It’s been a long winter this year, with the very low temperatures leaving a trail of damaged vegetation all over the area. Even some long established hedges have perished, and we wait to see how many of our plants will recover. But the last few days have been lovely, with temperatures in the afternoon up to 16 degrees and not a cloud to be seen. Pity we have been working inside! Today though, we had a lovely bikeride with the club, and the crocuses are in  full bloom together with the celendines. We saw an impressive flight of migrating cranes a couple of days ago, and I was woken by the dawn chorus yesterday. The skylarks are singing and the first butterflies are fluttering by. All in all an exciting time of the year, but all our cycling friends are warning us that there is still bad weather to come -there is a French equivalent of “don’t cast a clout till May is out”, but I can’t remember what it is and the month referred to is April!

 

We haven’t written much about our work on our barns of late. There’s a good reason – there’s not too much of interest to report! I’ve been rattling through the rooms with the paint roller, and Roger continues to lay tiles – thousands of the bloomin’ things!

The painting of the first barn (suppose I should be calling it a gite now – doesn’t look much like a barn any more) has now come to an end. Here’s one of the finished rooms…

And here’s the mezzanine – at some 6 metres high it was not the easiest bit to paint!

This week I’ve moved over the courtyard to ‘Le Potager’ as our smaller gite is called and have painted the kitchen (the kitchen itself is notable by its absence!)..

Boudie, meanwhile, has found a nice comfy spot from which she can watch us both work – and offer the odd bark of encouragement….

In fact I think at that moment she had just been asking Roger for a bit more application  in his grouting!

So all in all things are moving along nicely. Still plenty to do – but we’re on target to be hiring out our gites by the end of May. All we need now is a few customers…any takers?

We had our annual cycling club luncheon today. A good do, although in the musty back room of a nearby hotel, which some of the locals remember as a  hotspot for dancing when they were young. The meal ambled along over several hours, and as a keen observer of my fellow humans, I suddenly noticed that all the French men part their hair on the left side. Some of them have extra wide shiny partings, granted, but those with a good old Barnet Fair are all gauchists. My hair is parted on the right side, and on looking at some photos of English chums they seem to too. I think my dad told me that the left side is only for girls.

Anyway, have I stumbled upon another inbred difference between us and my new compatriots? Incidentally it appears that the French don’t have a word for “parting” of the hair-is that significant as well? Further research will be done.

The extreme cold has finally subsided (thankfully). Today it was a positively balmy 8 degrees! The snow has all melted and we can assess the damage caused by 2 weeks of minus 10 or so on the garden. Obviously there’s not too much in it at the moment, but we did plant our garlic and broad beans back in November and both were growing well. We weren’t too sure how the beans would cope with the cold, so we covered them with fleece. Then it snowed, and we were worried the weight of the snow on the fleece would crush the beans, so we took it off. Then it got really cold and the beans were the only things without a snow covering to protect them, so we covered them again. Then it snowed… We’d pretty much written them off, but when I took off the fleece today they looked a bit squashed, but otherwise not too bad….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pity the same can’t be said for the poor artichoke…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a splendid thing – the best for miles around. It would seem, however, that the thing to do was to cut it back and cover it with straw. Perhaps it might recover?

Changing the subject, we’ve made some great friends since we have been here and on Sunday it was the occasion to invite some of them around for lunch. Now we know that our french friends like to dress up, so we made the theme ‘British’ and invited them to turn up as Brits. I’d acquired the ‘Jubilee’ bunting/tablecloth/napkins kit and all was set. It seems that they were a bit stumped by the theme however, and only Annick came in costume – as Lady Di (or Lady Dee as it is pronounced here), even if the menfolk proceeded to call her Princess Margaret all afternoon. Anyway, here she is looking regal at the end of the table…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we’ve got the hang of these things now. Lunch can go on a bit. Everyone said they would bring something along, so we began with lots of delicious nibbles with the aperitif, followed by foie gras, smoked salmon, wild mushroom tart, leg of lamb, various cheeses and about 7 desserts! Interspersed with various games, a walk in the snow and lots of laughing lunch drew to a close shortly after 9.30 pm! A fine afternoon was had by all.

They really are smaller in France! I have made a detailed daily study since we have been here and there is no doubt in my mind. They are still very attractive, very mobile and sometimes more coloured than in UK. One of my greatest pleasures is watching them bouncing around outside.

The other birds are also enjoying the food we put out for them. I have been a bit disappointed by the relative lack of variety here, but on looking into one of our hazel trees recently there was the first nuthatch I have seen, with also one starling, one robin, one bluetit, one blackbird, one dunnock and a sparrow-talk about birds in a bush!

Before Christmas and even into January when we were enjoying unseasonally warm weather and the local wildlife and plant life was lulled into a false sense of security, some of the locals kept warning us that it was just like 1956 and from the beginning of february we’d be in for a very hard cold snap. They’re clever, these locals! Our plumber reported his car showing -20 deg C the other morning. The official low seems to be -17 – still bloomin’ freezing! It would seem though that 1956 was the coldest winter on record across Europe and the second coldest in France – and it went on until May! In fact I’ve been getting a bit worried about our livestock, but it seems goats are hardy things and as long as they have plenty to eat and a shelter from the wind they are OK. Here they are tucking into some hay, whilst Boudie helps lick clean their feeding tray…

The chickens don’t like the snow on their feet, so have sought refuge in their house this week, but little by little are plucking up courage. Mind you, they are still laying – we’ve been getting 2-3 eggs a day all though the winter.

