Starting a chambres d`hôte

26/05/09 The merry month of May

We have been busy little bees this month. We have now finished the “spring cleaning in the gite and I profited from some excellent drying days to get the curtains , duvets and bed covers all washed, dried and sorted out. The gite was looking very *** and span for our first early summer visitors, a family from Bordeaux who stayed over the Ascension bank holiday weekend. We have also had several B&B guests including some friends from Marple who came to view the “estate” and chill for a few days. I took them to Ambert for the day, firstly, to experience a good French market and then to visit the old paper mill. Our visit coincided with that of a group of school children who were on an exchange visit to Issoire organised by my friend Julie. They were amazed to be told that I was a friend of their exchange teacher. I think they felt she had spies everywhere! Their presence did help Glyn and Lis to enjoy the guided tour of the mill as the guide spoke to them very slowly and clearly and so my friends were able to keep up too. Old teacher habits die hard though and I did see Glyn twitching when the kids’ attention wavered and the mobile phones came out! Fortunately he managed not to tell them off - just!

Geoff has at last got his official number from the state to enable him to do English training with small businesses, so he has been a busy boy trying to sort out some contracts to get that side of his growing English teaching business moving. It has come at a good time really as he normally “loses” a bit of his teaching activity when the schools start their holidays. Hopefully this new training activity will take up some of the slack over the summer months.

The dog continues to take up quite a bit of our time too at the moment. He has settled down a lot since he first arrived but is still a handful at times. His most memorable day so far, was the one when he escaped into the cow field, discovered it was full of cow s**t, which he then rolled in and ate copious amounts of. We caught him eventually, brought him back to the house and had to bath him because he stank. He was then sick, once in the garden and once in the house – regurgitated cow muck – lovely! He was put in the house in disgrace and when I went in to start preparing the meal for our friends who we were entertaining that evening, I found he’d scoffed the beef which was defrosting in readiness for the casserole I was to cook! He came very close to being put into the casserole as a substitute at that point! Fortunately, since then his behaviour has improved and having been caught out by the electric fence a couple of times, his visits to the cow field have stopped thank goodness. We have been working very hard with him to try and train him a bit and he is now responding quite well to commands – the treats he gets when he is good help too I think! Talk about bribery and corruption but it works!

As if all this activity wasn’t enough, I was contacted by a friend (Lilliane, the one who is difficult to say “no” to) asking if I would be interested in a “little job”. Apparently, there is an elderly lady who needs someone to be with her as she is getting increasingly frail and forgetful. Another of our friends was willing to be there a lot of the time but wasn’t able to commit to “full time” and needed someone to help out when she was unavailable. I went to meet the lady and her son in their fantastic home, which was almost like a stately house, beautifully furnished and very elegant. We had tea and I got a tour of the lovely garden too – all very civilised. I was beginning to panic a bit by this time as caring and coping with a confused person in your own language is hard enough but trying to do it in French ..?Also where would I find the time especially in summer, as believe it or not I am quite busy with the B&B and gite in the summer. Anyway  much to my relief, it has all fallen through, as the family wanted 24/24 care and our friend was not able to do that, so I am off the hook too thank goodness! I was very relieved – although Geoff seemed very keen to get me out working again so he was disappointed! Shame!

I have been quite busy with Croix Rouge activities too this month. As well as my usual Thursday afternoon sessions, sorting donated clothes for their vestiare, I attended the AGM in Issoire last week. It was very interesting listening to all the activities the Issoire delegation are involved in. It really is a very active group and I take my hat off to them all as most of the volunteers are getting on a bit. They also received a new drapeau (flag) and they were all very proud to be able to pin the Legion d`Honneur medal to that in a little ceremony as part of the AGM.I feel proud too that they have allowed me to be part of their delegation and have welcomed me whole heartedly into their ranks. I “did my bit” for them last Saturday, rattling a can as part of their annual “quete” (collection day). I am sad to report that a person rattling a can in France, gets exactly the same reaction as in England. It is amazing how many people avoid eye contact and find something very interesting to do on the other side of the pathway, rather than put a few coins into your can!

It has been very summery weather wise these past few weeks with some very hot days. The garden is going crazy as always - well those parts of it that Bounty hasn’t managed to flatten in his perpetual hunt for lizards. The veg patch is almost planted up now and we have been able to virtually watch the plants grow so good have been the conditions lately. All my pots and troughs are looking good too. Out and about the verges are teeming with wild flowers and the cornflowers and poppies are just coming into bloom so it all looks very pretty. We realised it was almost summer the other day when we put the cars into the garage to get their snow tyres changed!

Socially we have been out for some very nice meals with friends and have entertained here too. I was disappointed though to have only Geoff for company on Eurovision night as he really doesn’t get into the spirit of the thing at all! He kept asking if it was time to go to bed – and that was only 10 minutes into the show!  My daughter was at a Eurovision party where they were all wearing hats from different countries and eating international food. She reckoned her Maltese treacle tart went down well even if the Maltese song didn’t! The French commentators were almost in tears because the dreary French song didn’t get many votes. Patricia Klas is a sort of French national icon and they felt she deserved better – their opinion, definitely not mine! Anyway, I’ve decided that next year I am going to have to organise a silly party to liven the night up. That will finally convince our French friends that we are completely round the twist!

And last but not least I have to report that I have discovered Twitter! I am now tweeting with the best of them and oh boy is it fun! I have followers from all over the world (goodness knows why) and some of them are so witty. I am really enjoying it all! Sad or what? My children despair!