Starting a chambres d`hôte

27/02/10 It can only happen in France…

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:37:00 GMT

Considering that February is the shortest month of the year, this one seems to have dragged on for ever! I suppose a lot of that has been due to the odd weather – spring like one day then up to our knees in snow again the next – but I have to say I will be glad to see the back of February in a few days time. There have, however, been bright spots – some of which have made us smile – & hence the title of the blog this month. More of those later! The month got off to a good start with the continuing visit of my cousin, Ken & his wife, Joy. They did indeed get some skiing done at Super Besse & Geoff spent a morning there with them too – although he kept very much to the “baby” slopes as usual whilst they went off to enjoy the faster runs. Unfortunately the weather was not good on either of their ski days – low cloud, damp & very cold – but they seemed to enjoy it anyway. The rest of their visit went very well & I was able to take them out & about a bit to let them sample some of the delights of the local area. Joy was particularly taken with all the volcanic hills & their villages, such as Usson & Nonette, so they ended up climbing them both – fortunately on good days weather wise & so were able to enjoy the lovely views. They also took training Bounty to their hearts although this went sadly wrong on one of their walks when he did a disappearing act & then returned with a revolting animal bone which he’d found in the field. He proceeded to eat most of it, resisting all attempts to be parted from it - & then was horribly sick all night & most of the following day! Yuk! We all had a very good week together & I was sad to see them go – although as this was the day the dog was sick, I think they were very happy to avoid that! My trip to the UK went very well too, although we were a bit perturbed to wake up the morning of my departure to a foot+ of snow again! Geoff managed to dig the car out (using his super new snow shovel!) & I made the train & flight connections without too much trouble. I was amazed at how widespread the snowy weather was in France with snow all the way up to Paris. Taking the train to Paris was much more relaxing than driving to Limoges too & everything went very smoothly – which is just as well as I am not a “relaxed” traveller! I used public transport in the UK too – again a nice change from hiring a car & driving everywhere. It was a good weekend all told, a chance to visit my mother, see my brothers, meet up with my old nursing friends (who I haven’t seen for ages)& then spend some time with the kids too. I also got a chance to meet some of Hazel’s “Frisbee” friends – it’s nice to now be able to put faces to names I see on Facebook! I seem to have avoided a pretty dire weekend snow wise in France too, which was a bonus! Geoff kept ringing to tell me of epic bouts of digging the car out each day. Shame I wasn’t there really! Since I got back things have improved a bit. I have actually managed to get out into the garden to do some tidying up. I even was seduced into buying some pretty primula plants the other day in a desperate attempt to bring some much needed colour into the garden. There are at last some signs of spring around – my one & only snowdrop is flowering, as are some of the crocuses & primroses, & the daffodils are beginning to push through now too. Normally that is a sure sign for more snow – fingers crossed, not this time! Things are a little slow on the bookings front just now which is a bit worrying, but as most of our clients are French I am trying not to panic! The French tend to book later than the British so I am expecting a flurry of enquiries in the next few weeks. Geoff continues to be very busy with his English teaching & has got two new clients again this month. He’s beginning to worry that it seems to be turning into a full time job! I keep telling him it is all helping our next cruise fund but he doesn’t seem impressed! There are two stories which have come from his teaching activities this month & are the reason for the blog’s title. The first is a French saying which one of his students gave him, in response to a question Geoff asked as to why he & his wife didn’t go on a trip they had planned “ce que la femme veut, Dieu veut”! I like that! And the other story is that one of his students rang to cancel a lesson & when Geoff asked why, the answer was “because we are killing the pig today!” None of my students when I was teaching ever used that one! Socially we have been out & about a bit – weather permitting that is! We spent a very nice evening with our friends Julie & Jean-Luc & as a follow o from that we were invited by Jean-Luc to attend the annual general assembly for the village’s branch of Credit Agricole Bank. Riveting it was too – not – but we did get a free lunch at the local posh restaurant as a reward for going! Another “it could only happen in France” story came out of this meeting. It was very serious & deathly dull & we were at the tedious stage of taking questions from the floor. One very elderly farmer put up his hand. His question was “did the panel know that it was midday & he was hungry”? Titters galore - & result – the meeting came to an end! We, along with the rest of the world have been watching the winter Olympics. However I am very fed up with the French coverage which has as usual been very biased towards the events where there are French competitors. As a result we have been “treated” to endless evenings of various skiing events to the point that I would cheerfully like to put skis in certain parts of the producer’s anatomy. We have barely seen any of the ice events – is there any ice hockey, curling, speed skating, bobsleigh actually going on? Its all been very disappointing – but not unexpected as the French sports coverage is not very good especially if there is no obvious French interest. Again, another example of - it can only happen in France! However I will end this month with a wonderful new bit of vocabulary we have picked up from the coverage of the Olympics. When skiers need to have their skis waxed & treated they go to the “cabane de fartage” Wonderful vision that brings to mind eh?

29/01/10 Ups and downs

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:42:00 GMT

Bonne Annee a tous! I know it is almost the end of January now, but I hope 2010 has started well continues to be good to you all. We have had a very mixed start to the year, with some good things happening - & some not so good things too! I’ll get the “bad” things out of the way first! Our gite visitors over New Year went from bad to worse, complaining all week & using & overloading the electricity supply to the point where it blew the disjuncter completely at the end. We were really pleased to see them go at the end of the week. But it didn’t stop there, as she complained to the advertising site too! Fortunately they gave us the right of reply so after a very sleepless night – I hate this kind of thing – we sent our version of events off & I’m pleased to say the site decided not to publish her complaint. Needless to say we won’t be taking a booking from her again! It’s the first time we have ever had any trouble with our guests & I hope it will be the last. Just to balance things up a bit our B&B visitors over New Year were a lovely young couple who thoroughly enjoyed their stay. We spent a miserable New Year’s Eve & Day really, at home, partially in the dark – this was the night the electricity gave up the ghost! Just to restore our faith in human nature though, all the electricity problems have now been fixed by our nice young neighbour, Benjamin. After that start to the year we reckon that things can only get better! January has been really cold here – as it has in the UK too I understand. We have had several coverings of snow & very low temperatures – especially overnight. We have all of our “anti-cold” measures in full swing – curtains at the doors, shutters closed & fire on early etc, to keep the house cosy – all of which work thank goodness. We have not been stuck with the snow (yet!) but it did take us all day one Sunday to dig the cars out. The problem is that the snow plough can’t get round the corner at the end of our drive so ploughs to there & leaves a nice snow wall for us to clear. After the last episode though, Geoff has at last opened his wallet a little(rare event) & bought a proper snow shovel so hopefully the next time will be easier! We have had some more visitors this month too. My Twitter friend who lives near Clermont came to see us & ended up staying overnight which was nice. I enjoyed her company very much & she gave us some good tips to help us train the wayward hound. So Bounty is now in full “clicker” training – a method of rewarding good behaviour with a clicker device & small treats – with a good deal of success so far. We still have bad days (like this afternoon for example when he did a disappearing act whilst out for a walk) but he does seem more responsive & a lot calmer now. If only the clicker would work its magic on Geoff…..!! The other visitors are my cousin & his wife who are here now & staying with us for a week. We are having a great time with them & they are enjoying seeing the homestead & the lovely Auvergne at long last. They have gone skiing this afternoon, so I hope Super Besse is proving enough of a challenge for them, as they usually go to the Alps or the States to ski. Geoff is hoping to go skiing with them on Monday – I hope they will be able to keep (sorry - put)up with him! Tomorrow we are taking them to the Foire de St Paule in Issoire where I know Joy will love all the mimosa that will be for sale everywhere. I’m not so sure that they will appreciate the tripe which is the traditional meal of the day though! We’ll see! Last Sunday we went to the Red Cross’s Gallette de Rois do. This is the social event, done each year in January, where everyone gets together to eat slices of gallette (a traditional pastry with frangipane filling), chat & get the reports of the last years activities. I was coerced to sing again – but this year had gone prepared with some words! My warbling of The Skye Boat Song, Blow the Wind Southerly, & Summertime all went down well – even if they didn’t have a clue what I was singing about! However the piece de resistance was a rendering of Swing Low Sweet Chariot – dedicated to all the French rugby fans! Naughty or what!! The summer bookings & enquiries have started to arrive I’m pleased to report. I’m always relieved when I get the first ones into the diary! If any of you are thinking of coming this summer, now is the time to make your reservation! The other good news is that Geoff has two new clients for his English teaching & hopefully another one starting in February. This is all very good news as at last we can see some light at the end of the tunnel financially. Last year at this time, we were seriously worried that we were not going to survive here in the long run - this year, although still not wonderful, looks a lot better already. On that upbeat note I will end for now. I have a trip booked back to the UK in February to visit my mother & the family so all the details about that next month.

