30/04/24… J’aime St Aygulf in Avril…mais

Bonjour mes amis…as you can no doubt guess we are here in St Aygulf for our annual April visit and we are enjoying it very much, but it is not as warm or as dry as we had hoped for. We are still managing to do lots of stuff though and we have now spent a good three weeks relaxing and pottering about. Unfortunately, we have not done a lot of swimming though…it is a bit chilly and the sea is definitely not warm! I am getting ahead of myself though so let’s go back to the start of the month, when we were still in Carlisle.

The first week of April passed by quite quickly, as we got things sorted ready for our departure for France. Geoff was not feeling too good at the beginning of the week, but rallied enough for us to go out for lunch on the Wednesday as usual. We tried a new venue this time…The Duke of Cumberland in Castle Currock…and wondered why we hadn’t been there before now as the food & the place were really lovely. It has now been added to our list for a return visit! The weather (which unfortunately looks like being a dominant topic throughout this blog post) was not behaving at all and we were really looking forward to departing for France and hopefully some warmer days. Geoff was hoping to get Hazel’s lawn cut before we left, but as it resembled a small pond in places that was never going to happen ☹

We left on the 9^th April, catching the train as usual to Edinburgh and with me wearing my usual travelling footwear of sandals, which were looking a little silly in the rain! The train was delayed for almost an hour (due to the weather) but this was not a problem as we had left plenty of time to get to the airport…where our plane was also delayed by an hour and a half. Consequently, it was quite late by the time we got to Nice. However, it was nice to feel some warmth as we got off the plane and headed across the road to the hotel, where we spent the night. The next day we headed back to the airport where we caught the bus along to Frejus…and guess what? That was also delayed, due to a bad accident on the autoroute (quickly cleared as is the French way of keeping the roads open) and we arrived at the flat a bit later than planned but we were not really bothered by that. The flat was OK and happily there was no signs of any more damage from the leak. We did a bit of emergency shopping and then had a little walk to inspect the sea as is our habit!

That first week here passed with us doing very little really. We did have a couple of visits to the beach and even managed a very quick swim…but the water was really cold. Geoff was braver than me and did return for a couple of dips but I wasn’t tempted! Geoff also spent some time sorting out all the inspections we needed to have done to sort out this blessed leak. I am always so pleased he speaks good French! The first of these inspections (for the buildings agency) happened on the Thursday and was quick and efficient…apart from the fact that the guy couldn’t access the roof where he thought the problem lies. The second one was organised by our insurance company (AXA) and again was very efficient. This guy arrived on his motorbike (he reckoned it was easier to dodge the traffic problems here on that) and he brought a drone (exciting or what??) which took photos of the roof joint which is where both guys think there is a problem. We think now that our part in all this is more or les done and it is now up to both these agencies to fix the problem. We were relieved though to be told that there was little evidence of further water infiltration and that our bathroom ceiling was dry. We have been very impressed by the willingness of both agencies to do something…much more quickly than what we hear happens in the UK. Whether that “something“ actually gets done remains to be seen though!

As the weather has not really been tempting us to hit the beach much, we have done a lot of relaxing on the balcony where we can shelter from the wind, and pottering around in Sylvie car. Geoff took her for a much overdue service and came back a lot lighter in the wallet area, but with a grin on his face as the “garagiste” told him she was a good little car and we should hang onto her for as long as possible. We have enjoyed a couple of nice events in Frejus on Saturday mornings, the first of which was a “green” eco event with animals, vintage tractor parades (not much eco about all those diesel fumes I can tell you!) and lots of activities for children which our little one would have loved. The second one was an artistic event, with many local artists displaying their wares in the streets…which I loved.  Geoff has also recommenced playing pickleball with the group of friends he likes, near here. He reports that they are more competitive that the group he plays with in Carlisle and comes back from these sessions pretty worn out! Another day, we discovered an extremely good and very large vide greniers in Roquebrune which I loved. Geoff’s face fell several miles when he saw the extent of it! It was really good and for once the prices demanded by the stall holders were not astronomical and so I came home with two lovely vases (I only wanted one of course!) as the prices were good. I have since discovered that this is a weekly event…someone here was not happy to see that!

