done the right thing even if there is no weather because the French weather men are on strike, Who needs them, just look out of the window. On the basis that our ramblings have thoroughly depressed you we will sign off and wish you well. When are you coming to see us??
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Dress code was, at best, smart casual and bear in mind we are talking about an essentially rural and agricultural community so the emphasis was on casual. There were close on twenty tables crammed into the Salle des Fetes around a dance floor and there must have been at least 150 people attending.
To entertain and assure the ambiance was Nicolas, a very tall and astonishingly talented young man who played accordion, keyboards, trumpet and also took the vocals. With him was a very short saxophonist who was surrounded, in fact almost hidden, by five saxes and a clarinet plus a drummer with a highly unsuccessful comb-over!
So we have invested in a John Deere mower. It is a walk behind one which means that I get plenty of exercise, it has electric start which is a necessity as pulling the starter cord can be a bit much and it copes with our land very well chopping down stinging nettles, grass, flowers and all sorts.
We have also been very busy planting trees! Not content with the 30 plus fruit trees already on the land, we decided to extend the area of trees by planting a further 40, many of which we shipped out from the 
We also have the flue in place so we can use our wood burning stove which is a joy. It gives off huge amounts of heat which pervades throughout the house and is such a lovely focal point in the living room. I still get a bit of a thrill being outside the house seeing smoke curling out of the chimney. 
Perhaps the most significant thing is that we are now in the barn! Yes, after an eight day marathon push by the MyLimousin crew – particular thanks go to Paul and John - we have moved into the new master bedroom which is huge and really lovely as is the living room downstairs. Although the glazed unit which has replaced the barn doors has yet to be permanently glazed, even with Perspex sheeting in, it is clear that this is going to be a really lovely room. Already we have had several fun evenings with visiting family members, playing charades and generally laughing until our sides ache. 
One of the other things we have done over the last couple of weeks is put up our swimming pool. Patricia’s daughter Kim together with her husband Anthony and their two children, Lillie – four, and Neo – two, have been with us for the last ten days or so. They have been working very hard helping pull things together and once Fergal, the digger wunderkind, had finished the base for the
We were really pleased with the turnout for our party, particularly as many of our French neighbours came which delighted us. They were so generous bringing some lovely gifts including some beautiful plants and flowers as well as a lovely vase and a pewter dish. We were particularly pleased that our French neighbours have been so very welcoming, so many speak of being cold shouldered or made to feel like outsiders. Our experience is completely the opposite.
Thanks must also go to Patricia’s brother, Paul, and his three children, Laura, 
I rounded the day off with a lovely swim in the pool which was oh so refreshing and a great way to wind down. We realised the next day how lucky we were with the party as the torrential rains returned, nearly washing away our pool and the land upon which it stands! It also exposed a leak in the roof of the sheepshed! 
As mentioned, Patricia’s brother Paul plus his children Laura, Arran & Josh spent the weekend of our party with us and it was a real pleasure to have them here. Paul managed to make the 6 hour journey from the Channel to Chantegrelle last about 11 hours thanks to detours off the autoroutes for cups of tea and a very late lunch! He also managed to end up some ten miles away from Chantegrelle as he relied totally upon his Jaguar in car satnav into which he had entered the post code, which, in 
It was lovely to see Laura, Arran & Josh with Kim & Anthony’s children, Lillie & Neo. The three of them were big hits with the two youngsters and very much in demand.
Eventually the pallet was on the tail lift but – horrors – the main wheels of the trolley were off the rear edge of the lift and the forks were still overlapping the lorry body at the front. Mimi, or whatever her name was, was not going to be defeated by this. She calmly jacked the forks as high as they would go and proceeded to lower the tail lift which moved out slightly from the truck as it descended and, lo & behold, the forks cleared the truck body by millimetres!
Once on the ground it was a relatively easy matter to move the stove into the barn – ably assisted by John & Richard from My Limousin who were actually at lunch at the time!
He is now a strapping specimen, VERY well endowed, and yet he comes trotting over to you when you go into the field and likes to be petted. He nuzzles and sniffs, just like a dog, and then proceeds to walk to heel!! He is one very weird sheep, Mike just hopes he does not turn out to be gay!!!