29/12/09 Our first French Christmas

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:11:00 GMT

Having just read the end of the previous post I can’t quite believe that Christmas has already been & gone. Where does the time go? We did have a great time though – more of that later. The month of December has been quite a busy one with one thing & another. The first week was taken up completely for me by the Croix Rouge’s Marche de Noel which as usual was a great success but very time consuming & tiring. The ladies had surpassed themselves this year with all sorts of lovely handicrafts, jams, conserves, wines, biscuits & cakes on offer. It is impossible to be there for three days & not spend money – which is the whole idea really I suppose! I was put on the knitwear stall again & did my bit flogging numerous hats, scarves, slippers & jumpers. Overall I think the actual number of people who came to the market was down this year but those who did come seemed to buy a lot so I suspect they will have made a handsome profit once again. The calendar season has been in full flow throughout the month. Our first visitors with their calendar, were some of the kids from the village school (yes, the famous one) who arrived one afternoon when I was in full mince pie production mode! They were duly rewarded for their visit with a donation - & a mince pie each! Then came two very nice young pompiers,(firemen),who nearly frightened the living daylights out of me, by knocking on the window. It was getting dark & the luminous glow of the reflective stripes on their uniforms looked very eerie indeed! Calendar number three was that of our intrepid post lady, Brigitte. I don’t begrudge her the money though – it’s the same as giving the postie a Christmas tip in the UK, & she delivers our post to the door in all weathers & takes & posts stuff for us too at times. As well as these, nearly every tradesman, bank, shopkeeper etc also gives their regular customers a calendar, so by the end of the year you have enough to paper a room! The annoying thing is that most of them are no good whatsoever for writing our bookings on which is the only time I actually use a calendar! Fortunately, our friends Ron & Muriel give us one which is suitable for that. So if any of you are short of a calendar this year you know where to come! I was inspired by all the nice things on offer at the Christmas Market to make some very nice holly wreaths & decorations for the house & gite. It is great having all the raw materials in abundant supply here – all it takes is a 5 minute walk down the track to get enough holly & mistletoe to keep several florists happy! The holly this year was fantastic too with huge scarlet berries which prompted my daughter to comment that she thought we must have been giving the trees steroids! I really enjoyed “playing” & was very pleased with my creative efforts. Mind you my fingers nearly dropped off with the cold as I worked outside making the wreaths. This brings me neatly on to the weather! It has been very, very cold this month. We went from it being very mild to night time temperatures of -8(&less) practically overnight. Then, the week before Christmas along came the snow. We ended up with several inches but nothing we couldn’t cope with. Geoff enjoyed playing on the toboggan but our efforts at building a snowman were pretty dire! We just get the wrong type of snow here – where have I heard that before?? It doesn’t stick together so making snowballs & snowmen is virtually impossible. Our Christmas week gite visitors were delighted with the snowy conditions & took full advantage of our offer of 3 toboggans to play with! The gite has been in use again over the holiday period I’m glad to say. The first lot of visitors arrived on the weekend before Christmas when the temperatures really plummeted. They spent the first day in the gite adjusting to the cold (the gite is not the easiest place to heat especially when it has been empty for a while) but soon got the hang of the fire & heaters & then really enjoyed their week. The family who are in the gite this week are proving much more of a challenge as they have moaned about everything so far! They wanted snow but it has all gone now. However they but don’t want it to be cold & consequently are going through our woodpile at the rate of knots at the moment. The big problem here sometimes is that people who live in centrally heated houses & apartments in towns just can’t adjust to the fact that this is an old country house half way up a mountain & in winter it is often very cold here. We exist by wearing multiple layers of clothing, closing doors & shutters & generally keeping moving in the house & garden. If all you do is sit around, you do get cold here very quickly. We haven’t got that through to our present visitors yet! I don’t think they will be back somehow! Despite all the adverse weather both here & in the UK, the kids & Geoff’s mother made it out to Chabanol for Christmas. They had a bit of a nightmare journey out, with flight & train delays but made it in the end. Geoff’s mum enjoyed being pushed in her specially hired Red Cross wheelchair through the airports & stations en route & was full of praise for all the help & attention she got throughout the journey. We were a little perturbed at her disappearing down the platform at Clermont Ferrand station in the company of a railway official to be taken across the tracks to the main entrance hall, but she took it all in her stride! The kids deserve a medal I think for bringing her out with them. Not many young folk would volunteer to bring an 81 year old lady with mobility problems on that journey. Once they were here we all had a fabulous family Christmas together. Christmas dinner was a halfway house between French & English traditions with Fois Gras, oysters, prawns, duck with cherry sauce (last of the cherries from the bumper summer crop),cheese (of course!)Christmas pudding, Buche de Noel & mince pies! And very nice it was too! Pere Noel came with some lovely presents – although someone (she knows who I mean) had managed to leave my present from the children on her kitchen table in Carlisle! Because French TV does not interest Matthew or Gma, we played lots of board & card games over this holiday period which has been good old fashioned family fun. We all went up to the Salle de Fetes in the village on Sunday afternoon to watch a film which had been arranged as a community event, by the Marie. Because it was an animated film, (UP – I highly recommend it!), even Gma managed to follow it & we all had a good time there too. They set off home yesterday & I was my usual miserable self when they left. The house is getting back to normal again now but I miss them so much. So, now, on to the New Year. We have a couple arriving for B&B tomorrow & staying over the New Year weekend - well actually only bed as they are visiting friends in the next village & so will be breakfasting there. As yet I am not sure what we will be doing on New Years Eve. My dearly beloved is in charge of that – which probably means that we will be doing very little as usual! However I hope everyone has a good time & I will be back with all the news from Chabanol next year!

