It was officially the first day of Spring on the 21st March and we heralded it in with a further 12 inches of snow! The snow is very much an altitude issue as although we have lots of it here at Chabanol, there is very little at Sauxillanges and when we drove into Issoire this morning the roads were dry, there was no snow and all the cherry blossom and forsythia trees were in full bloom! It’s like a different world here, although my newly planted pots of pansies and primula plants are beginning to emerge from their snow coverings as I write. Serves me right for being so optimistic about the weather but in my defence we were eating lunch in the garden last week.
The bathrooms are coming on very nicely now and are beginning to look like bathrooms at last. I am really pleased with our bathroom which is looking great. We went to choose the tiles this morning and I can’t wait to see them on the walls. The en suites for the B&B rooms are also coming on and we can now visualise how much space there is in the bedrooms with the bathroom sections in place. We have always known that the rooms in the house were big but it is only now that we can really appreciate how much space there actually is left. I can now visualise the layouts of the finished furnished rooms. It’s all beginning to look like a proper chambre d`hotes establishment at last although there is still a lot of work to be done.
The other exciting bit of news is that we have our first bookings! We have a confirmed gite booking for July/August, some friends coming for B&B in August and some other friends for a week in the gite in September. In addition we have had two further enquiries for the gite which might turn into firm bookings soon. It’s great being able to write things into my bookings diary at last. Heres hoping they will be the first of many.
Geoff has been having a bit of a problem with French etiquette lately. The problem is with the “bisous” the French way of greeting everyone. I am now well into the “bisou” culture – greeting all the Croix Rouge ladies and all my art class friends with bisous each time we meet. It does take ages sometimes when you enter a room full of people as each one of them needs and expects the bisous! However Geoff is not as comfortable with all this “kissy kissy” business and is not always sure when the kisses are appropriate e.g. when you know someone quite well, or when a handshake is expected – more the case when he meets my friends from the Croix Rouge! He has found himself halfway in the kiss position only to be presented with an outstretched hand on occasions! It’s starting to get to him now and he has to hang back and wait to try and judge which action is appropriate! Great fun!
We had another visit from Lydia yesterday and that arrangement seems to be working well. Her English is very good and she was a great help yesterday as she translated the instructions for setting up our new telephones! I was really struggling with all the technical French instructions. We took her home after her visit and spent a pleasant hour chatting to her parents. They have invited us to go and eat with them when they return from their Easter holiday.
My trip back to the UK for Mother’s Day was very good. It was great to see the kids again and to see the progress Matthew and Christine are making with their house. They took me to see the wedding venue which was lovely and brought me up to date with all the arrangements which I appreciated as I feel a bit out on a limb being so far away from all the planning. Best news of all though is that I managed to buy my wedding outfit when shopping with Hazel. It has travelled back to France well (minus the hat which is still at Matthew’s) and I am very pleased with it! I feel a bit like Cinderella in that I can go to the ball now!!
We are in the midst of total chaos at the moment! Brian did arrive as planned and the work on the bathrooms in the house is progressing well. However having four bathrooms put in ( Geoff decided at the last minute that he’d like to have a downstairs loo for our own use as well as the bathroom upstairs and the two en suites for the B&B) is creating a lot of noise, dust and disruption to our normally peaceful existence! It was very exciting though choosing the fixtures and fittings – I keep drooling over the lovely new corner bath which will soon be mine, all mine! The whole house is completely upside down as it seems every room is in a state of flux. Consequently, we have moved into the gite for the time being and we are thanking our lucky stars that we are able to do so. It does have its problems though as we seem to be moving more and more of our stuff across and will be fun sorting it all out when we move back into the house. Brian mostly works alone but from time to time he brings along Fabrice, a neighbour, who helps him with some of the heavy labouring work. Fabrice has a life which most of us would envy. He is a highly intelligent young man, who has never had a real job. He looks after his two children whilst his wife works, and does a bit of labouring work when and only if he feels like it! He tends his vines, make a bit of wine, goes skiing when he fancies it, and generally has a good time eating and drinking! Nice eh? He is very scathing about our lunchtime food – calls it pic-nic food – and also despairs because we will not supply any wine to drink at lunchtime, (Geoff would spend all afternoon asleep!) so he now brings his own!
Our weekend in Montpellier was a nice break before all the chaos started. We were lucky with the weather and managed a lovely walk on the beach in spring sunshine on the Friday. We enjoyed exploring Montpellier and the nearby towns of Aigues Mortes and Sete and Geoff was able to indulge himself with lots of seafood, especially oysters from the Etang de Thau oyster beds. We also crossed the Millau Bridge on the way down, something we’d wanted to do for ages. It is very spectacular.
I have been really enjoying my daily strolls around the garden with “mes gars” (my boys, the dog and the cat!)recently. There is a veritable carpet of violets in bloom at the moment and there are also primroses and crocus, and cowslip flowers everywhere. It is very pretty. I had a major tidy up on Monday and pruned all the roses and other bushes which were getting a bit straggly so the garden looks in pretty good shape now – well apart from where the holes for the pipe work have been dug and filled in! Max enjoys sticking his head down the small holes looking for mousies!
We have also made another great step forward in our quest to find someone to look after the animals whilst we are away. Bernard, our neighbour here in Chabanol fed Max whilst we went to Montpellier, but I have been concerned about leaving the “boys” for the period when we return to the UK for Matthew’s wedding in June. However, we seem to have found a solution. One of the ladies in Geoff’s Pilates class told him that her daughter, Lydia, was looking for some work which would bring her into contact with English speakers, so that she could practise her language skills. Lydia and her mum came to see us on Saturday and she is going to come and visit us now and again to speak some English and more importantly is very willing to look after the animals and the houses when we are away. I have also said that if we have English guests, she can come and talk to them too. A wonderful arrangement and a great weight off my mind.
One more slightly amusing story to finish. We invited Davy and Isabelle round for dinner at the weekend and had a very pleasant evening with them. It turned out that Isabelle was worried that I might serve lamb with mint sauce as she has a horrible memory of having to eat this when she was on an exchange visit to England when she was young. What’s wrong with lamb and mint sauce??? Sometimes these French folk have no taste!