Sunday, 28 August 2016

Another exciting week in St Silvain.

The beginning of the week was taken up with repairs, painting, gardening and barn cleanup.







We discovered a giant new shop in Montlucon called E.Leclerc.


It has everything imaginable, from paint in one aisle then straight to cold meats and seafood. 


Booze at the end of every aisle, plus a cave that contains the more expensive wines. 

The room is climate controlled.

Amazing place - rather overwhelming really.


We were invited to a luncheon on Wednesday at Bordessoule (Ladapeyre) by some English friends. The day was extremely hot but we had a lovely afternoon sitting under their gazebo.







Thursday - Boussac market day - we did the tour of the village.

Very interesting history and claim to fame with the famous George Sands (female writer) bringing her lovers to the Boussac Chateaux.

Six Tapestries were discovered in the Chateaux in 1841 in disrepair. 

Rats had eaten some parts of them and others being used to cover furniture. 

They were made around 1484 and depict each of the five senses. All have a unicorn, lion and noble lady. 

They are now displayed in the Musee de Cluny in Paris after being restored. 


We visited a local restaurant called Pierres Jaumâtres which is located at the base of some huge boulders very near to our place.

We haven't yet made the trek to see the boulders but have put it on our to do list. 

The restaurant is fabulous as it looks out over the valley and has a beautiful big outside deck area.

Friday night was mussel night and was very popular with the locals.








Friday saw us start French lessons (again) - we are keen to be able to speak at least half well by the end of our 12 months.

Saturday was a big day for us. 

We picked up our new secondhand car - a 2008 Laguna - but not without incident. 





Our old car must have known that it was being traded in, so it decided to lose it's exhaust 2kms from our house on the way to the car yard on Saturday. 

As we were trading in the vehicle we had emptied everything out so Bill had nothing to be able to either attach the exhaust or remove it. 

So off he went walking back home to get some tools to bring back to fix.

In the meantime a lovely french couple pulled up and helped us out. 

They drove to pick Bill up, return him to our house to pick up the tools and then drove him back to the car.

It took Bill about 20 minutes, laying on the road, reaching under the car, to dismantle the exhaust. There were a lot of expletives........

We were then on our way and picked up our new car. 

So much more comfortable driving around with air conditioning, with a speedo and fuel gauge that works, a clock and it even has SatNav - YAY.




The last big news for the week was receiving our letter from the OFII (Office for Immigration and Integration). 

We now have our appointment date for 14 Sept in Limoges. 

Just means we have to delay heading to Portugal and Spain by about a week. 

Lots of paperwork to gather and provide a list of vaccinations right from childhood - this might be a struggle. 

Our medical examination has been scheduled by them for the same day in Limoges.

Whilst sitting here writing this post it is raining with thunder and lightening. A welcome relief from the very hot days that we have had the last few weeks.

Bon journée pour maintenant.

Wendy

Sunday, 21 August 2016

A busy week in paradise

We experienced the most amazing weather this week in St Silvain.










From very hot weather to thunderstorms and then rainbows to beautiful sunsets..





This week saw us setting up a stall at Domeyrot (2kms from St Silvain) - very early in the morning.


We had a lot of items to sell.
A great way to meet people and practice our french.


It was extremely hot....lucky we had taken an umbrella and lots of water.

It was a huge brocante with running and walking races and entertainment by African Dancers with a bit of line dancing thrown in.














That night we were invited to an old water mill that had been restored into a restaurant (Moulin de Breuil).


We were all seated at trestle tables outside with a view over the river.

Absolutely wonderful.

There were 2 pigs on a spit that they were cooking roadside and the band was playing right in front of the entrance to the restaurant.

A perfect evening.





We visited the elderly lady 2 doors up who had invited us over for morning tea when we first arrived. She had been into hospital to have a pacemaker fitted and that is why we hadn't seen her around the village the last few weeks. Anyway she is okay and her son and granddaughter were there when we arrived. It was an interesting conversation. Bill drew a map of Australia to show the granddaughter and Madeleine where we had lived in Australia. We stayed for about 45 mins and have since invited her over for morning tea and to show her our garden.

We are now regulars at the Boussac markets.

Cafe du Sports has put sand on the ground outside.

We are told it is for the workers who can't go on holidays but want to feel like they are at the beach during lunchtime.

They don't close off the main street for the markets so there was a commotion last week when 2 huge trucks were trying to pass each other.
After lots of reversing, pointing and moving of other vehicles, success.It seems to be a regular occurrence as we have seen the same thing happen a few times.

Big hay trucks, harvesters all go through the main street, just passing within centimetres of where we are seated.

We were invited to a 60th Birthday party yesterday at Bord St George.

Absolutely delightful day, although the weather was more like Melbourne with all 4 seasons in the one day.

We met some people that had just purchased their 5th apartment in the French Alps and invited us to visit them between Dec and April.

Michael's new neighbours that couldn't attend the party as they were busy moving in surprised him by arriving in the back of a truck complete with accordion, plastic chairs, singing happy birthday in French. He teared up a bit. (No OHS safety issues here).






We visited Toulx St Croix church on the way to the 60th Birthday party yesterday.
Beautiful 11th century church.

It has four sarcophaguses found from the 7th Century.