29/11/09 A change of scene

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:22:00 GMT

They say a change is as good as a rest and we certainly enjoyed both of these aspects on our cruise. All went very smoothly this year (no repeats of the theft of last year thank goodness) and we had a thoroughly enjoyable 10 days of luxury & spoiling on the ocean waves. Because we sailed from Genoa this year, we got a flight from Clermont Ferrand to Nice & decided to tag on a night in Nice on the way out & again on the way back which was a bonus. I love Nice. The train journey along the coast to Genoa was also a treat, even if the Italian rolling stock left a lot to be desired – it was like something out of Miss Marple, even more so when the lights refused to work in the carriage. Let me tell you, there are an awful lot of tunnels on that journey – very creepy in total darkness! The cruise itself was great and just what we needed to recharge the batteries a bit. It was also nice to see the sea again – I love our mountain scenery but sometimes get nostalgic for the sea. Anyway a good time was had by all. The posh frocks are all back in the wardrobe now though & are set to remain there for the next 51 weeks no doubt. Let’s hope we have a good year with the business so they can be released from captivity next year! While we were away, Matthew & his friend Susie looked after the house & animals. They had a really good time I think & did a lot of exploring. It is a bonus here in France that the car is insured & not the person, so the kids can drive the cars without having to make any special arrangements, as long as they have permission to drive them. Matthew certainly made good use of ours and crammed in a lot of tourist visits! They did give some valuable feedback on some of the places Geoff & I are unlikely to visit, such as the Vulcania theme park, which we can pass on to our guests. They did a lot of walking too so the dog was very pleased to see us back so he could have a rest! We returned to the usual November tax demands, which wasn’t so nice! Fortunately, this year, they were not as crazy as last year. The tax authorities have at last got the message that we don’t make a lot of money, thank goodness, so we feel a lot more relaxed about things than we were this time last year. I’ve been quite busy since we got back sorting out the gite & B&B website as there were several changes we wanted to make. We have transferred the website hosting to a local guy, Pascal, & with his and his wife, Katy’s help have done some much needed updating of the photographs. Some of our “helpful” French friends had also been pointing out a lot of grammar which needed sorting out in the French translation bits, so we were able to get that done at the same time. French grammar is a total nightmare! Having spent hours with one of our friends re doing lots of the phrasing and grammar, Katy then decided she didn’t like some of that either so changed it again! AAARG! Hopefully the version we agreed on at the end will please everyone – but somehow I have my doubts! We have managed to fit in a couple of local visits this month. Geoff had seen an poster advertising an exhibition in Usson, about Jean Jaures. OK, OK, I can now hear all of you saying... “WHO”? Well, we have been seeing Jean Jaures streets, places, buildings for years in France so we thought we should know who he was & why he was so well thought of. The exhibition was very interesting & we now know a lot more about this interesting politician and his fight for human & workers rights & pacifism in the years before the First World War. We did think the mock up of the restaurant table where he was shot was a bit naff but the rest of the exhibits were very good. The other visit was a lot more fun! We went to a Salon de Chocolat last Sunday! Talk about chocolate heaven…..! Lots of tasties..& temptation galore! It was great! It was choc-o-bloc (sorry) full of people too so we didn’t stay long, but it was well worth the visit! The weather has continued to be very mild this month. In fact it’s been so mild this autumn that we have very confused plants in the garden, with some of the bushes starting to bud up already. I even saw some violets in flower this week. I suspect they are in for a nasty shock though as we have snow on the mountains now & snow forecast for our altitude later in the week. It’s the build up to Christmas now. The Croix Rouge’s Christmas market is next week so I’m in for a busy time helping with that. I’ve been making lots of mince pies to try & cope with the demand but am fighting a loosing battle, as all my French friends love them! We have the gite let for Christmas week and for New Year week too, so I have some work to do to get the gite sorted for the multitudes that are coming! The French do like their large family gatherings for the Fin D`Annee! I also have to get my head around our Christmas family gathering too as the kids & Geoff’s mum are coming out for Christmas this year. I haven’t cooked Christmas dinner for a few years now so it’s going to be a shock to my system! I’m thinking a mixture of French & English traditional food – but haven’t really got past the thinking stage yet! Not to worry – there’s a whole month yet ….isn’t there?? Or then again maybe not….! Just in case I’ll take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy Christmas!

28/10/09 Cider walks and chimneys

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:56:00 GMT

What a wonderful autumn we are having here in the Auvergne. The weather has been really mild, well during the daylight hours anyway – it does get cold at night & we have had a few frosty starts to the day. But we have been having temperatures ranging from -2C in the early morning getting up to 22C in the afternoons. These temperature swings always amaze us and always make choosing clothes for the day very difficult. You end up with many layers which steadily get discarded as the day warms up and then are rapidly reapplied once the sun starts going down. But we are still eating lunch in the garden most days which is really nice. The countryside looks magnificent at the moment with the trees in full autumnal glory. Our drive up the hill from Sauxillanges is breathtakingly beautiful just now as some trees has been chopped down opening up the view into the next valley which is covered with beech & oak trees, and when the sun is on them - well words fail me. The kids, who were out for a visit this week were treated to the Auvergne at its very best I think. The ash tree in our garden has been lovely too but has now shed most of its leaves unlike the big lime tree which is still turning golden. All this mild weather has led to a bumper crop of grapes on the vine, which Geoff is manfully trying to get through. The kids really enjoyed their few days with us and we managed to cram quite a lot into them. The main reason for them coming (apart from seeing their wonderful parents of course) was to take part in the village’s Fete de Cidre and walks. The weather was perfect for the walkers on Sunday & Geoff, Hazel and Matthew joined a big crowd of people who did the “short” walk in the afternoon. I took over from Geoff selling “cidre” (or freshly pressed apple juice as it is then) in the village whilst they enjoyed their walk. There were 3 walks on offer this year, a 27k one which takes all day, a 17k one in the morning & a 10k one in the afternoon. All the walks are very organised with people manning marshalling points along the route making sure no-one gets lost or into difficulties. Because the weather was so nice there was a vey big turn out and everyone had a good day. The amicale laique committee sold over 200 lunches and lots of cidre etc so they were very pleased with the day too. Whilst I am on the subject of walks, we are being highly amused at the cat at the moment, who has taken to accompanying Geoff and the dog on their walks. She trots along beside them as if it was quite the norm, usually turning back when she has had enough and coming back home herself. However this backfired on all of us the other day when she chose to go with the boys all the way round quite a long trek they do frequently, along the track & up into the village, coming back along the road. By the time they had reached the village, poor Maisie was cream crackered and there were further complications because the hunters were out in force that day too. She wouldn’t let Geoff pick her up and carry her, and he couldn’t leave her to come back by herself (hunters, road etc) so I got a phone call to come & pick her up in the car! I have often had to go & collect the kids from various things when they were younger but the cat??!! Our friends in the village often find our adventures highly amusing and now we have provided them with yet more ammunition to chuckle about! I am hoping that Maisie`s visit to the vets this month to be “done” will curtail her wanderlust a bit, but somehow I suspect she will continue to be a little madam! Another amusing (or so it was to our neigbours) thing which happened this month was the chimney sweeping episode. Geoff – always trying to save money – decided that he would buy a set of chimney sweeping brushes and rods and sweep the gite chimney himself. All was going well until the rod parted company from the brush head, leaving it well and truly stuck halfway up the flue. Geoff`s face was a picture of panic and misery as he struggled unsuccessfully to shift the brush. Eventually he had to admit defeat, and go and seek our neighbour, Bernard’s help. Bernard arrived, with a resigned look on his face, clutching his set of brushes and between them they eventually managed to push our brush up chimney where Bernard (who was on the roof by then) was able to grab it. Much relief all round – and almost certainly another funny story to tell about the crazy English at Chabanol! When the nights start to get longer here, the social activities start to recommence. My art class is in full swing again and I was able to finish a nice painting of a bowl of cherries to give as a present to one of our friends at her 60th birthday do. This evening was really good fun as Maryvonne is from Brittany, and all her Breton friends and family were there, making the party very lively indeed! Whilst the kids were here this weekend we also went to the Bal Trad (sort of a French version of a ceilgh)which my Amnesty International group had organised. Hazel enjoyed this very much – not so sure about Matthew – although he did get up and try one dance under protest! I also enjoyed meeting up with one of my Twitter friends in Issoire the other week. She lives just north of Clermont-Ferrand and we spent a very pleasant afternoon visiting some of Issoire`s lesser known attractions! In spite of all the good weather & spectacular autumnal scenery, the gite and B & B have remained stubbornly empty this month much to our chagrin. We have no booking for the Toussaint holiday this year either which is also worrying. We are getting lots of enquiries for New Year (Christmas week is already booked thank goodness) but as yet no takers. However,I do have my first booking for B&B in 2010 which is good news. Fortunately, Geoff continues to be busy with his teaching activities, reaching new targets all the time. I like that because I get taken out for lunch, as a treat, when he reaches a new target! He is even enjoying teaching the littlies much to my surprise. He is having to really work for that money though, as he has discovered their attention spans are severely limited and so has to prepare lots of short activities for them! Fancy that eh? He should try being a “proper” teacher! Next week we are off on holiday and we are really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I managed to fall in the garden last week and twisted my ankle badly so we won’t be able to do as much walking as we normally do, but I am determined that we will have a good rest and enjoy the break. I am also looking forward to being spoiled rotten and dressing up for meals I don’t have to prepare – all part of the joys of a cruise! I’ll tell you all about it next month.

