Printemps en france

I have just returned home to France after spending a couple of months back in Australia.

I went back to spend time with family in Mossman, Port Douglas and Brisbane.

It was great to see everyone again and to spend some quality time with my parents was a blessing.
This is our dear friend Lee at the Mossman Bowls Club.

The family bunch minus one sister at the Tin Shed in Port Douglas.

But on the other hand, I am so glad to experience the French Springtime. We haven't been here in this season before so are getting to see all the beautiful wildflowers, the blossoms on trees, all the birds chirping away and the absolutely perfect weather (well most days anyway).

It is such a wonderful time here in France. It seems that the whole population comes out of hibernation.

We visited the Gueret markets and bought some flowers to plants and some herbs. Have been doing a lot of repotting and moving plants around. Planted a whole heap of seeds and put the flower boxes in front on the windows. Our house looks very french now (again).

Whilst I was away farnarckling on the other side of the world, Bill was left in charge to ensure the builders turned up and to supervise the renovation works. We are building a laundry, bathroom, sunroom and entry area onto the back part of our house.

There were a few initial problems - like having to install a completely new fosse septic as the old one was in the exact wrong spot for any digging and it did have to be replaced at some point anyway (the green thing in the second pic is the new septic tank). So add on many thousands of dollars and a few weeks delay to the start of our renovations. The reason we were holding off replacing it was we were hoping that the mains sewage would be going through our little village but alas not in the near future.

So now we have a state of the art fosse septic that can hold 4000 litres de merde (poo). Yay how exciting for us.

The exciting part has actually been to see the renovations now taking shape. The walls are up, the lintels in place and the concrete slab poured. The back part of the house has totally changed. Can't wait to have a downstairs loo (got to fill up the 4000 litre tank sometime).

We are hoping they will be finished by 2nd week in May. We can then start painting and hanging curtains and putting in furniture.

During all this construction, Bill has been busy breaking up rocks and removing all the pig troughs that used to house my herb garden.





He has been removing all the small pebbles on the floor to reveal the original stone floor - uneven at the moment but we intend to make it all even and use the space for a bar-be-que area with outdoor table and chairs.

Perfect for a lazy french Saturday luncheon with friends.

We bought bikes the other day and after Bill did some adjusting and pumping up of tyres, we went for our first bike ride in god knows how many years.













We were both a bit wobbly at first but managed to ride to the next village and back unscathed. Our very first french countryside bike ride. The day was perfect.

Today we ventured up to Domeyrot (another close village).

It was good getting there as it was downhill most of the way but of course getting home was rather strenuous.

Anyway we shall endevour to ride at least 4 times a week.





That should get us fit enough to enter the Tour de France this year or perhaps not......



















Well until my next post - hopefully it won't be too long between posts next time.

Wendy

The reason we moved to France

Here are the photos of the reasons we moved to France.

Just so magical to have snow falling at your front and back door.

We visited some French friends in Chatelus- Malvaleix which just happened to be around the 6th Jan. They had spent about 25 years in Australia and returned to France to retire back in 2005. It was extremely funny as when we walked into their house it was decorated with all Australiana stuff. Plus we reckon that they are the only french people that have been to Leonora and Menzies. They spent their years grape and fruit picking their way around Australia and have covered most areas except Darwin and Tasmania.

Bill helped them with their computer so they fed us. 

A little tradition in France:

The galette des rois is a cake traditionally shared at Epiphany, on 6 January. It celebrates the arrival of the Three Wise Men in Bethlehem.

Composed of a puff pastry cake, with a small charm, the fève, hidden inside, it is usually filled with frangipane, a cream made from sweet almonds, butter, eggs and sugar. 

Anyway Bill won the the prize so was obliged to wear the crown.

It was snowing the day we visited them.

We have also been busy completing jobs around the house.

The shelves and hanging space in our bedroom are now complete.

I have finished some new curtains that we are temporarily hanging from the first floor landing to try and block a cold breeze coming down the stairwell. 


Works perfectly and we can take down in summer.

Then there's the traditional Lamington making.

Thought I had better do a test batch run before Australia Day - absolutely perfect. 
Lots of ingredients but worth the result.

And then we had some electrical work carried out by our Spanish electrician called Carlos. 

He only spoke spanish and french so made for an interesting time for Bill out in the barn trying to direct him as to where to install the lighting. 

All worked out in the end and everything in it's place. 


Carlos did a great job.

All is well in the land of the french.