If there is one day of the year that is really important to the French it is Bastille Day, the day that the whole of France commemorates the storming of the Bastille on 14th July 1789, an event which marked the beginning of the French revolution. The Bastille, which apparently only contained 7 people on the day it was stormed, was a prison which symbolised the absolute and arbitrary power of Louis 16th’s ‘Ancient Regime’. The storming and capture of the Bastille gave notice that the king no longer enjoyed absolute power and lead to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the republic that is 
We celebrated this great day by taking a day trip on a train pulled by a wonderful 1930’s vintage steam engine and containing carriages from the same era operated by L’association Chemin de Fer Touristique Limousin Perigord. The train left the magnificent Limoges Benedictins stage just after 10.30 a.m. and we travelled at a leisurely pace through wonderful countryside greeted everywhere by people beside the track waving, cars hooting in response to the locomotive’s shrill steam whistle. 
There were various street entertainers including the most unusual salsa troop – on stilts!! With two lady dancers still managing to swing their hips seductively despite being some 10 or more feet in the air a four percussionists producing an hypnotic Latin beat and singing, it was a heady mix and very colourful indeed. All the more so given their progress through the towns narrow, crowded streets.
All too soon it was time to climb back aboard the train for our return to 
Eventually, amid much blowing of the engine’s whistle we pulled into Limoges Benedictins station, now bathed in sunshine, a stark contrast to our departure when it was shrouded in mist.
As we mentioned earlier, we now have a brand new roof on the barn immediately adjoining the house and in which we plan to create a large living room with the master bedroom and en suite above. It was fascinating watching the great guys from My Limousin working up there, sometimes in blazing sun and sometimes in distinctly chilly weather. 
We mentioned in
Today has seen John and Paul upstairs finishing boarding the bedroom in preparation for Nick whilst Mathieu has been busy meeting our voracious appetite for electric sockets.
It is something which I have noticed since we have been here, certain farm animals seem to display certain characteristics – they have a particular expression. Cattle, particularly the ladies, have this totally belligerent look. You can imagine dear old Johnny Morris putting on one of his wonderful voices to remind his listeners that ‘ you may be able to milk us but that does not mean you can take any liberties! And no you are not just going to slip your arm in there! Allow me some dignity – please!’
Farmer Mike’s job was to catch the next sheep for shearing and subdue it by tossing it on its back and leaning on it! This also gave him the opportunity to check each animal and, where necessary, treat them to a bit of a pedicure! As Jean Luc finished one sheep so Mike dragged the next to him and handed it over.
Whilst, in typical sheep fashion, the ewes had all huddled together, this particular one had tried to climb over the others to get as far away from the shearer as it could. When Mike finally went after it to drag it centre stage it did everything it could to avoid him. However, Mike has a particular technique which involves grabbing the animal’s nose and bending its head back into its neck whilst grabbing its rear. He then manhandles the beast on to its back.
Taffy is Mike’s new and very young sheep dog who is showing signs of knowing what he is supposed to do but is not yet sufficiently sure when he is supposed to do it! One lot of sheep had been sheared and driven down into a lower field only for Taffy to dutifully herd them back up into the yard outside the barn where the shearing was taking place – right job, wrong time! It was also fascinating to see Taffy and sheep face to face, nose tip to nose tip through the wire of the holding pen.
probleme!” He then explained that they will have to park their car around the corner on one of the side roads and walk! In the end they had to climb over a barbed wire fence using a step ladder to access our property. 
Had a bit of a crisis earlier this afternoon as one of the builders, Richard, had an accident when a chevron with a nail in it fell off the roof and the nail imbedded into his calf muscle about 3".Very, very painful. Ashwyn took him to the local pharmacy as there is a doctor there but unfortunately it was his/her day off!! So Ashwyn rang Andrew (Richard's employer) and he took him to his doctor in St Sulpice les Feuilles where he was given tablets and lots of bandages. Hopefully he'll be ok soon.
It does not seem possible that it is such a short time since we toiled all day Monday loading a huge road-train with all our worldly goods – well – nearly all – they could not fit the garden plants and shed contents in so they are arriving Tuesday! Or at least, that is what we thought until Friday – yes Friday the 13th, when we were contacted by the removal company to tell us that they had gone into liquidation! So we have a load of stuff at our former home and are now desperately trying to arrange for them to be collected and delivered here to 
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