27/09/09 Autumnal tales

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:57:00 GMT

I’m beginning to hate the rentree period. The French all disappear back to work/school and our world just dies! Suddenly there is no-one around in the villages, a lot of the local shopkeepers also take some time off after the busy summer and everywhere just seems deserted. That includes our gite & B&B rooms both of which unfortunately have remained stubbornly empty for most of September much to my annoyance. I hate it when the gite is empty -it just sits there looking forlorn and lonely! The sad thing is that we have had some beautiful weather this month and the countryside is looking fantastic as all the trees begin to change colour and the tops of the hills peek out of the mists each morning. I love the autumn here and we have had some super evocative walks with the dog savouring all the smells and sights of the season. We have been out gathering free fruit such as walnuts and sloes from the hedgerows, although this year the blackberries have been very poor. The summer was just too dry I think for them. Geoff has made his annual mushroom hunting forays into the local fields – and has failed miserably as usual! He just doesn’t have the knack, poor lad, and I am beginning to dread his return from these trips as he gets very disappointed when he fails to find any mushies! And then to make matters worse the neighbours all show him their spoils with cheery grins. Doesn’t do much for the old ego! We did have one busy weekend at the beginning of the month when we had a big wedding in the next village. We had a big family (parents & 4 kids or “tribu” as the mum wrote in our guest book) in the B&B rooms and 2 couples in the gite for the night. I had to serve 10 people breakfast on the Sunday morning which was fun especially as Geoff was in the UK that weekend. To make matters worse they all came home from the party at different times during the night (the family finally arrived back at 4.15am) so I hadn’t had a lot of sleep. I managed though & they all eventually left happy, having had a nice weekend. Unfortunately that was our only bit of business all this month. We did have other B&B guests booked in but they cancelled due to illness and another lot booked both rooms(which got me very excited) and then rang to cancel 2 hours later having discovered how far south we were! Why didn’t they look at a map first?? All very frustrating! The rentree has seen the start up of all Geoff’s English teaching again. He’s getting to be quite a busy boy with a lot of last year’s clients returning for another year and some new people too. This year the trend seems to be for teaching quite young children which will be a real challenge for him I think. He has two small children classes now – one at the association he worked for last year and another private one organised by some mums who want their little darlings to get a head start quite young. His business teaching continues with two businesses now on board and perhaps another one soon if they can get the training authorised. That will keep him out of mischief! He keeps hinting that I might be better at teaching the little ones,(argh!) but so far “innocent” questions like “can I shout at them if they misbehave?” are keeping me safe! All of this teaching is good news as the tax bills have started to arrive again. All the tax and social charge bills are quite hefty and we still have problems understanding the system at times. One day perhaps…..! Living in France is certainly not cheap. We took a calculator with us when we were shopping the other day and I was horrified to see exactly how expensive basic foodstuffs were. Normally I just throw them into the trolley without really looking at the price but the calculator experience really made me realise that there was very little less than 1 euro these days. No wonder my shopping bills are so high. Another thing I did this month also brought home to me how high the cost of living is here. I love reading and get frustrated not having easy access to cheap English books. Normally when I go back to the UK, I do a tour of the charity shops and stock up, but since I started taking the hand baggage only option on flights, even that solution has become difficult. So imagine my delight at discovering a small but quite interesting section of English thrillers in the library in Issoire. I chose one and started the registration process – and then was asked for 20 Euros for the privilege of becoming a member of the library! I paid – but became very nostalgic for the free library services in the UK! We have been out and about a bit again this month. We really enjoyed our visit to the annual Foire d`Auvergne at the big exhibition centre in Clermont Ferrand. It’s a sort of mix of mini ideal homes/motor/good food shows all in one. We had a good day wandering round all the exhibits and doing some tasting etc. On a much smaller scale, we also enjoyed a local Fete des Champignons where we were able to see and taste some local products. And Geoff was able to see some of those elusive fungi at close quarters at last!! Another wonderful experience for us was to be invited to a presentation ceremony for one of my Red Cross colleagues this week. This lady who is in her 80s, has been awarded France`s second highest honour(chevallier de L`Ordre national du Merite) for her services to the community. Typically, she chose to have the presentaion cermony in Issoire at the Red Cross premises. It was a very moving ceremony for her, her family & all her friends as she was presented with her medal by the local Depute (MP equivelant). We were very pleased & touched to have been invited and it was nice to be able to pass on our congratulations to this remarkable lady. We are starting to get quite excited about our holiday which is approaching fast. We are going on another cruise (ok, Derek you can stop smiling and saying I told you so now!), in November. I have been having a few sleepless nights worrying about what we were going to do with the cat & dog as our usual dog sitter has gone off to university this year. Taking the advice of one of my Twitter friends, I put an advert onto a house sitting website and was amazed to find how efficient it turned out to be! I had 6 replies overnight from all over the world! On reflection, it does seem to be a very good way for people who have no ties to travel and stay “free” in different parts of the world – and for people like us it’s an answer to our prayers to be able to leave Bounty at home with someone to look after him. He’d have hated going into kennels. Anyway, as is usually the case, no sooner had I posted the ad, did my son decide he’d like a week of peace & quiet and offered to come out and house & dog sit for us! So I had to contact all the kind would be house sitters and tell them I had found someone! Typical- I spend weeks worrying about the problem and then have dog sitters coming out of my ears! Roll on November and the holiday now I say….

28/08/09 Where did August go then?

