I feel that time is passing too quickly this year. I can’t believe its mid April already. However the sun is shining, it’s very hot and the garden is looking really pretty so I guess it is nearly summer! And more importantly we are about to welcome our first clients this week. We have a family coming for a long weekend, mainly for a rugby match in Clermont Ferrand, but tagging a few days holiday onto the trip too. So as you can imagine it has been all systems go around here as they only booked last week and at the moment we are still resident in the gite! I have managed now to put the living room and our bedroom in the main house back to a habitable state and am now in the process of taking all our gear out of the gite and returning it to its proper place in the house. I have also had to do mammoth cleaning sessions in the house to get it free of all the dust and grime which goes with having several bathrooms put in! I haven’t spent so much time on my knees, scrubbing floors, for a long time! I have still to clean the gite but it will be sorted by Thursday when our first guests arrive.
As you can no doubt gather, the bathroom work is now nearing completion. Our bathroom is finished and looks fantastic. I treat myself to a long luxurious soak on Sunday evening and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. Downstairs, the laundry room and the guest bedroom bathroom is done so there only remains the upstairs guest bathroom to finish off now. Then we must embark on decorating and furnishing the guest bedrooms. That will be fun!
Easter seemed to pass us by as we were so busy. We did manage one day out to have a look at Vichy which is about an hour and a half’s drive from here. It was as pretty and as interesting as everyone had told us and will certainly be on our recommended visit list for the guests. We tried “the waters” and found them pretty disgusting but then if it cures all the ailments that they are supposed to we should be fighting fit for quite a while!
Geoff has foolishly volunteered to join the St Etienne sur Usson “amicable laique” committee and has been to a couple of meetings now. He is referred to as M.L`Anglais when they can’t remember his name! The committee is responsible for organising the village fetes. I can’t wait to see what job he will get at the Fete des Anes(a sort of high powered donkey derby) in the summer!
Geoff is also well into the aperitif culture which abounds around here. We have been invited for aperitifs quite a few times now - some times this turns into a meal invitation but you are never quite sure! Because I am a life long teetotaller, aperitifs are a bit of a problem for me. Geoff has been trying to “re-educate” me by buying a series of non alcoholic aperitifs for me to try. I’m afraid he is fighting a losing battle as I find they all taste like the kinds of foul tasting medicine I used to pour down patients throats when I was a nurse! They do absolutely nothing for me and as for stimulating your appetite …..I’m not convinced at all! I’m very happy sticking with my boring old tomato juice thank you!