We have also met up with some friends too. Last week we were delighted that a couple we first met when we were all house hunting in the Auvergne many years ago, came to see us whilst they were spending a few days near here. It was lovely to see them again and we spent a lovely day together…with Pierre dragging Geoff off for a swim. Pierre swims in the high-altitude lakes of the Auvergne so does not mind cold water…Geoff was not so keen but went all the same! Cally and I declined and had a walk instead! We took them to eat at our favourite bistro in Les Issambres (Bisto d’Antre potes) which was, as always, a good choice! It was though a really nice catch up for us all and we were a little surprised that the baby they had with them when we first met, is now 19 years old! Time flies eh?

We spent a lovely evening with our friend Gisele who lives in St Raphael and also enjoyed hearing all her news. These evenings are great for us all as she likes to speak English and Geoff enjoys encouraging her (and correcting her -which she asks him to do!). We were really pleased too to be able to put her in contact with one of our U3A French speaking group, who is wanting to do some French/English speaking practice via the internet. It is also interesting talking to Gisele to get the French thoughts of national news stories as well as French politics! Always a fun topic! On our way home from Gisele’s in the dark we saw a huge sanglier (wild boar) calmly crossing the road in Frejus, to reach a grassy bit of garden! Now, when we lived in the Auvergne, sangliers were often out and about but here in the middle of a town was a bit of a surprise! I thought I was seeing things!

We met another friend in Biot (another new place for us too) last week for coffee which turned into lunch as we all got on so well. Julia is a fairly recent friend of mine on Twitter…(sorry X!) and as she lives near here I had suggested we meet up! My children always tell me I shouldn’t arrange to meet up with people I befriend on the internet but don’t really know …but so far, all these tweetups have been good! Julia has lived here for a long time and it was nice to meet her and spend time with her. She had lots of good interesting insights into the area and life around here. As she has an elderly mother back in England with many health and social care problems …much the same as we went through with both our mothers …we were able to give her the benefit of many of our experiences in that field. I suspect we will repeat this meet up again as we all really enjoyed it.

As I have said above, the weather has continued to thwart many of the things we usually do here so taking little trips to nearby places has become the norm this time. We had a nice morning looking around St Raphael one day (and visiting Monoprix – always a treat for me!), and we have explored the big out-of-town commercial shopping areas a bit more too, revisiting shops like Kiabi (cheap clothes to top up our wardrobe here!) and Casa (a much beloved home living shop which I always loved in Clermont Ferrand). Apart from the prices of stuff (hugely expensive at times to our English eyes) nothing much seems to have changed. We did however discover a great new place tucked away in this area, La village des Talents Creatifs …right up my street that! It was small but really nice with little shops selling arty stuff, second hand clothes (talk about home from home there eh?) nice jewellery, arty furniture made out of driftwood, cafes, restaurants etc, etc. Lots of workshops done there too – especially for children. Most unusual of all was the discovery of a Cave sans alcohol! Now, if you had told us such a thing would ever exist in France a few years ago, we would not have believed you! As many of you will know, I have been TT all my life (I was brought up in a temperance family) and finding anything interesting to drink sans alcohol was always a struggle when we lived in France. And here was a whole shop selling alcohol free wine, fizz, beers, and aperitif drinks!!! I was in happy heaven and did stock up on a few goodies as you can imagine!

One of our other trips out one day, was to take a picnic and to explore the Massif des Maures which is a range of high ground a bit further west of here. We drove through some interesting countryside – the area is well known for its chataigne (sweet chestnut) trees…and the manufacture of Marrons Glaces, the delicacies much loved by the French especially at Christmas. We made poor Sylvie car struggle up a very steep windy road through woods with sheer drops on one side, to a well-known place, where there was a sanctuary church (dedicated to Notre Dame Des Anges – Our Lady of the Angels). I must admit I felt at times we might meet some angels a bit prematurely, on that road! It was a lovely place to picnic though when we got there, with fantastic views and a beautiful little church which is part of a small monastery with five friars in residence. It was surrounded by beautiful wild flowers, mainly wild lavender and rock roses and lots of butterflies and bees in evidence. Lovely 😊