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:55:00 GMT

I know that it is supposed to be a sign of ageing to ask questions like that but I really feel that August has come and gone so quickly. It really doesn’t seem like a month since I was writing the July blog! Worse than that the end of August heralds the end of the summer and that in turn means few or no visitors in the gite & chambre d`hotes. I always get a bit down at the end of summer – I really like having people here. Anyway before I get totally maudlin, let me bring you up to date with all the August happenings here in Chabanol. We have been busy again this month – although I think that July was busier. The gite has been full all month and the B&B has also kept us on our toes. Once again we have had a real mixture of folk staying with us but most of them have been really nice people who have enjoyed their stay and the opportunity to explore the Auvergne a bit. We have gone quite international too with visitors from Belgium, Spain and at the moment we have an Australian family staying in the gite. We are being very diplomatic in not mentioning the Ashes this week! We have had quite a few families with young children & babies staying in the B&B rooms. My friend Muriel’s cot has been well used this month! Most of the children have been great but I did come close to losing it with one small boy who tormented the kitten continually by poking it with a stick. Mummy & Daddy didn’t exercise much control over that young man at all & I have to say I was not too dismayed to see them depart! I have also become a bit annoyed with the number of families who arrive and say that their children are scared of dogs. It is perfectly clear on our website that we have a dog so why come if it causes so much trouble? Poor Bounty really doesn’t understand when children scream whenever he appears in the garden. We have had a few “returners” too this month – two families who enjoyed their stay so much on the way down to their holiday in the south, that they booked to stay on the return leg, and a couple who stayed with us last year came back to stay this August too which was nice. We have had some fantastic weather this month which has enhanced all our visitors holidays immensely. In fact we even had “canicule” (heat wave) warnings from meteo France for several days when the temperatures got into the mid to high 30s. At times it was too hot to go outdoors during the day time and for once I was almost glad to be inside doing the ironing in the cool. The poor old garden has taken a beating though with Geoff’s carefully tended “English” lawn (the butt of much merriment from our neighbours) ending up burnt to a crisp and my flowers just shrivelling in the heat. We were glad to see some rain the other day – the first for nearly a month and although it is still really warm and sunny, the temperatures have come back to sensible levels this week. The vegetable garden has gone absolutely crazy – I never want to see another courgette for a very long time - and now we have a glut of tomatoes. The vine is also groaning under the weight of grapes – goodness only knows what I will do with all of those! We have enjoyed eating our first home grown melons this month – and very nice they were too! We have really taken advantage of the good weather and have usually ended each day up at the plan d`eau at Vernet la Varenne, swimming in the lake there. It is really great having this facility only 10 minutes drive away. We usually go about 6pm when most people are starting to leave which means that we can swim and sun ourselves a bit in relative peace and quiet- and it’s free too – a big plus! I really regretted not buying a new swimsuit whilst I was in the UK last month though, as the choice here (in mini heffalump size) was dire! I eventually got one, but it took a lot of searching and cost almost twice as much as the ones I’d seen in the UK. I find that with clothes in general here – they are so much more expensive than in the UK. I could do with a branch of good old McKay’s opening up here really. At least then I’d get stuff that fits and doesn’t break the bank! Another bonus of the good weather was some beautiful clear skies at night which meant that we could indulge (along with our visitors) in some shooting star watching. There is something very relaxing about lying in the garden gazing up at the beautiful starry sky and then experiencing the magical sight of a shooting star. I recommend it highly! August is the month of fetes here and we were pleased to be invited to a mini fete in one of the other hamlets in the commune. The inhabitants of Genestine organised a “soiree des voisins” which was a nice thing to do. Everyone took along something to share food wise and we all enjoyed a balmy evening of good food, chat and music. We also had our big fete in St Etienne sur Usson. This year the organising committee (which includes Geoff if you remember) had decided to ditch the donkey competition (new readers see last Augusts’ blog) and head in a new direction. So we had a vide greniers and an “Intervillages” competition instead. To understand this competition, you have to remember that Intervilles (or It’s a Knockout as it was known in the UK) is still very much alive & well, on French TV. So we had lots of silly games involving lots of water and dressing up being contested by locals from some of the surrounding villages. It was great fun – totally mad – but fun! Fortunately, Geoff was able to avoid being conscripted onto the St Etienne team (I think he was deemed too old!) so he stayed relatively dry and kept all his limbs intact! I say relatively because unfortunately it was about the only wet day in August – it threw it down all morning which was a real shame as it kept a lot of people away and the vide greniers was a washout. However the weather improved a bit in the afternoon and the games went ahead, as did the fireworks and dance at night time so it wasn’t a total disaster. We haven’t managed to get out and about so much this month but we did take advantage of a bit of a lull in the B&B activity this week to go and “play tourist” by visiting some of the “Art& Nature” exhibits which are scattered throughout the Sancy mountains. We had a nice day out and enjoyed seeing these creations which are sited in various places where they could make use of beautiful natural backdrops such as waterfalls or mountain views. My only gripe was that the signs were not always accurate and at one site we ended up doing a very difficult trek up and down a river bank – totally in the wrong direction. I was not amused! It seems that it is the end of summer now. Everything & everybody is gearing up for the rentree (return to school/work). The gite will be empty again next week unfortunately, our summer neighbours (and their dogs) are going home, and Intervilles is finished on the telly! There are some compensations though – the weather is still good, the dog will be able to reclaim Chabanol as his territory, we will have the swimming lake (minus the lifeguard) to ourselves, and we do have some bookings for the B&B in Sept so all is not lost! And, remember if any of you fancy a nice quiet autumn break…..!!

28/07/09 Weddings, washing and work, work, work!

