October has been a very mixed sort of a month with not a lot of business, lots of nasty bills, a hectic visit to the UK and quite a lot of meetings and social events.
The nasty bit first – this is the time of year in France when the tax bills hit the post boxes and ours was a bit of a shocker really! However, after a bit of head scratching and a lot of humble pie eating Geoff went off to see the friendly taxman at the Maison d`Impots and discovered that he had not filled the tax form in correctly! Phew! He has just returned from another meeting with the friendly taxman and has managed to get the bill halved which is much better news! We find the French tax and social charges system a nightmare. The forms are really complex. The actual income tax bill is not quite as high as it would have been in the UK but the social charges( medical, retirement etc) are a lot more, so overall the costs in France are higher than in the UK. Fortunately, though, the people in the offices have all been extremely nice and very helpful. We will understand it all one day I’m sure – well maybe…….
We have only had one set of visitors this month – a couple for B&B one night – which is very disappointing. It is even more galling when you consider that we have had lovely autumnal weather with warm sunny days which has accentuated the beautiful tree colours this year. It gets really chilly in the evenings now, but I can report with a huge smile, that our new logs burn extremely well and there is nothing nicer than curling up in front of the TV and a log fire. One downside of the autumn is the colossal amount of leaves which are “decorating” the garden at the moment. I have had several “Canute style” attempts at trying to keep the drive tidy but have now given up! It has made me realise that we were so right in our decision not to install a swimming pool here as trying to keep it clean would just be an impossible task. We just have too many trees.
The good weather, coupled with the lack of visitors, has enabled us to get on with some DIY jobs in the gite. We have re-varnished the outer doors and shutters and the gite looks very smart indeed, now. Geoff has also done a bit of tiling around the sinks in the kitchen and the bathroom. We have got rid of the dreadful plastic splash-backs at last! The new tiles look so much nicer – really light and clean. Having done the shutters etc we got a bit carried away and re-varnished the well surround, windows and doors of the outbuildings and all the garden seats as well! We look very *** and span now!
Geoff has also been busy with his work and the English teaching has taken off again now after the summer break. He has several new adult students and two of his students from last year have resumed their lessons, which is good news. Unfortunately, the Café Anglais has not been so good recently. It is taking a very long time for word to get around that it is up and running again. We have been blitzing the car parks in Issoire with publicity posters in an attempt to get people to know that it has started again so we will see if this pays off in the next few weeks.
A lot of our other activities are now in full swing again after the summer holidays. My art class is bursting at the seams with a lot of new people which is really nice. The Croix Rouge afternoons have been very busy trying to clear the colossal mounds of donated clothes which accumulated over the summer. The extra sessions for the Christmas Market workshops begin soon too. Also I have completed the basic First Aid Course which all Croix Rouge volunteers have to do now. I found it easy – although that was mainly due to my prior knowledge of First Aid (I used to teach it remember!) rather than my being able to follow the French instructions! I am now the proud owner of my first French FA certificate!
I have also been to a couple of Amnesty International meetings and helped with an Amnesty organised ballade (walk) the other weekend. Geoff actually did the walk whilst I helped with the refreshments which are offered to the walkers at a half way point. It was a beautiful day, and although the walk itself was quite tough, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The group are now organising a “Bal Trad” (which I think is a sort of folk night) to be held next weekend and I am helping with that too. More about that next time.
We have also had a couple of really nice evenings out with friends. My involvement with the village library saw us invited to a talk given by one of our neighbours. He has the most fantastic collection of clocks and other timepieces that we have ever seen and the tour of the collection coupled with his very knowledgeable explanations made it a very interesting evening. The fact that we are down to do a “talk” like this in November which is now filling us full of dread. He will be a very tough act to follow!
Last Saturday found us experiencing one of those surreal evenings that we seem to have here from time to time! We were sitting in the English owned bar/restaurant near here, which has featured before in this blog, eating Irish stew, and listening to a (French) Irish band in full swing playing traditional Irish music! We could have been in the middle of Dublin – except that it is the only Irish night I have ever been to where not one person was supping Guinness! Our friends, Julie and Jean-Luc had invited us to join them at this Irish night, where their daughter, Alice, was singing. The whole evening was really good and Alice’s singing was fantastic. She has the sort of beautiful haunting voice which is ideally suited to Irish ballads. But remember that this is in the middle of the French countryside and you can see what I mean by surreal!
Oh and how could I forget - I have been to another Tupperware party! The ladies of the village seem to be obsessed with the acquisition of lots of expensive plastic boxes these days, unfortunately! This party was a bit more serious than the last but the poor lady demonstrator was a bit nonplussed to be confronted by two English ladies this time as I “persuaded” the other Geordie lady in the village to come along to help her meet some people! So far I am resisting all their attempts to get me to host a party but as most of the group have already done so, I am not sure how much longer my excuses will continue to work!
I have managed to fit in a visit to the UK this month. The main purpose of the visit was to see the family and to watch and cheer on Matthew and Christine as they ran in the Great North Run. They both did very well incidentally, finishing in less than 2 hours and I was really pleased to be able to wave them on as they “raced” past! It turned out to be a very hectic weekend. My mum hasn’t been that well recently so there was a family gathering to discuss her ongoing care whilst I was in the NE. To add to all the hassle, Geoff’s mum tripped and fell only an hour after I had left her, breaking her hip. So once again the weekend disappeared into a blur of driving cross country trying to fit in all the visits.We now have both the mothers health to worry about - one of the downsides of being so far away.I always come back exhausted after these trips, and I never seem to get enough time to spend with the kids or to see as many friends as I would like .
And, finally ….. This wouldn’t be an autumnal blog without the mention of the baskets of garden bounty which have started to arrive courtesy of our neighbour Paul. I am well into my “soup dragon” persona again. So far only one pumpkin though……..