Anyway, back to 1956. If the weather is following the same patterns as then, I wondered if other events would be replicated. There were elections in the US that year – the Republicans won in the shape of Eisenhower. Maybe Romney has a chance after all? In Italy, 52 people died as a passenger liner collided with another ship off an island… Elvis made his first appearance….will the King be reborn this year? The first hard disk (5MB) was invented by IMB….and the first black and white portable TV sets hit the market. Hmm, perhaps things have moved on a little since then! And of course I went to the football league tables to see how the Boro had got on in 1956. Perhaps promotion then would signal a return to the top flight this year?? Oh well, 14th in the old second division. Probably about right…

We are lucky enough to have a daily bread delivery from a local boulangerie in nearby Descartes – there is nothing quite like a fresh baguette or pain with your cheese or pate for lunch! In the 20 ish months that we have been here, we have never failed to have a delivery whatever the weather. But when we looked out of the window this morning and saw a thick covering of snow and still heavy snowfall, we assumed this would be the first. We usually go to the market in Descartes on a Sunday and meet up with friends in the cafe, so decided we wouldn’t break our habit this morning, though would walk the 6 or so kilometers up and over the hill and through the woods. It was bracing, but a beautiful walk. On our arrival we spotted the boulangerie van parked up, which confirmed our earlier thought. But no! Standing on the corner was the lady who drives the van, with a a big sack of bread. She explained that she had returned for extra supplies and was just on her way to Maziere (our hamlet) and was waiting for the ‘snow vehicle’. Oh, how sensible, a 4×4, we thought. Then we saw the battered old Renault Express pull up for Madame to get in and slither up the road to our place to deliver our bread! That’s dedication for you!

As Roger would say, it is most definitely ‘taters in the mould’ this week! A friend reported his overnight thermometer had recorded -19 degrees C. Chez nous it was more like -10, but that is quite cold enough for me. The daytime temp is struggling to get above -6 …hence our arctic workwear….

Seems a far cry from the picture below…

We’ve been hoping for a cold spell for a little while, but that’s probably enough now – roll on spring!

Actually, the picture of Roger the handyman, taken back in the autumn was our first day of plasterboarding in the second gite. Today was our final day (we hope) as the staircase has been put in this week (well, almost)…

The plasterers are coming next week to plaster the joints in the plasterboard, so it will be ready to paint and tile. Speaking of which, the painting and tiling in Gite A has moved on apace this week despite the winter chill. We have a few heaters and the insulation appears to be doing its job! When I was young, for some reason I wanted to live in Greenland. Thank goodness I saw the light and moved to France!

We went to another of our dancing club do’s on Saturday. It was a bit slow with lousy music, but the food was, as usual, excellent, and our dancing has progressed to a basic quickstep. The “prof”, our instructor, is adamant that we English should find it simple, as it is much easier to say “slow, slow, quick quick slow than  ”lente, lente, vite vite lente. Now I can’t talk and dance at the best of times, so the only thing that went “slow” was my progress. Never mind, Kath’s lower leg injuries will heal in time. The evening was also distinguished by a feeling of deja vu. Last year we had little turns of singing and joke telling by club members, and we were keen to hear this years offerings. Sure enough, Michel of black pudding fame gave a rendering of his usual songs, to be followed by Gerard with his usual song, and then three of the ladies got up in turn to tell their usual jokes!! Even I can understand the punch lines now, but they all seemed to get the same laughs, so we guess it is yet another French peculiarity that all party pieces must be repeated at regular intervals!

Well winter is here at last. When we arrived at St Remy, we were told that snow is a rarity. This is our third year and the third year of snow! Very pretty but enough to freeze the boules off a singe de cuivre.

The building work is going well. The trouble and strife is busily painting upstairs, and the floor tiling is going well now that I have sussed out how to grout rapidly. Only another couple of hectares of floor to do now. The placo is now all but finished and I am onto my eleventh box of a thousand screws. As an old chum remarked ” you haven’t done as much screwing since medical school”!!

Who said you can’t teach old dogs new tricks? Roger has taken to tiling like a duck to water. To be fair, he has learned it all himself, largely with the aid of YouTube, which is proving extremely useful to help us learn new skills. Here he is in action in one of the bedrooms…

He started in the ‘low risk’ areas, so the downstairs loo, wash basin and under the stairs cupboard are now complete…

Meanwhile, my painting duties continue. After trying several french paints (and seeing some of the prices!), I have to confess to having ordered 90 litres from a UK company that specialises in shipping paint to Brits in France – and have saved several hundred Euros into the bargain. I can’t really work out a) why French paint is so expensive and b) why it is so rubbish. They may be good at many things, but paint is certainly not a french forte! Anyway, I’ve taken a break from the walls and ceilings to tackle the shutters…

Can’t wait to get back to the walls and ceilings! The only worry for the coming week is that winter is finally going to arrive. Sub-zero temperatures are not ideal for painting or tiling….