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:59:00 GMT

The last sentence of the previous post has turned out to be so prophetic. We have been working flat out since the beginning of July - great news but exhausting. The gite has been fully occupied since July 2nd as we had a last minute booking from a French family for the only week I had still to sell. The gite more or less takes care of itself though, once the initial changeover work has been done. The chambres d`hotes is where the real work is and that – I am very happy to report - is going very well indeed this year. There is so much washing and ironing to do though as most of our guests stay for only one night – usually to break their journeys from the north of France or Belgium to the south coast or Spain. But I am not complaining – it’s what we came here to do after all. We have also had some lovely guests so far and everyone loves the house, the view and thankfully most of them like the animals too! Bounty and Maisie are coping quite well with all these strange people in their house although Bounty really was not so impressed with the two big Labradors who came to stay last weekend. He got very stressed by them – he’s still not so good around other male dogs - and I think we have more or less decided now that we will not take any more dogs in the B&B until he improves a bit. I really was never that keen on having animals in the bedrooms and now that we are doing quite well with bookings we can afford to turn some people down I think. The family who are in the gite at the moment have just about adopted the animals, who seem to have moved in full time! They come back to our house to sleep and eat occasionally. I only hope the next guests like them as much! So that has dealt with the washing and some of the work bit of the title. The other work is Geoff’s English lessons which continue to take up a lot of his time. By this time last year most people had stopped for the summer but this year, because he has a lot of adult clients, they are just going on and on. Its good, but it does mean that he is becoming quite tired as he helps me a lot with room cleaning etc when we are busy. He has told everyone that he is going to have a break from the lessons in August though so that should help a bit. Fortunately he has already got some new clients waiting to start in September so we don’t feel quite so stressed by the situation as we normally are at this time of the year. And now the weddings! We had a very big wedding in the village in the middle of July. We had rented the gite to the family as Gaelle, the bride, comes from La Reunion and there were lots of family and friends who were coming over to be part of the celebrations. It was a fun weekend with quite a few people coming and going in the gite – I just made up the beds and left them to decide who slept where! Talk about hot bedding! The whole village was involved in one way or another with a mini campsite springing up opposite the couple’s house to cope with the overflow of guests! It was a lovely celebration which lasted for three days – lots of eating and drinking went on! I was glad my daughter was not anywhere near this wedding – she might have started to get ideas! Goodness only knows how much it all cost to feed and lodge all that lot! The other wedding was in the UK. We were invited to the wedding of my son’s best friend from school back in the NE. As it coincided with one of our busiest weekends, it was decided that I would go and take Hazel in Geoff’s place. Good decision – well as far as I was concerned anyway! It was a lovely weekend break for me – I haven’t been away from Chabanol since Christmas – and it was great to be able to spend time with the kids, my mother and my brothers, as well as catching up with some friends at the wedding who I have not seen for a very long time. Poor Geoff was rushed off his feet though! He sent me two very memorable texts – one saying how boring ironing was – there’s a surprise eh? – and the other at 9pm on the Saturday night saying he was totally k*******d and was going to bed! He was very pleased to see me back home I can tell you! I have just realised there is another “W” I missed off the title – Wimbledon! I have really missed watching Wimbers since we moved here, so this year Geoff bought a “digi box” in the sales so that we could get more French terrestrial TV channels including Canal+ - and therefore some tennis coverage….or so we thought anyway! It turned out to be ultra frustrating as the screen said “pas ou mauvais signal” most of the afternoon and then in the evening when we did get a good signal the tennis coverage went off at 7.30pm each night no matter what stage the match was at! One evening Andy Murray’s match was in the 4th game of the 5th set and bang- off we went to a different programme. So not huge success really – but at least now we’ll have a bit more choice of TV channels to watch in the long winter months. We were involved in the village’s annual Petanque competition again this year – which incidentally fell on Wimbers men’s final day – the things I do for this community! Geoff was helping with the organisation this year so I had our friend Jean –Pierre as my partner. I’m pleased to report that he was worse than me! However despite all our sterling efforts, we came in the “lantern rouge” position i.e. last! Oh the shame!! We also did our first stint, as volunteers, in the tourist office in Sauxillanges at the beginning of July. It is great fun doing this and also it gives me a chance to look at all the new tourist bumf, but we have to do it together as I just can’t cope with the telephone enquiries. I still find the phone very difficult, so that is Geoff’s job! A bit more good news to finish with this month – I have sold another painting! My art class has finished for the summer now :( but a friend wanted a present for his wife for their wedding anniversary and chose one of my pictures. I was very proud to see it hanging on their wall when we were there for a meal the other day. Maybe this will be career number four in the future?? Or then again- maybe not!

23/06/09 The start of Summer

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:18:00 GMT

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!

26/05/09 The merry month of May

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:31:00 GMT

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!

27/04/09 New Arrivals

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:13:00 GMT

At last, a bit of time to get the blog up to date. The month started very quietly but has gathered pace towards the end with lots of things taking up my time. The most notable of these is the arrival of a lovely “new” dog, Bounty. We were unbelievably sad when Chester died and the house felt so empty. Geoff still went off for his walks but somehow without a dog it just wasn’t the same. So we started to ask around and visited the local animal refuge. Unfortunately, there were no dogs there which pulled at our heartstrings and we began to think it was too soon after losing Chester to find another dog we could love as much. We even went to look at some puppies which were for sale but Geoff nearly had a coronary when he found out how much a puppy would be! Then, by chance, we saw a notice in the dog grooming parlour in Issoire asking if someone would re-home a dog. We rang up and the next day the lady brought Bounty (pronounced Boonty) to see us (and to see if we were suitable too). He is a beautiful dog, a Breton Spaniel(ish – he’s a bit big to be a thoroughbred), 3 years old and full of energy! The owner obviously liked the look of us and we agreed to try the dog for a week to see if he settled and if we liked him. No problems on either side – he cried a bit the first night but after that he seems as if he has been with us all his life! We had forgotten how lively a young dog is and Geoff has taken him for lots of long walks to try and calm him down. When the owner came back this weekend she said she could see a big difference in him! She lives in a small house, with a tiny garden, 3 small children, has a full time job and just hadn’t been able to walk him enough. She was very happy to give him to us and as soon as his re-adoption papers have been verified he is now ours. There is always some paperwork – this is France after all! It is great having a dog again and he has already wormed his way into our hearts – big softies that we are!

The other new arrival is the kitten! We got a phone call to say that the kittens had been born and went to choose the one we wanted. I had set my heart on having a “marmalade” cat this time as the mother is a lovely orange and white cat, but sods law strikes again as the 3 males were ginger and the lone female is grey, black and white striped! And of course I want a female! Anyway, she (Maisie) is very cute and should be with us in a few weeks time when she is old enough to leave her mum.

I only hope that Bounty likes her – and not to eat either!

We have been out and about a bit this month. When Hazel was here we went to visit the old paper mill near Ambert (Moulin Richard le Bas) and really enjoyed the interesting tour there. We also took advantage of a free entry day and went to look at the Chateau Villeneuve-Lembron which is quite near here. It has amazing interior wall decorations and is well worth a visit. Slowly but surely we are building up our knowledge of the local attractions so that we can tell our visitors about them and these two places will definitely be recommended. We have discovered another new walk near Sauxillanges too which at this time of the year is lovely as it follows a small stream and the birdlife and wild flowers were fantastic when we walked there the other day. Another recommendation! Talking of birdlife – we heard our first cuckoo on April 4^th – and he/she has not stopped calling since then!

On the business front, Geoff is STILL waiting for his agree number from the prefecture in Clermont Ferrand. He has had to supply two extra bits of paperwork (oh how the French love their bits of paper!) and is anxiously watching for the post each day now. He gets very excited when a likely missive arrives only to get very cross when it turns out to be another request for yet more information! He has got another two new private clients for his language lessons though so that is good news.

As for the gite and B&B – we had another lovely family in the gite for a week during the Easter holidays and they had a great week enjoying the countryside. They wrote very nice things about us on the advertising site which was much appreciated. We have a Dutch couple arriving tomorrow for a nights B&B. They are keen to look at the village school in St Etienne sur Usson which was made famous in the film Etre et Avoir. This film was a huge success in France and we often get people wanting to see the school. Then next week we have some friends from Marple visiting us for a few days, and I am really looking forward to showing them around a bit. The summer bookings are going well with the gite now booked for most of July and August. Good news indeed!

The brocant season has started here now with brocant (a mix of car boot sale and antique fair) events most weekends in the surrounding villages. We went to the big brocant event in Sauxillanges a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed looking at all the “precious items” (or tat depending on your viewpoint!) for sale. I am always amazed at the prices the stall holders ask though, which in my opinion are way too high. I have been looking for a statue or something like that to go in a corner of the garden which could do with a bit of a “feature”, and thought I had found just the thing at Sauxillanges. It was a very dilapidated iron cherub, very rusty and sad looking, but I thought, with a lot of work and paint, it would do. Geoff’s face was a picture when he was told the asking price was 100€! Needless to say my garden is still cherub less! I shall continue the search!

The Tupperware party season has also started again much to my horror. How can I convince these lovely ladies here that I DO NOT WANT ANY MORE TUPPERWARE with out offending them! Your suggestions are very welcome – as long as they are polite!