Wendy

Our start to 2017 in France

What can I say - It's been freezing.............................


Still it's better than the 36 degrees Brisbane had overnight or the 40 degree Melbourne days.

Don't miss that at all.












We are still working on the heating in the house. Things like making thicker, heavier curtains. Making draft stoppers at the doors, ensuring all drafts are covered or sealed. We have a doggy door left over from the previous owner which is letting in cold air into the kitchen so that's the next task to fix - although won't be a problem once the renovations are complete.

We were invited over to a French friend's house for dinner and drinks just after Christmas.









What a lovely night we had with her family and friends.
We were served a traditional french evening meal along with lots of wine and champagne.



Rejane then pulled out a spray can of snake repellent which I found to be totally hilarious.

Just had to take a photo of it.

Perhaps I could import these into Australia.

She sprays it around the entrance to her house during summer.

Apparently the snakes don't like the smell.











Our New Year was celebrated with pre dinner drinks at our place.

We then headed 2 doors up to the Salle Polyvante (local hall) where we had more drinks and a 6 course meal and dancing.

A great night to see in 2017.

We finished up at about 3am but the rest kept going until after 4am.

Our table of guests.

Me being served a drink by the mayor.

The party gets wild......

Pete, Bill and a french neighbour.

Saw this HUGE pack of pasta in at the supermarket.

All this for only 2.14 euros.

Now if we get snowed in we can live on pasta.




More socialising this week with a few lunch dates, morning tea's, markets, meeting with the bank manager (and he rang us to arrange out of the blue so we are not sure if we should be concerned or not).

Had a couple of opportunities for house sitting which we passed up for now as we want to get some of these projects completed around the house. One was in Bergerac and the other was Paris for a week - bugger. But there's always next time.

Wendy

Joyeux Noel et bonne année

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

May 2017 be a happy, wonderful, healthy, happy and safe year.

We have now been in France for over 5 months. How quickly it has gone. We are loving every minute of it.

Christmas decorations are up in the shops and so very well displayed. The french seem to go to so much more effort. The flower shops are all amazing.

Christmas markets are in most villages around France.

Visited the Christmas Markets at La Chartre for Bill's birthday - then, of course went straight to the hardware shops.








The price of seafood seemed quite high at these markets. The lobsters were selling at 78 euros per kilo.

Decided to have Roast Lamb for Christmas dinner this year.

Seemed more appropriate anyway seeing as the temperature only 8 degrees.



We made a trip to Montmorillon a few weekends ago to purchase a second hand wheelchair in case my Mum needs one when she is here.

That's some more wonderful news that we had a few months ago. My elderly parents will be flying across the world to visit us for 3 months next year. We are so excited and planning out places to take them. We can't wait.

We went to the Bourganeuf markets a few Saturday's ago and we had the lovely opportunity to meet a lady called Deni Ibbs. She and her husband, Doug, renovated a derelict Chateau about 60kms from us in La Creuse and it was filmed by Grand Designs in 2004. They are both an inspiration and it was lovely to meet her. Ended up having a photo taken and buying her book. They have since sold the Chateau in Vidaillet and moved on.

We had our Christmas luncheon at the Parish on the 20th Dec. The place was rockin'.  Interesting for the entertainment - there was a guy dressed up with a red cape, texan boots wearing a texan hat, playing Abba's "Waterloo" on his loud speakers. Complete with a strobing ball in the background.

Christmas "Cafe Franglaise" night was a hoot. Lots of food, wine, Santa and we got to practice our french.

During these winter months there never seems to be enough time in the day to do what we need to get done. Maybe it's the shorter hours of sunlight or maybe it's that we are cramming too much into our days or being too social. Whatever the reason, it's still fun and what we don't get done today we leave for another day.

Some pics of the projects Bill is working on around the house and barn.

Fixing up the walls in the wardrobe.......

 Organising his workbench and shelving in the barn.

Christmas day was a quiet day for us. Reminiscing with photos of family and friends, making phone and skype calls back home and then playing some french monopoly (I won of course).
Followed by a rather large lamb roast and vegies.

Today (Boxing Day) received a beautiful Christmas cake from Deb and Graham - thanks heaps guys.

Looking forward to munching into that once we do the Christmas pud thing with the gallon of brandy (it's called cognac in France) that Bill just has to put into the pudding sauce.

And of course the obligatory Christmas tree - hand made by none other than the very talented Bill Mackay and decorated by me.

Bonne année

Wendy