Starting a chambres d`hôte

19/12/08 Carols (and other things) by candle light

What a month! Good things first. We started it off by going to the closing down buffet at the bar at St Etienne sur Usson. It was a quiet affair really with people dropping in for a farewell drink and some bits of food with Jeannot and Dolly. We (like a lot of folk here) will be very sorry to see the bar close but Jeannot and Dolly were in good spirits and very adamant that this was definitely the end. It does seem very strange to drive past the place now and not see the bar sign. Because it is also their house, Dolly has already converted the bar room into a sitting room and it looks very odd to see a settee and easy chairs in there! They are very proud of the alterations though and took great delight in showing them off to Geoff and I when we went round to see them last week.

The first week of December saw me very busy with the Croix Rouge`s Marche de Noel in Issoire. As usual the ladies had worked their magic on the Halle aux Grains and transformed it into a lovely place full of stalls which were in turn covered with wonderful things for sale. There were handicrafts, decorations, toys, bric-a-brac, books, preserves, home made wines etc etc. The good people of Issoire turned out in their droves and the three days went very well indeed. I was given the knitwear stall to look after and was amazed at how quickly the knitted and crochet blankets disappeared. We also did a roaring trade in woolly hats and scarves too. I now think that people had some inside information as to what was about to happen weather wise – but more of that later! I am always astonished at the stamina of the Red Cross volunteers – they are mostly ladies of 60 and over and they put in some really long hours doing this market. It lasts for three days starting at 10 and finishing at 7 each day and has to be “put up” and dismantled quickly afterwards. Muriel and I only managed 2 days and we were really tired out but the “ladies” take it in their stride. They obviously breed them tough here in the Auvergne!

We also went to the carol service by candle light in the Evangelical church in Clermont Ferrand again this year. I had been asked to read a lesson and once again we really enjoyed the opportunity to sing some carols in English and listen to English bible readings. We went with Ron and Muriel, who since we met them at this service last year have become good friends.

Now on to the not so good things! I was due to return to the UK last Sunday to do a weeks work at my old college and to see the family a bit before Christmas. However on Sunday when we got up to drive across to Limoges to catch the flight, it was snowing heavily and there was an “orange alert” (second highest) weather warning in place telling people not to drive if the journey was not essential. After a bit of humming and haring we reluctantly decided we could not drive to Limoges that day – which was just as well as we found out later that all the auto routes were closed. I was really disappointed as I had been looking forward to spending a bit of time seeing friends and family and the opportunity to earn a bit of money was also going to be welcome. Things went from bad to worse on that Sunday as just after lunch, with snow still falling heavily, the electricity and phone went off. We are now used to blips in the electricity supply in the winter but this seemed like something much more serious than normal. We found the candles and lit the fire and managed to stay fairly warm in the living room although going to bed in the dark and cold of our bedroom turned into a race to see who could get into the bed first! Thank goodness for hot water bottles I say!

We awoke on Monday morning to a very white and quiet and still world – about 30-40cms of snow, still no electricity or phone, and now joy of joys no water either! We kept busy (and warm) trying to clear a way through from the house to the village road which had been snow ploughed and were overjoyed when we saw 3 EDF vans arrive in the late afternoon as we thought the power would soon be restored. Wrong! The blokes stood around for a bit, told us there were lots of problems with trees falling onto power lines and then departed! We spent another evening with candles and no heating other than the fire and bottled water to drink!

By Tuesday morning we were getting a bit fed up! The water was back on but still no power. We managed to get the car out of the village and went into Sauxillange to do some shopping – more candles needed and more water! We were a bit perplexed to discover that everyone else seemed to have light except us. I was also becoming a bit worried about my freezer by now too although it was so cold Geoff thought it would probably be OK. As the prospect of the third night of candle light approached we decided to ring the Marie to find out what was going on only to discover that no one seemed to be aware that Chabanol was still in the dark as it were! We had been forgotten! However things happened very quickly after that. One of the council members arrived with his generator to allow us to have some light and heat – although he was more worried that we had no TV and spent ages trying to fix that up! It was a mixed blessing though as in order to get the cable into the living room we had to leave the door open a bit so what we gained on light and entertainment, we lost on heat by having a howling gale coming in! It was nice to be able to watch a DVD though – I was becoming very bored by this time. There is very little you can do by candle light and although Geoff was content to sit in the gloom staring into the fire, I was going a bit stir crazy!

Wednesday morning brought a visit from Lionel, the mayor who was very concerned and a bit embarrassed that we had been left without power for so long. He had thought that all the villages in the commune had been sorted and had forgotten about us! He obviously had had some discussions with EDF and our power was restored in the afternoon. Whoopee! I can’t tell you how nice it was to be able to see to cook and read and do normal things again! How on earth did people manage without electricity? It must have been a very long and boring winter round here. We have learned several lessons though – firstly how important it is to let people know that you need help and secondly how great the spirit of friendship is in this part of the world, by all the offers of help we did get once people knew we had problems. We won’t be so slow in coming forward should there be a repeat episode. One more really good thing was just how beautiful the countryside looked under its mantle of snow. And yes, we did build a snowman – very good he looked too in his Preston North End hat!

Fortunately our gite visitors for Noel have not cancelled - they are looking forward to the snow! I only hope it lasts for them as a thaw does now seem to have set in. We are off to the UK on Sunday to spend Christmas with the family and leaving them to it! So I will finish by wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and I will be back with more adventures in the New Year.