Last weekend we decided to do one of our overnight trips in order to go and look at Cassis, which is not far from Marseille. Now those of you who have been following my blogs for a long time will know that I really dislike Marseille and have never felt safe there or thereabouts since we were once carjacked there when coming back from a cruise. However, we both wanted to see Cassis as several people had told us how nice it was. We drove there on Sunday, choosing to take the “scenic route“ and avoid the autoroute if we could. Cassis was indeed very pretty and we really enjoyed pottering around the port and eating at one of the lovely fish restaurants dotted around the harbour. We then headed off to La Ciotat (opposite direction to Marseille!) where we stayed in a quite expensive hotel…which was a bit of a disappointment if truth be told. Our room was quite small and the bathroom was tiny. The terrace was surrounded by high walls so we could not see anything from it! Also being asked to cough up almost 10 euros extra to park in the hotel car park did not endear me to this place. We often find hotels and accommodation quite expensive in the UK now but this one really made our eyes water! We really gave our BandB guests a very good deal when compared to this place! Never mind…we did enjoy a bit of a walk round the old port…but again we were not really taken with that either as one side of it (the side which does not appear in the photos) was a ship (or large yacht as it is now) building yard! The next morning we set off quite early and drove mostly along the coast all the way back to St Aygulf. We did detour a bit to climb up to a viewpoint overlooking Toulon and again to eat out picnic on the little beach we like just outside Lavandou. This beach is always very quiet when we visit and we enjoyed having a bit of a sit in the sunshine (yes I did say sunshine at last!) We both had a paddle and Geoff had a play in the sand as always! We also had the pleasure at long last of driving home after that with Sylvie car’s lid down…fantastic 😊

As many of you will know I love all things nature wise…wild flowers, animals, butterflies and birds. One of the things I have always loved about living in France is the variety of wild flowers you see here…some of which you also see in the UK but others not so much. Here in the south of France there are some stunning Mediterranean species growing in abundance on the rocks at the coast and up in the hills. Several of these plants such as the butterfly lavender & a lot of the succulents, I have paid good money for in UK garden centres and here they grow wild all over! It is also poppy time here and I love to see the roadsides and in fact often fields of beautiful red carpets of those. The butterflies here are just beginning to appear en masse too. We don’t see a vast variety of birds here at the coast …mainly seagulls, pigeons and the odd parakeet. But we have been receiving daily visits to the balcony rail of a pretty ring collared dove. But the most exciting of all at the moment are the evening ariel ballets of migrating swifts who swoop and dart about feeding on whatever insects they can catch, obviously filling up, before the next stage of their migration. We love watching them. Oh, and we seem to have a whole bunch of odd-looking birds perching on neighbour’s balcony rails just now. These are of the metal and plastic variety and are not so pleasing to the eye. In fact, the two owls with the swivelling heads on the balcony across for us are downright creepy! I keep hoping that one of the big gulls will attack them and knock them off their perches!

And so we arrive at the last day in April. May 1^st is a public holiday here and I am looking forward to getting some muguet (lily of the valley) as is the tradition in France. It has been a long time since I got that as it is hard to find in the UK at this time. Geoff is also off to talk to a notaire (solicitor) today to make sure that we have all aspects of our French property covered in our new UK wills. When we did all this previously, we were full time residents in France and so we are not entirely sure what we need to change now that we live in the UK again. Then it will be time to sort out the flat for our departure next Friday. Time seems to have gone very quickly this trip…but we still have a few days left and maybe, just maybe a few swims at last if the weather stays nice. Fingers crossed!

A bientot mes amis…

31/03/2024 Marching on….

Happy Easter …Joyeux Paques …to you all. We realised today that this is the first time in many years that we have been in the UK for Easter Day, as we are normally in France. It was really nice this morning to go to our own church here to celebrate, sing some rousing Easter hymns, and help to decorate the beautiful symbolic floral cross which will now be placed outside the church for all to see. It is nice too to eat a bit of chocolate…although I am missing all the wonderful chocolate creations we used to get in France. Not many tortoises or fish here!

