Poisson d'avril, the hunt meal and an update on the plumber..

Another sleepless night due to worrying - at least we're warm and cosy.  There are lots of things wandering around in the field outside the caravan, they sound big and dangerous but I'm too scared to get up and look out of the window.  Eventually drift off back to sleep.

I've decided to blog less and leave out all the dross and depressing bits, so there's not much to write!

Sunday, 1 April is the date for one of the local hunt dinners,  repas de chasse, with a midday start.  We toddled off  with our own plates, cutlery and glasses and staked our claim on one of the tables, surrounded by lots of  'good ole boys'.  Luckily the weather had remained good as the first 2 courses were outside.  Things didn't bode well, first course was Tropical Mix added to savoury biscuits accompanied by warm rosé.  Then small plates of délices de sanglier appeared.  This. transpired to be small bits of very tough liver of wild boar, mixed in roughly equal measures with garlic.  These plates were the delight of all the locals, which homed in on them immediately.  Elbows were sharpened and friendships were forgotten, it was every man and woman for themselves, it reminded me of how the pigeons used to zone in on an unsuspecting tourist holding bird food in Trafalgar Square. We moved inside for the soup and salad.  Of course, being France the salade was mainly meat pie and covered with gezier [windpipe or some such!].  I'd had more or less enough by this point but then the fricasse de chevreil arrived, lovely casserole of deer with loads of raw garlic and toast.

Chris assessing the roasting sanglier

I spotted quite a few guys wandering around the village hall with a big white paper fish on their back and someone eventually explained that this is the April Fools tradition.  Oh well, everyone to their own...

Chris knocking back the eau de vie.....

We were expecting the next course Trou Adrésien to be a sort of sorbet and it was, but it was plopped in a glass of mouthwateringly strong eau de vie.  So by 4.30ish we were ready for the main course which was sanglier [wild boar], accompanied by miniscule portions of vegetables.

......and tucking into the food

We ploughed on through the salad and cheese courses and then the Black Forest gateau by which time neither of us could face any more and left.   Such lightweights!  We did, however, stay long enough for my neighbour to throw his glass of red wine over my white trousers, so at least I made in impression.

The week settled into a routine of waiting for workmen who never turn up [English and French], sleepless nights gradually getting colder.
Monday we sold all our radiators, boiler etc. Yay! and we made 2 raised beds from some of the pine logs. 

The micro station and water recuperation tank were promised by 10am and when I finally got hold the guy around 9pm, he said ours had had a dent in it so he sent it back and there are no more of that model in stock so it'll be another 10 days before it arrives.  So disappointing for Chris because the planned his trip around this installation.  [He is quite excited by replacing the septic tank, which is pretty scary.]

Tuesday we froze and it rained but the long-lost plumber made a welcome re-appearance.  It was so exciting, like sighting a leopard in the wild, but rarer. I wanted to take a photograph to remind myself of how exciting it is when someone turns up within a fortnight of their appointment.

We considered moving into the house to sleep but it's just big and unfriendly and we decided to light a fire in the lounge to try and cheer it up a bit.

 Very satisfying day; a fire and a working toilet!

A big thank you to everyone

Thanks so much for all the very kind messages via email.  Sorry there are problems commenting on the blog.  It is SO good to have all your lovely comments.

Keep 'em coming!!

Toilet Troubles

Things were bound to go wrong I guess.  Basically the caravan has shifted a bit and sunk at one side [the side where the toilet is] which means the loo won't flush.  So we are now heading off into the house with buckets of water because the toilet in the house doesn't work because the plumber hasn't connected the water............

Anyway, back to the beginning.  The bed was plenty warm enough now that we have a system of duvetsand plastic wrapped around us but getting up is hard so I have developed a system of getting dressed before getting out of bed but the clothes are bitterly cold so tonight I am going to put the clothes under the duvet at the end of the bed and maybe I can work out a way to slide down the bed and get dressed without being cold.  The mornings are so bad that when Chris made me a cup of tea, by the time it reached the bedroom it was almost cold.  The caravan in the morning is like some enormous Dementor from Harry Potter, sucking all the warmth out of things. Mind you, it's like a furnace by midday.

