Starting a chambres d`hôte

23/06/09 The start of Summer

June has been a really strange month with very little happening with the gite and B&B, lots happening with Geoff’s English teaching and quite a few events in and around the community. We have been very quiet as far as visitors go this month with only three lots of B&B guests. Strangely for us, two of these couples were English and we really enjoyed welcoming them and introducing them to the delights of the Auvergne countryside. One couple were on their way home after a mini tour of France and the others were on their way to the Cote d`Azure for a week. I have to admit I felt like hopping into their car when they left as I could have fancied a break there myself! Both of them arrived whilst we were in the midst of a mini World War 3, as we tried to get the dog and the new kitten used to each other! Fortunately they both seemed to like the animals and were amused by all the fun and games! Just as well, as I felt sure they must have thought they had chosen to stay in a mad house! I have since sent them both a photo to show them the progress which has been made since they were here. The other couple were a surprise - our very first referral from the local tourist office. Glad to see some return for our annual fees at last! Geoff has had his best month for his English teaching since he started. He has begun working with his first business clients using his official trainer number and he is really enjoying that. He is still doing his private lessons and was delighted when one of his adult students finally managed to pass an important English exam which was part of his degree course and which he had failed several times before he started working with Geoff. He also got a bit more translation work the other day – another menu translation which drove him crazy with hunger pangs as he worked! Most of his school children students have now stopped for the summer, but with the business stuff, his adult clients and now the grandmothers who are starting to request some holiday tuition for their visiting grandchildren he is being kept quite busy. That’s what I like to see! As you will have gathered the kitten (Maisie) is now well and truly with us. Having made loads of progress with the dog training we really upset Bounty by bringing that little madam into his life! He was (and still is, but to a lesser amount now) mega jealous and we kept the kitten upstairs in our room for the first couple of nights as I was sure he’d eat her if he got half the chance! After two nights of poor sleep we started to try and get them to tolerate each other and now we have a sort of truce! Maisie is a little bundle of trouble, full of energy, has razor sharp claws (my poor legs look like a road map with all the scratch marks where she has clawed her way up into my arms) and is an all round adorable minx. She is not fazed at all by Bounty and is taking great delight in tormenting him to death. Her favourite game is to lurk in the wine rack in the kitchen and ambush him as he trots innocently past. Poor dog! There are times when I wonder just what flash of madness possessed us to put ourselves through all this animal angst but when they both curl up with me on the settee at night time it is lovely! The garden is looking superb at the moment. It is the best time of the year, I think, with all the roses blooming, the lavender just coming into flower and the pots and troughs looking really pretty. One of Geoff’s adult students (Bernadette) invited us to have a look round her equally pretty garden the other day and has since given me loads of new plants so I had a very busy day recently trimming all the unruly bushes and planting up the new stuff. We then asked a friend from the village to come and take some new photos of the house, gite & garden which we hope to put on the website soon. We are in the process of changing the website hosting to another friend who has a website management business. By using Pascal, who lives locally, we hope it will mean that we can make changes etc more easily than at the moment where all this is based in the UK. I have also been taking advantage of all the lovely fruit which is available just now and the jam pan has been working overtime. Bernadette has the most amazing raspberry hedge (it is huge) and she has said I can visit and pick as much as I want when they are ready – a real breakthrough as raspberries are really expensive to buy in France and I have not been able to make any raspberry jam since we came here. Bring it on I say! The other good thing to come from our visit to Bernadette was the discovery that she has been able to make her garden a bird refuge registered with the LPO (the French equivalent of the RSPB). As I had some birthday money to spend I decided to join this scheme too and am at the moment awaiting my plaque and documentation which will show that the Jardin de les Hirondelles is an official bird refuge. I’m quite excited about this as I love the birds here and spend a small fortune feeding them all winter. It will also be something else to put onto the website. The EU elections came and went with very little fuss here in St Etienne sur Usson. It was a bit of a non event really and although we did go and vote we were not entirely sure who or what we were voting for! I don’t think we were alone in that as my French art class friends couldn’t enlighten me when I asked about it either! Whilst I am talking about art, we went to a really good art event in and around the streets of the lovely old village of Usson the other weekend. It was really good. My art teacher had some work exhibited there so it was nice to be able to support her. It’s the last art class before the summer holidays this week. I will miss it. We have just had a very busy weekend. On Saturday I went on the Red Cross coach trip and spent a very good day in the company of all my wonderful Red Cross friends. This year we went to the Resistance Museum at Mount Mouchard in the morning, which was very interesting and somewhere I’d wanted to visit for a while. After a lovely lunch we then drove along the Gorges D`Allier enjoying the scenery and pretty villages there. It was a great day out and once again I thank my lucky stars that I am able to be part of this fantastic group of people. On Sunday evening, we went into Issoire to be part of the Fete de la Musique. This is an annual event- always on midsummer’s day – where nearly every town and village in France has some kind of free musical event. In Issoire there were about 15 different groups or bands entertaining the crowds in various places throughout the town centre. There was a great atmosphere as people just drifted from one place to another listening to the very different musical offerings. We really enjoyed ourselves- it was a good night out – and all for free too, which delighted Geoff! My Twitter addiction continues much to Geoff’s dismay! He keeps muttering that I obviously have too much time on my hands – but I keep telling him it is work too as I can promote the gite/B&B a bit too. Good excuse eh?? Anyway I am enjoying it immensely and it has allowed me to be in contact with some really nice people in France, the UK and other parts of the world too. If you haven’t tried Twitter yet I thoroughly recommend it. Its great fun! I suspect I won’t have much time to play when our busy period starts in the next couple of weeks so I am making the most of it whilst I can!