First the pumpkins! We are still happily finding presents on our table when we return to the house which is really nice. However I was a little perturbed to emerge from the final stages of stacking the wood to find four huge pumpkins sitting on the bench outside the window! Paul had obviously been working in his garden and had brought them via the back way. Now I have to confess at this stage that I hate pumpkin and the prospect what to do with of four of them was a little daunting especially as Geoff (who does like them) was in the UK for four nights. The “helpful” suggestion by one of our friends to use them to ward off “trick or treaters” seemed a little far fetched, as if anyone makes it to our remote door here I shall be more scared then them!! Fortunately, the new French cookery magazine which I have foolishly agreed to subscribe to, was awash with pumpkin recipes and so we now have a freezer full of (yes I have to admit it)delicious pumpkin soup. Geoff has, since his return, managed to polish off another one and a half of the brutes which means that we only have one more to go. Perhaps we might make a lantern after all – well you never know we might need to ward off the evil spirits on Halloween!
The mushrooms now are a different story altogether. I have never seen so many different varieties in my life as I have recently. Apparently this year is a bumper one for fungi and the fields and woods are full of them. They are also full of the mushroom pickers who do not seem to be daunted by fences or other silly barriers and seem to wander at their will. The markets too have “new” stalls as the pickers sell their wares. All the stalls seem to be manned by slightly furtive looking blokes who look at you very oddly if you have the temerity to ask any questions about the strange offerings they have to sell. We made the mistake of asking how best to cook an unknown variety to be told in a sneering tone to melt some butter in a pan and fry them!! We have decided that we would like a book for Christmas to help us identify the different varieties and then next year we will be out there with the rest of the world picking our own!
I have been to two of my art classes now and I am really enjoying them. There are usually six or seven people there – all very much better at the painting than me I hasten to add - and they have made me feel very welcome. In fact the second time I went I was greeted with “bisous” (kisses) which looks like I have been accepted! The group are very pleased that they can now regard themselves as an “international” class and although I really want to try and improve my French by doing this class, they keep pinching the dictionary and translating words into English for me! They are lovely people and I look forward to my Tuesday evening sessions very much. My painting is improving too!
I have just returned from my first trip back to the UK and although I really enjoyed seeing my family and friends, I was very happy to return to the peace and quiet of Chabanol. I found it difficult to sleep when I was away – I`m not used to streetlamps any more or traffic noise – and as for driving in all the traffic on the motorways…….. I was really scared at times. How quickly you forget these things which a couple of months ago were just routine. Everyone kept saying how well I looked which must be a good advertisement for French rural living, but it did make me wonder just how bad I looked before I left!
The trip did allow me to distribute some of our brilliant new business cards though and I hope that will prompt some bookings for the gite. The website continues to come along slowly and at last has a structure to it. We have sent off the text to our French friend, Martine, who foolishly offered to translate it for us before we left the UK. We have also got our act together this week and sent off copy and photos to advertising sites in the UK and Holland so I hope we will reap dividends from those when they go live. Although we are really enjoying living here we have to keep reminding ourselves that we have to make it pay too!
We have at last got our telecommunications problems sorted. A technician from FT did eventually turn up this week and fixed the land line which had been off for over a week. Geoff then got him to check the promised broadband connection which he did very reluctantly and we now know that we are too far from the exchange for the live box, which FT had sold us, to work. A bit of a blow but at least we can now try and sort out alternative ways of getting a broadband system. The next fun bit will be to persuade FT to refund the money we have paid for a non usable system! I’ll leave that one to Geoff I think!
Geoff has got himself a French mobile phone now, but he managed to use up all his monthly credit in one afternoon whilst we were without the land line! He was not a happy bunny!
The other major event this week was the arrival of the wood. It came in a huge tipper lorry and the driver deserves a medal for the way he manoeuvred the truck around the right angled bend at the end of our drive. To say our hearts were in our mouths would be an understatement!(remember the removal lorry?) Anyway the wood was duely tipped into the car parking area – all 15 steres of it (1 stere being 15 cu metres). In layman’s language that is one mountain of wood! So now we have the mammoth job of sorting it and stacking it at the back of the car park so that we can cover it and keep it dry. We can only manage 1 hour at a time as it is pretty backbreaking work. The trouble is that the pile just doesn't seem to be getting any smaller! And because it is all sawmill off cuts the bits are all different sizes. Its like doing a giant Jenga game in reverse! Geoff regards my meticulous approach to the stacking as tedious preferring to just heap it together anyhow. Guess which type of pile is emerging!!
We have also managed this week to meet the maire of St Etienne sur Usson at last. We had a good chat, a good moan about FT, and he gave us some contacts for the tourist office in Sauxillanges and the Amicale Laique (local fete committee) which will help with our Gite promotion and our integration into the village.
I am sorry to report that I am becoming hooked on French TV! Following all the advice in Living France we have been trying to watch some TV (with French subtitles I may add as we still find the spoken French too fast to follow) to improve our French. Unfortunately I am now addicted to “Star Academy” ( the French version of Fame Academy) and the dreadful box game that Noel Edmonds fronts on English TV! As for improving our vocabulary – well the jury is still out on that one! I do know such useful words as cauchemar (nightmare) banquier (banker) and continuer (continue) from the box game and eleve (student)and rattrapage (catching up)from Star Academy but much more important is who will get voted out this week! Luckily the lovely Gael keeps surviving – but then he is very good looking – and young enough to be my son! Sad or what?! The other interesting TV experience is watching my beloved ER in French! Somehow Abby and Luka don't seem plausible when they speak in French and as for all the medical terms – well I am learning a lot!
Our social life is good too at the moment. We had a lovely lunch with Julie and her family last Sunday and we had Brian (the electrician) and his wife Anita around for a meal last night. My little kitchen worked just fine and we had a really nice evening. This week sees the start of my new venture into watercolour painting at a local class. More of that next time.
The weather is still nice – we are still eating lunch in the garden most days – but it is becoming a bit chillier in the evenings now. Time methinks to get some of the wood mountain onto the fire perhaps!
Now that we have our internet connection restored I need to spend some time this week contacting the advertising agencies to market the gite. It is still standing empty and unloved and we need some people to fill it. This is not going to happen unless the world out there knows of its existence so I need to get busy now and rectify this.