This reminds me so much of living in St Michael's.  For those who don't know, when Kerry and Danielle were around 7 and 8 we were evicted from our home and lived in 'temporary accommodation' provided by the council.  We had an apartment in a big old house, formerly a school, and our bedrooms were the former woodwork room, which was simply a corregated extension to the house. We were there for two winters, the worst possible time of my life. A coal fire in the lounge, the cooker to heat the kitchen and the bedrooms serviced by 2 very inadequate gas heaters.  I took my bed into the girls' bedroom and left the gas fire on all night so it took some of the chill off.  Consequently, some days there literally wasn't enough money for a decent meal for me as it had all gone in the gas meter.  A dreadful time and how I continued studying during it all I just don't know.  So actually, it's not like living in St Michael's apart from cold nights and weekly laundrette trips because it's a choice and we're working towards something we want.  [That's what I keep telling myself anyway].

Anyway the day didn't get any better.  The plumber appears to have vanished off the face of the earth, one of the trenches dug the other day is in the wrong place  [following Chris's instructions apparently]  and will have to be filled in and redug.

As regards the toilet, Chris tried doing something manly with a jack and the caravan and a spirit level while I was on plunger duty.  It seemed to work and the toilet flushed, trouble was that then the caravan doors didn't close.  So we fiddled with raising and lowering all the corners and they still didn't shut.  Chris went in search of a solution.  I couldn't leave the caravan because the doors won't close so stayed there cursing the plumber.

At least the weather's still good, which is more than can be said for our moods.

Antony came to mow the lawn, which always does the spirits good.  How does a smell affect one's moods so consistently and strongly?   Our neighbour offered to lend us her mower if we pay her gardener to do the job, which would be great but we really need to think about buying one.

Not much happening here....but good news about Beth

A chilly night, our first in the caravan.  We were generally OK.  I had wrapped my feet in plastic bags before putting my socks on - cold feet, cold everything in my opinion - and they stayed warm all night. Thick pajamas completed the look, not one of my sexiest but oh well.........

In the night, we woke up cold as one of the duvets had slipped off but once we found it and snuggled down again, everything was fine.  As long as the weather stays like this, we'll be all right.  If it turns cold again, I am going to have a rethink and buy a couple of sleepng bags or head for home!  We couldn't bring ourselves to get up until after 9, when the caravan had warmed up a bit.

Chris spent the morning back at the gite, in the belief that the plumber would turn up to do some work there.  We are waiting for him to come back and connect one tap in the house, just one tap, so that we can use the hosepipe and then we can get on with planting all the stuff.  He hasn't been answering his phone or returning our messages.  So Chris decided to try and track him down.  Everyone knows the scarcity of the French artisan and his ability to blend into his surroundings when he doesn't want to be found.  The problem for the plumber is that the the temperature here was -17C for a couple of weeks and everyone has got burst pipes etc so he's rushed off his feet.  The problem for us is that we have loads of planting to do and only a short window as the weather will soon be too hot and the ground too hard and we need a water supply.

After a wasted morning, we popped back several times to see if we could catch the plumber but he wasn't there - a major headach for Judith as he was supposed to be installing 2 plunge pools for their guests, the first of which arrive tomorrow.

We, however, had a better afternoon as we visited the bank to talk about an eco loan [interest free for environmental renovations but not sure if we qualify] and the chap offered us new accounts which pay areasonable amount of interest. Yay!

AND THEN, the best thing.  Workmen arrived to plant on top of the citerne.  This is an eyesore by the edge of our land and the reason we managed to buy the house so cheaply. It belongs to the wine co-operative who have been, quite frankly, anything but co-operative regarding covering it up [which they contracted to do].  The plants are supposed to grow down and go some way to making it look less awful.  We, for our part, have dug a trench in the chalk which laughingly passes for soil here and will be planting a laurel hedge as soon as we can use the hose on it.  This depends on the water in the house being connected, which takes us back to the plumber. 

Original citerne



Planting being done

When this whole thing gets sorted out, all we have to do is wait for 3 or 4 years and the citerne will be hidden!