30/03/09 Sadness at Chabanol

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:14:00 GMT

I am writing this today with a very heavy heart as our lovely old dog Chester died on Saturday. He was so much part of our lives here that everything seems very strange at the moment. He was very old, perhaps 17/18 – which in human equivalent years is well over 100 – and had had a very happy life since we got him from a refuge as a way of getting our son to make new friends when we moved house in England. Ironically he started to be ill on the day Matthew and Christine left to return to the UK last week. It was almost as if he had hung on to allow Matthew one last walk with him. Anyway after being poorly for a week or so, we eventually had to take him to the vet on Saturday when we thought he was beginning to suffer. He is now buried in a favourite bit of the garden in which he spent many happy hours…… and we are bereft. It has been many years since we had no pets in our house and I suspect we will not last long before we get another one but at the moment the house and garden seem very empty.

Fortunately, Hazel, (our daughter) has been here for a visit this weekend and so we kept busy taking her out and about a bit. We went up to Super Besse again to let her try skiing. She had had one lesson on a dry ski slope recently and she and Geoff had a private lesson, after which they spent an enjoyable hour or so “zooming” – (well maybe not exactly zooming) – down the nursery slopes. They enjoyed it – I got very wet and cold as the weather was not as kind to them as it had been to Matthew and Christine when we did the same thing with them two weeks earlier! Matthew got quite sunburned the day he tried out the slopes. As both of them really enjoyed the skiing experience, I suspect that they will be back for more. Good news for me! Matthew and Christine also enjoyed their stay with us and it has been a great month for me, seeing all the kids.

Actually Geoff has seen quite a lot of the kids recently as he had a visit to the UK at the end of February. He combined a work trip with his annual Preston North End “shareholders” pilgrimage to watch a match at Deepdale with his old schoolmates. Matthew was there too so all the boys had a good day out – and Preston won too...bonus!

Business wise, we have been quite quiet this month unfortunately. We have had a few more bookings for the summer though which is good news, and had B&B guests last weekend. They were a very sweet couple from Marseille who buy and sell stuff on e-bay. They were here to visit some friends and to purchase a few bits and pieces locally. They were a lovely couple and were perfect guests; leaving the house soon after breakfast and returning (quietly) about 11pm.They even bought me a present from one of their brocant sales which was extremely nice of them.

Geoff has also been busy with his English teaching and has also done a bit of translation work for a local restaurant who wanted their menu translating into English. We struggled with salade de gesiers (chicken gizzard salad) which, although we tried very hard, we couldn’t find any translation to make this attractive to an English palate! He also struggled a bit with some of the French types of steak which don’t have an equivalent in English. But on the whole it was an interesting thing to do. Geoff is trying now to get a number from the French state which allows him to be an "Agree" trainer. This would mean that he could do English lessons for companies, who can then claim the money back from the state. However, like most bureaucratic activities in France, this has been proving somewhat of a nightmare for him. In order for him to get this number he has to send several bits of documentation to the prefecture in Clermont Ferrand and more importantly has to have a signed contract for a course of English lessons from a business. As you can imagine, it was very difficult to get this contract signed, as the business wanted him to have the number so that they can be assured that they will be able to reclaim the money. But, no contract means no number….and so it goes on! He has now been able to persuade a small company in Issoire to sign a contract (having put in several “get out” clauses) and now we are just waiting for his application for the French equivalent of a criminal records check to go through! Sometimes here it feels like you are walking through treacle trying to get these things done.

We haven’t done a lot socially this month really, but we did have one good night here with a couple of friends from the village. The kids bought me a DVD of Mama Mia for Christmas and we thought it would be fun to have a “sing-a-long” Mama Mia evening. It was great fun and even though Evyline and Michel were totally lost during the main bits of the film, they did valiantly try and join in with the singing! I think they thought we were totally mad, mind you!

The other major event this month has been the felling of our tree! We intended to get someone from Issoire to come and chop it down, but when we mentioned this to Bernard, our neighbour, he poured scorn on that idea saying he could have it down in no time! And so he did! He arrived with his truck which he parked in the field behind he tree, attached a cable to take the tension, and chain saw to the fore had the tree down in next to no time! He then helped Geoff to strip the branches and divide the trunk into “burnable” sized pieces and was off! Geoff has cut the trunk and branches into logs which are now drying in our car park and will be ready for burning probably in a year or twos time! A good mornings work all round!

It is now officially spring here in France and the garden is full of violets and primroses and the birds are singing away like mad. I am looking forward now to a bit of sunshine so I can enjoy them to the full. It will be very strange without the dog poddling along beside me but life must go on I suppose.

25/02/09 A mixed bag of news

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:59:00 GMT

February has been a strange sort of month really. The weather has continued to be cold and miserable with some snow falling every week. Even the locals are thoroughly fed up with the long winter now and we are all longing for a bit of spring sunshine. The garden is just beginning to show some signs of life with some of the spring plants daring to stick their heads through the frozen ground at last. The bushes were badly damaged by the heavy snowfalls and we have taken the opportunity to cut a lot of them back – something which needed doing but they do look awful at the moment until they start to sprout again. Fortunately we managed to avoid the terrible storms which hit the south West of France earlier in the month. We got off very lightly – just one very windy night – but it must have been terrible for those poor folk whose houses were so badly damaged by falling trees etc. The gale did make me realise just how close to the house one of our trees is and we have decided to investigate its removal, much as we hate the thought of chopping down trees. We will make use of the wood for firewood and it will allow more light to get to the fruit trees at the side of the house too.

Fortunately, both of the families who have stayed with us during February were in search of some snow! They both enjoyed their visits to Super Besse and got some good skiing done. We were not convinced until this year that we could attract people for the skiing as we are about 50 minutes drive away from the resorts, but both families wanted to be a bit further away and enjoyed the peace and quiet we can offer. Good news! Geoff hasn’t had an opportunity to take to the slopes yet but with some birthday money burning a hole in his pocket now, I suspect he will be there next week when the school holidays are finished. He has to try out the great ski goggles Matthew and Christine bought him for Christmas after all! Methinks that he will look really “chic” in those and his new Buff ( I dare you to look that up on the internet!) on the nursery slopes!

We had a real problem with our fire at the end of January. I banked it up one night before going out, and set the chimney alight apparently. Our neighbours took great delight in telling us all sorts of lurid tales about the damage that we could have done, but all seemed well for the next couple of nights so we were not really worried. We had had the chimney swept last year so we thought we would be OK. Not so..two nights later we had terrible problems with smoke belching back into the living room and this continued for several days. Not using the fire is just not an option here in winter so in the end we had to seek the help of Bernard our neighbour who dismantled the pipe which goes up the chimney, removed the offending rubbish which was causing the blockage and then reassembled the whole thing again. All fixed! What a boon to have nice helpful knowledgeable friends like that. We were dreading having to pay a big bill to get it sorted. The dog was also relieved to have a smokeless sitting room again!

I am very pleased to report that our long awaited signs for Les Hirondelles are now in place. We have done rather well, really, as we have a sign in St Etienne sur Usson, another by the turning at Sauxillanges and two at the end of our road so they are visible for people arriving from each direction. Very smart they are too – although they only show us as a B&B location rather that a gite and B&B. However I am not going to complain – it has taken them 18 months to arrive after all! We were going to remove our home made sign at the end of the road and relocate it in the hamlet itself but the very kind council blokes have cemented it in place! Typical!

