posted on 25 November 2008 13:56
by
Christine Phillips
25/11/08 Winter has arrived
As I type this, I am watching the snow falling – hence the title of this months post! It is very cold and we have about 3+ inches of snow already – and it is still snowing. I blame myself – I planted some pansies in the pots yesterday – always the signal for the bad weather to arrive! I am just hoping that Geoff will be able to get back from his trip to the UK, tomorrow. The plus side of this weather is that the countryside looks absolutely stunning in the snow.
Our gite visitors at the end of October didn’t quite get the snow but they got a good taste of Auvergnat weather at its best - and worst - with all four seasons being experienced in one week! They were not terribly good at getting the wood burning stove going to its efficient best so spent a lot of the week dressed in fleeces! We did offer to help with the fire but they preferred to do it themselves! Apart from the weather, they enjoyed the week, although I suspect the 14 year old lad didn’t enjoy the bracing walks as much as his mother and grandparents did!
The first day of their stay coincided with the Fete de Cidre walks in the village. It was a fabulous day, both weather wise and for the Amicale Laique (Fete committee) who sold gallons of “cider” and had lots of people taking part in the walks – all of which has given a much needed boost to their funds. Geoff was kept very busy all day on the cider stall and I joined him for lunch and to help a bit in the afternoon. A good day all round.
As soon as the guests had departed on Nov 1st, we closed up the gite and headed off to Marseille to join our Cruise ship for our holiday. We had a great week cruising round the Mediterranean and thoroughly enjoyed being waited on hand and foot. It is such a contrast to our lives here – getting dressed up for dinner, eating like kings and having everything at your fingertips – such luxury! We shared a table at dinner with a young American couple who were on their honeymoon (bet they were delighted to have us as dinner companions!) and they just couldn’t believe that we had made such a change with our lives. We enjoyed their company all week and hope they now have a bit of an idea of what life in the Auvergne is all about. Our holiday did have a nasty end though as we were victims of a “vol Italian” as we drove out of Marseille on our way home. Two young lads stopped their scooter in front of the car on a roundabout and did a bit of acting indicating that they had broken down. Quick as a flash, one of them ran to the rear door of our car and stole the backpack and our jackets from the back seat. Unfortunately the backpack (which ironically we had guarded so well in all of our trips into the ports we had visited) contained amongst other things our camera (+all the holiday photos), a pair of binoculars and Geoff’s Blackberry. We were pretty shaken up by the experience and were not reassured by the police telling us that the roundabout is notorious and that these thefts happen almost every day! To make matters worse we discovered when we arrived back home that our travel insurance did not cover us once we had left the port and our household and car insurance doesn’t cover us either for this type of theft! Great! Travellers to Marseille take heed!
On to happier things. The winter social scene is in full swing here in the hills. We were invited to a special party to celebrate Dolly’s 60th birthday the day after we returned from our holiday. It was a great evening – lots of good food, drink flowing freely and a chance to have a good dance too. Dolly and Jeannot had really pushed the boat out and made the evening a very special one for all concerned. The event also marks the beginning of the end for the bar in St Etienne sur Usson, as Dolly is officially retiring at the end of the month. This will have a pretty devastating effect as the bar is the only commercial enterprise in the village and doubles up as a cafe, paper and sweetie shop and general focal point for the village. It will be sadly missed by everyone. We have been invited to the official closure buffet which will be a pretty emotional event I think.
Before we went on holiday we attended a do organised by my Amnesty International group. This was a Bal Trad – a sort of folk dancing evening – almost like an old fashioned barn dance. It was good fun and we managed to join in with some of the traditional dances although we did think that a “caller” would have been a great idea as everyone had their own idea of how the dances went and they weren’t always the same!
Last Saturday evening saw us entertaining the bibliothèque group as we did our talk about the differences between our life in England and here. It went very well and everyone who came enjoyed the talk which Geoff had put together. I think we got off quite lightly with the number of people who came though, as the weather was awful and quite a few people rang to say they had decided not to venture out. I was really touched to be given a wonderful gift by Lilliane, the organiser of all things to do with the bibliothèque, - a carved wooden name board for the house. I have wanted one ever since we arrived here and it was such a thoughtful thing to get us. That is just typical of the folk round here though.
The workshops for the Red Cross’s Marche de Noel are in full swing now. Last week, when Muriel and I arrived the air was heavy with the wonderful scent of cloves and cinnamon as the ladies prepared their super scented place mats. They fill pre-sewn squares of material with a mixture of rice and spices to make these fabulous place mats. It is like a mini Santa’s workshop production line with some of the ladies mixing the filler, others filling the squares and then others sewing the ends up. All accompanied by constant chatter and laughter – its wonderful to see! I have been doing my own Christmas workshops too making lots of Christmas cards as they are almost impossible to buy here. I went to the fantastic craft fair at Clermont Ferrand last week to replenish my dwindling stock of card making stuff. The credit card was red hot!
We now have a booking for the gite for both Christmas and New Year which is good news. It will make our trip to the UK for Christmas a bit complicated but we are really pleased to have these “out of season” bookings. I only hope the weather is good- although I suspect some snow would be welcomed by our guests. The kids -ie Geoff`s - old sledges could be in high demand!