I enjoyed my visit to the UK at the end of September. It was great to see the kids, my mother and my brother again. I even managed to get to see some friends this time which was good too. Once again though I found the traffic very difficult to cope with – especially as I found myself “driving” (I use the term loosely) to Matthew’s house just before a big match at Old Trafford! It took over an hour to cover 5 miles! I really don’t miss that! I brought Geoff’s mum back with me for her first visit. As she finds walking and standing for too long a bit difficult now, we had arranged a wheelchair and some help at the airport and I have to say all went very smoothly. She particularly enjoyed the help of the nice young fireman at Limoges airport who helped her off the plane! She really enjoyed her week with us - spending a lot of the time just sitting in the garden watching all the birds and wildlife. However the highlight of her stay had to be the visit to Julie and Jean-Luc`s farm where she got to gaze at the cows and calves and even watched Jean-Luc do the milking. All her farmers daughter instincts were in full flow!
We have also just had my brother, Brian, and his friend Clare to stay. Again they had a good few days although the weather didn’t behave and we spent a lot of the time trying to show them the views through a persistent veil of low cloud! The weather was good for the walking they wanted to do though so they enjoyed exploring some of the many paths and tracks round here. I was quite sad to see them go yesterday, but I have a feeling they will be back.
My friend Angele seems to be on a fitness drive at the moment and unfortunately has decided to include me too. She dragged me to an exercise class in nearby Vernet La Verenne last week much against my better judgement. It was terrible! The young guy who was leading it was able to put his legs and body into positions which they were never intended to go! Fortunately since all the instructions were in quite rapid French I was able to ignore most of them pleading that I didn’t understand! I won’t be going back! Instead Angele and I are going to do a weekly walk with the dog – much more to my taste!
France is in the grip of rugby fever at the moment and our little section of it has not escaped. We have been following both France and England’s progress with vigour. When the French played New Zealand we had Angele and Philippe here for a meal and they were very happy bunnies when France won. I have some very good photos of our illustrious maire (Philippe) resplendent with little face paint tricolours on each cheek! We watched the France/ England match chez Julie in the company of several French friends. We were helping to support Julie as she has always been in the minority on these occasions in the past. It was a great evening with lots of light hearted banter, flags of both teams and face paint galore. Needless to say the mood changed a bit with the final whistle with the French half of the room looking very downcast whilst nous Anglais celebrated with huge smiles! Julie had had an article written about her support for the English team published in the local paper that day so she was particularly pleased and reckoned she was going to have a really good week at school now that they had triumphed! We are all invited back for the final on Saturday and it will be interesting to see if our French friends can bring themselves to support Les Blancs! I somehow think not!
We have discovered a new English couple who have moved into the village. I went to say hello when I was walking the dog the other day and was unbelievably greeted by another Geordie accent! Vivien is from Wallsend! I can’t believe that in this tiny area in the middle of rural France there are now three Geordies! It seemed very strange for me to be telling them all about the area and where you could buy things – I am obviously one of the locals now!
On the business front, we have just had the tourist office lady to inspect the B&B rooms ready for their inclusion in next years brochure. I’m glad (and relieved) to say they passed with flying colours which is good. I am very proud of them and had she pulled them to pieces I would have been a bit upset! We also have a booking for the gite for New Year which is great news. A couple have booked it and will be joined by other family members on New Years Eve for a family get together. That will be a bit different from last year when we were all alone here in Chabanol! And to complete the good news – we have our first booking for next year too so things are definitely going well at the moment!