Normally I comment on how quickly February goes by but this year this comment has definitely applied much more to March. I know it’s a sign of getting older but frankly, this month has flown by. Maybe it’s the thought that we are off back to France again in a week’s time…who knows?? We have been fairly busy this month but in a strangely low-key way … for us anyway. There have been some things which have made us think and some things to celebrate too.

We started the month off by being very pleased to receive a photo from our old neighbours back in Chabanol which showed the new street name plaque for the little road up to our old house. As most of you (especially those of you in France) will know, all streets in even the smallest villages and hamlets in the countryside now have to have a street name. We were thrilled that they have named our little road “Impasse des Hirondelles”, Les Hirondelles being the name we gave to our house and B and B business when we first started our lives in France. What an honour that our legacy still lives on 😊

The next weekend saw us travelling down the M6 (my favourite motorway…not!) to Preston to meet up with all the gang at the Fleece for lunch, prior to Geoff’s old school friends going off to Deepdale for the Preston North End match. This year our family attendees were a bit depleted as both Hazel and Matthew had double booked the date and had other things to do. However, it was good to see all our friends…especially Betty who still loves to come and see everyone. Betty will celebrate her 100^th birthday in July and it is always great to see her looking so well too 😊 After lunch, as the guys and gals who were going to the match departed, I drove off to Southport for a reunion of my own with a long-awaited meet up with a friend from my childhood. When I was about 7 years old, my parents started to take a holiday in a farmhouse (bed, breakfast and evening meal!) near Castle Douglas and we returned there every year for many years, as we all got on so well with John, Jessie and the girls who lived there. My brothers made friends with the older girls and I struck up a friendship with Jennifer, the youngest. We have kept in touch off and on for all these years but actually meeting up in person has been a long time coming. However, since Jennifer now lives in Southport, I thought it was time to rectify this and we spent a great afternoon chatting and reminiscing, until it was time to head back to Preston to collect Geoff and drive home. I think this might be a regular meet up in the future now when the boys go to the match 😊

I had a nice Mother’s Day and was really pleased to get some good gifts and cards from the kids…not to mention being treated to dinner at Hazel’s in the evening. Matthew had bought me a jigsaw board, as I had really enjoyed doing some of Susie’s jigsaw the last time we were at their house. I have always loved doing jigsaws, but had given all of mine away as our flat here is very dark and it was very inconvenient having to use our dining table to do them. However, this board makes all things possible again…so it was off to the charity shop the next day to re-stock! And since then, jigsaw solving has begun to take over my life again! Great fun though 😊

One of the big events this month was my participation in the Carlisle and District Music and Drama festival again. I had started with a very nasty cold over the weekend before the night my classes were due, so I was a little worried my voice might not last out, but all was OK on the night and I won all the poetry and bible reading classes I had entered, so I was very pleased. I was also awarded a prestigious trophy for best overall performance in those classes too which was very humbling. I have found places for all the trophies but am not looking forward to having to get them all engraved! It will cost me a fortune! 

We have also continued to lunch out each Wednesday as usual. We had a very wet visit to the Lakes one day and sat watching the torrential rain come down in the Wordsworth Hotel in Grasmere while we ate lunch! We had a very nice lunch in Jacks Surf Bar at Allonby one week too…although our wait for our food was a little long as it turned out that the poor chef had dropped Geoff’s carefully prepared dish as he took it out of the oven and had had to start all over again! These things happen, don’t they? That day we also enjoyed a nice walk on the beach…but were not as impressed by the grey sea of the Solway as we are by the blue sea of the Med! We also enjoyed a nice lunch with our friends Mike and Linda at Hidden River where we caught up with all their news from their latest trip to Australia. Linda and I are really missing our swimming sessions and chats now, but our schedules are just not coinciding much at the moment.

We have been doing a bit of dog sitting too, for Hazel and Phil, as they have been going down to Somerset a bit more than usual due to Phil fulfilling his duties as Best Man at a friend’s wedding. Geoff is missing all the dog walks just now as Xena has gone off on her holidays with them for a fortnight. He is still going out for a walk…but says it is not the same, sans dog!