After searching through various car yards around the area, we finally found ourselves a newer second hand car. (And no it's not the little white van although it probably would have been a very handy vehicle).

The process is quite different here in France.

We bought the car in Gouzon (10kms away) last Thursday but cannot pick it up until 27 August.

They have to change over the registration, service the vehicle, clean etc before it leaves the car yard.

At least we will know have more confidence when driving around France and into other countries.


We had a music festival in our village from Thursday till Sunday.

The tents were set up in a paddock behind our house.

We went to get our free tickets on Thursday thinking all the events would be held in our village.

But they were spread out over a number of villages.

We were told it was going to be jazz music so were quite excited about it, but found out it was all alternative style music which we are not really into. Anyway the village was buzzing with cars and people for a few days.


I have been busy trying out different cooking ideas and recipes.

It's even harder when I am not sure of which pastries to buy to be able to make pasties.

My third attempt seemed to actually look more like a pastie than the first two attempts.











Walking maps now purchased - can't possibly get lost now.

First walk scheduled for next Sunday (weather permitting).

We are still waiting to hear from the OFII - hopefully this week sometime as we want to start making travel plans to head down to Portugal and Spain.

Jusqu'à mon blog suivant

Wendy

Sunday, 14 August 2016

Our first month in St Silvain

It has been the most amazing month.

Before
After
We have completed the linen cupboard and all the 
linen is back in its place.



A job that we hadn’t planned but needed doing, to solve
 mould and wood worm problems.







Fig Tree

When we arrived the fig tree was looking a bit sorry due to a lack of water. 

As a result of plenty of soaking and some trimming it's now looking quite healthy.

We picked our first fig during the week.

It was delicious and both of us now have a liking for figs.





The garden is now looking great but still needs lots of water as it’s been quite hot.

myHubby didn't believe that it got so hot in Limousin.

Right on cue we had a couple of 40 degree days during our first week here.




We were invited to a privately owned chateau last week for afternoon tea by a wonderful local lady (Marie-Martine) who is instrumental in bringing various nationalities together.

It had it's own keep and moat!

We only saw inside two wonderful rooms - the drawing room and what was the old kitchen.

It's in the small village of Ladapeyre not far from our little village.



We attended a Polygot picnic
yesterday at Chatelus Malvaleix (about a 15 minute drive from St Silvain). Absolutely wonderful day. The weather was perfect and we met so many people from different nationalities. The lake was beautiful and so many shaded trees made it such a pleasant lunch and afternoon. We practised our French and organised to meet with a small group 3 times a month for more practice. We will be also enrolling in local French lessons in Boussac.

We have been looking at cars to upgrade from our very old 1996 Peugeot. Lots of interesting conversations with car sales people, gesturing and test drives. Hopefully sometime this week we will have ourselves a more reliable second hand car (one where the heater is not constantly on and a fuel gauge that works). We need to set this as a priority so we can confidently travel around France and Europe.

We had some sad news when we first arrived in St Silvain and consequently attended a funeral last Wednesday. We followed the hurst from Gouzon to Montlucon with close friends of the deceased which was then followed by a lovely service. It was a difficult day but the wake was good bringing both French and English together at such a sad, sad time. RIP Ivor.

A dinner invitation saw us in Domeyrot on Thursday evening. Our Israeli/English friends cooked us a lovely meal. Dorothea gave us one of her lovely paintings of a small village scene - thanks Dorothea.

During the month we have been to the dechetterie (tip) a few times with garden and general waste from the house and yard. We hope to reduce the amount of trips to the tip and recycle a lot of our waste – there was just so much lying around in the barn and yard that we couldn’t move. Hope to set up a compost and to use our imagination with other pieces of furniture, arches, very old ladders,  for out in the garden. 

Panning Tray?
We found what looks like a gold panning tray.

After cleaning it, may end up as a wall ornament in the garden with hanging pots attached.

So many possibilities for the things that we have found.

It’s fun coming up with ideas of what and how we can utilise these items.
Forest behind our village
We have started our morning walks – the most beautiful part of the day.




Coming up this week, we have organised a stall at a local brocante in the next village. Starts at 6am tomorrow morning so should be a great way to meet the locals and travellers and hopefully sell some of our wares. Watch this space for pics of the days’ events.

Until my next blog……

Wendy





Wednesday, 3 August 2016

Gardening in France

Bonjour,

In my opinion, there is nothing more satisfying than to plant out your very own herb and vegie garden.

I had been looking forward to putting that at the top of our list upon arrival in France, but due to other immediate issues, was forced to delay the timing of the planting.



Last week, I managed to make a start and have planted out both vegies and herbs into the small area at the rear of the house.

The broken down barn used to house pigs once upon a time and I am using the original pig troughs for the plants. I removed some of the soil and then added in some potting mix so we shall see how it all goes.


I have planted out lettuce, cauliflower, parsley, chives, chillis and capsicums.

Flowers have also been planted into the many pots that were left behind. The house is starting look more french.


As we have been working madly around the house and garden, we haven't yet ventured very far.



We did manage to go to the Boussac markets and brocante.











We also took a little drive to a nearby place called Gargilesse - absolutely beautiful.

It reminded us we need to get out and about more.






Å bientôt

Wendy