Another good and totally unexpected thing that happened this month was the return of some of the stuff we had stolen in Marseilles at the end of our holiday in November. We got a phone call from the Marie one morning to say that it had been delivered there and would we come and collect it. We got the jackets (including Geoff’s beloved old leather jacket) and the rucksack back complete with toiletries, my holiday diary, books, etc. which was good. Of course all the saleable stuff had disappeared so there was no camera, Blackberry or binoculars but we were really pleased to get some of our belongings back. Geoff sent a letter to the policeman in Marseilles who had been so nice to us to say thank you – I bet he doesn’t get many of those kinds of letters!

Socially this month we have been quite busy once again. We went to the annual Foire de St Paule in Issoire and also enjoyed the meal with my Red Cross friends there. I avoided the traditional tripe as usual and even Geoff decided this year to forego his tripe breakfast invitation from our friend Phillipe. He did eat it at lunchtime though! Ugh! We also attended the round of Gallette de Roi meetings which are prevalent here in January including that of the Croix Rouge. This turned into a sort of impromptu concert as some of the ladies and gents “did a turn” – singing, telling jokes etc. Before I could stop him, my darling husband informed the gathering that I was a very good singer and much to my horror I found myself being volunteered to sing something! Goodness only knows what the assembled gathering made of the Northumberland folk songs which I managed to warble my way through but I was given a rousing ovation at the end of them and have been told so many times since what a wonderful voice I have, which is very gratifying seeing as how I haven’t sung anything in public for many years!

We went to another of Liliane`s evenings the other night at the restored bread oven in St Etienne sur Usson. It was a good evening and Jean Pierre and Phillipe were on good form as they explained with the help of a power point presentation, how they had gone about rebuilding the ruined four. It was very interesting – as was the food which emerged from the oven when the talking had stopped!

Geoff has been kept busy with his English teaching too. He now has several private clients whose ages range from 13 to 65! He has been teaching a very interesting elderly lady who wanted to improve her English before she undertook a trip to India and Nepal to visit the children she sponsors. She is there now, hopefully staying in the monastery accommodation which Geoff helped her to sort out! We are really looking forward to hearing her stories on her return. The Café Anglais is still going – but it struggles at times. We just get a good group of people coming regularly and then they disappear for no good reason! It’s very frustrating!

Another good thing which has happened on the English teaching front is that we have our first booking for a three day intensive course using the B&B accommodation. It was supposed to happen at the beginning of February but had to be postponed as the guy had to go away on business unexpectedly. Hopefully it will go ahead next weekend.

It is just as well that the English teaching is going quite well, as Geoff’s consultancy work is not really flourishing just now. It is a struggle to find new clients here and the financial climate at the moment is definitely not helping. We always knew when we came here that the B&B and gite would not make enough money to support us and that Geoff would have to work. He seems to have found a real affinity for the teaching thank goodness and hopefully that side of his business will grow even more. We would really like to do more residential courses – we do have the accommodation after all!

I am looking forward to the visits of the children who are coming out to stay in March. Matthew and Christine are coming in the middle of the month and Hazel is hoping to tag a visit on to a “work” trip to Nice at the end of March. Those of you, who know my son, will not be surprised to hear that he has only just managed to inform me that their plane gets into Limoges at 9am when they arrive! Remember it’s a three and a half hour drive from here to Limoges..and guess who is picking them up? It’s a good job that I love them!

21/01/09 Brrrrr.....

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:02:00 GMT

Firstly let me wish you all a belated Happy New Year. This month seems to be flying by – I can’t believe it’s the 21^st already. It seems like only yesterday that we were in the UK spending Christmas with the family. We came back here for New Year as we had a “changeover” to do in the gite to get it ready for our New Year visitors. Both our Christmas and New Year guests enjoyed their stays – if not the weather which was a bit raw and cold. In fact the whole month has been cold really. The garden has been in a state of permafrost for ages but fortunately we are beginning to see a bit of a thaw now. The excessively low temperatures has meant that our fire has been on all day, every day – making quite a dent in our woodpile, much to Geoff’s dismay. Don’t get me wrong – we have plenty wood, he just hates to use it!!

We had a nice Christmas “back home” and enjoyed seeing the family again. Our trips to and from the UK went smoothly and we rediscovered the delights of going by boat again this year as the tunnel fares have gone through the roof recently. We took Chester (the dog) with us and he coped well with the ferry crossing – if not with getting in and out of the car. He is quite ancient now and can no longer hop in and out of the boot with ease. We got some very strange looks when we stopped for a break anywhere and produced our old Safeway plastic box for him to use as a step up! It worked though, but I think his days of doing long trips in the car are more or less over now.

We arrived back home in the depths of the cold spell and it took ages to get the house feeling cosy again. We had obviously been spoiled by staying in draught free centrally heated houses! Doesn’t everyone put curtains up at doors these days to keep the draughts out??? We didn’t help ourselves by going to the “do” in the village hall, the day we got back. The Marie and the Amicale Laique had joined forces to put on a film show for the inhabitants, however watching penguins dancing on ice (it was “Happy Feet”) in a glacial village hall with freezing temperatures outside was not a good way to warm up really!

Another brilliant idea of ours was to go for a walk on New Years day. We decided to go and explore a lake we had been told about just south of Clermont Ferrand. Unfortunately, as we got nearer to this lake we began to experience what the kids call the “Lake District Trip Factor” setting in. This refers to the many trips we did with the various exchange students who stayed with us, where we always took them to the lakes for a day trip out. And it was always in thick fog or driving rain. Our pointing out the “beautiful views” always brought puzzled looks from the unfortunate students and gales of laughter from our kids! Back to our trip to Lac Audyat.. it was impossible to see the lake (thick fog)and what we could see was frozen solid! It was also very, very cold. A good day out – not! However we will return as it did seem as if it was nice – if only we had been able to see it!

I also persuaded Geoff to come with me to the sales the other day. The sales here are different to those in the UK in that they are not quite so aggressive, don’t start until the second week in January and last for a definite short period only. We did manage to get a few bits and pieces but were not really inspired much. Geoff was very pleased as he has great difficulty in opening his wallet to buy anything these days! We did take the opportunity, having driven to Clermont Ferrand, to go the cinema though – a rare treat now that the cinema which used to show the majority of VO-STF (original version i.e. in English with French sub titles) films has been demolished. It made a nice change to watch something in English although we both found ourselves reading the subtitles which was annoying!

Some exciting news now – we have some new neighbours in Chabanol! A young couple have bought one of the holiday houses and are going to live here full time. The house was owned by a lovely old couple, M and Mme T. Unfortunately Mr T. has Alzheimer’s and they were finding it impossible to cope here. The couple who have bought the house (Rachel and Benjamin) are really excited at the prospect of living in the countryside with their two dogs. They have been working very hard to modernise the house which was a bit dilapidated and hope to move in, in February/March depending on how the work goes. It’s great for us to have more people living in the hamlet and they seem a lovely couple. I have to say that Chester is not so delighted at the prospect of their Dalmatian dog muscling in on his territory but he will have to get used to it!

I have been working hard during this quiet time for the gite and B&B, to try and get our advertising up to date. I have decided to ditch some of the sites we were on and try out new ones which seem to work for other people round here. Our aim is to try and get more British guests in the gite, and this has been the main thrust of my targeting this year. However, I’m not sure if it will work due to the terrible exchange rate just now. In some ways I am pleased that we are able to attract so many French people to stay as the way the French Government supports and helps families to have holidays also helps us! We already have a couple of bookings for the new season so we are off and running I am pleased to say. Anyway we will see if my new strategies pay off in the next few weeks.

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

hazmattmum@merseymail.com — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:51:00 GMT

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.