AND THEN, even better.  I saw on Facebook that Beth walked into nursery with her walker.  First time ever.  She really refused to have anything to do with it for quite a while but since deciding that it was actually really good to be able to walk with it, she has come on apace with Kerry's help.

You would think that was enough excitement for one day but then I headed off to my first dance class here - pretty nervous, I can tell you.  And so I should have been! When I got there I found out that Kate had booked me into some floor exercise class - can't think of anything I would rather not do, so I walked around town and wasted an hour until the Jazz class.  I had forgotten that Jazz classes in France are really aerobics lessons and after the first half an hour I thought I had made a massive mistake but it did get better.  Not sure though if I will continue, where are my Dancing Divas when I need them?

On a good note, both the bank clerk and the dance teacher complimented me on my French.

Wrapped up for bed, complete with plastic bags and socks, the weather is getting colder.

Home Sweet Home

We spent the morning cleaning out the gite.  We wanted to do a good job to make sure that Judith didn't have much to do before her first guests of the year arrive on Saturday.  The gite next door is unfinished and the plan was to get all the noisy work done before the guests arrive in 'our' gite.  Unfortunately Kevin has had to fly back to the UK because his Mum is ill and so they are down to 2 men in the second gite, so it's all hands to the pump until Kevin returns.

By lunchtime we had gone back to the caravan and had a snack before our appointment with a landscape gardener. Despite all our best intentions, I have noticed that most of the cars arriving this week have UK numberplates!

We looked over the massive woodpile that will one day be our orchard and talked a few things through.

After shopping for supper, we returned to spend our first night this year in the caravan.  Despite not being nearly as luxurious as the gite, there was something lovely about being back in our own [somewhat confined] space.

Light and warm until 8.30pm, so drinks and supper in the garden

We celebrated with a bottle of champagne, supper in the garden and a good old fashioned argument.

Good to have things back to normal!!!

We spotted a hoopoe on a nearby tree whilst we were eating but couldn't manage to get a photo - good to see another visitor from Africa!

While pottering around in the caravan I was listening to Radio 4 podcasts.  The Moral Maze or Any Questions or some such.  British enough to make me feel at home but I wasn't really listening; it was just background noise.  Chris spent the evening swatting midges with his favourite electric tennis raquet which  kills them on contact and gives him a little exercise. 

Everyone was happy.

Some work finally gets done.

Another sleepless night, worrying about everything, particularly worrying about the fact we have to get up early so that Chris can take Kate back to the airport so she can return home. 

They dropped me at the caravan at 7am and it was freezing so I put on my sheepskin jacket and some thick socks and snuggled under a duvet until the tree surgeon and his team arrived at 8am.  It was nice to have some company and to see work getting under way.  Then the builder arrived to discuss our septic tank and a few other jobs that we want to get done this year. After that, it was one visitor after another.

Even the postman came by to bring my Carte Grise to show ownership of the car and my insurance documents.  It was quite exciting!

Before

By 2pm the caravan was baking so I found a job outside to keep me cool for a while, the gentle grind of the chain saw on one side of the house and the digger making a trench on the other combined to make me aware of how little sleep I've had over the past couple of nights.   I sat in the caravan and dozed.

Something horrible, Chris realised that someone has been using the woodshed as a toilet, yukky!!

Afterwards, we can now see all the lovely Ash trees and a view across the valley. 
We'll have lovely sunsets
We've got enough firewood to do us for a very long time!

Some water, but most of it on the floor of the house!

A bit despondent during the night.  Everything takes so bloody long and each solution leads to another problem.  An early start to clean the caravan but, on opening the house, we found the flexihose is leaking a bit in the lounge.  Luckily the house is so damp it doesn't really make much difference.  After some energetic cleaning we went back to the gite to wake Kate and have a day sightseeing.

Only managed to see Bergerac and Monbazillac because we're all a bit pooped.

Cafe Life in Bergerac

 Kate leaves first thing tomorrow and it feels like she's only just got here!!

Well, then it was time to take our stuff to the caravan and start settling in before joining Kevin and Judith and some of their family for dinner on the terrrace.