Last Monday, Geoff and I drove across to Durham for the night, where we met up with two of my friends who, many years ago, I did my midwifery training with in Edinburgh. I do see Rose quite a bit but I haven’t seen Madeleine for a very long time. She lives in London and is heavily involved in promoting and working as a volunteer for The English Touring Opera and as they were performing in Durham that night, she had invited us all to go to the opera with her…and also of course spend some time together. I have to say at this point that I really do not like opera, but as Madeleine was paying for the tickets. it would have been churlish not to go! Geoff was very excited as he DOES like opera! Meeting up with the ladies was great…but the opera was not! I hated every minute! However it was an experience….I shall say no more! Although the meetup was brief, it was lovely to see Rose and Madeleine again and also great to be back in Durham, a place I love and have many memories of visiting both as a child and as an adult. I am the daughter of a Durham coal miner after all!

One of the other things we have turned our attentions to this month, is sorting out and updating our wills as the ones we have, do not reflect our changed circumstances now. We now reside full time in the UK and have grandchildren…big changes since we drew up the wills originally. We have more or less sorted things out now, but there are things to re-check with a notaire when we are back in France. We do have a “sort of” French will which was drawn up when we lived full time in France, but again that needs looking at again now, so that we cover our French property etc. There is nothing more sobering than drawing up a will is there? It’s a clear sign of our mortality and has made us really think hard about the fact that we are getting older! Lots of food for thought there!

We ended the month with a lovely day yesterday meeting up with our son Matthew, Susie, Ethan and Hadley. We went to Penrith to do a bit of shopping, have some lunch and then we went to Brougham Castle and Brougham Hall for a look around and have coffee…and cake too of course! We had never visited either of these places before and we really enjoyed them both. I think we will be going back!

So, my friends, on that happy note I will close for now. We are off to our lovely bolthole in St Aygulf next week for a month, so I have lots to do before we go. Geoff has been busy sorting out visits from the agency who look after our flat building and our insurers following the little leak from the roof that we had, when we were there last; and booking the car in for a service etc, so it looks like we might be busy, but I’m sure there will be lots of time to relax too as always. We are also hoping to see some friends from our Auvergne days too which will be lovely.  So, until next time….

A bientot mes amis…

29/02/24     Mmmm…Mimosa Overload 😊   

Usually, the only good thing I ever think about February is that it is a very short month! But this year, not only do we get the extra day (leap year) but also this February has been filled with many things that I love…including a great trip to France for a lot of the month. And as for the mimosa…well, oh boy!

We only had a couple of days at home before we set off to France and they were mainly filled with mundane stuff like final preparations, making lists, sorting out my phone so I don’t get charged ridiculous amounts in roaming charges etc. We set off on Saturday, on the train to Manchester airport keeping our fingers firmly crossed, as it was a strike day for some of the train companies. However, our journey went well and we met up with our son and family at a pub near the airport for an early meal together which was a nice bonus. Afterwards Matthew dropped us off at our hotel where we spent a very comfortable (if expensive and very short) night before walking across to the terminal early the next morning. As I have said on many occasions before, I really hate Manchester airport. It is too busy for me and I find the staff there very rude at times…especially going through security. Although it was only 5am and, yes it was busy, we got through the checks etc without too much bother and were soon on the plane and off to Nice. We arrived to blue skies and sunshine … just as we had hoped. This time we had an extra treat on arrival, as our friend from our Auvergnat days, Bernadette, was waiting for us and we were taken along to St Aygulf in her van. It was lovely to see her and to catch up with all her news from the Auvergne and from her trip to the south coast where she had spent a few days meeting up with her friends and taking in the sights. Bernadette always sleeps in her van, a practice we have always found a bit dodgy as she never uses recognised sites, choosing instead to pull off along the route instead. However, she has done this for years and is very well equipped…and amazingly resilient! As we had suspected, she refused our offer of a meal or a place to stay and after inspecting (and approving) the flat, she set off to start the long drive north back to the Auvergne. It had been great to see her again though, even if only for a very short time. It being a Sunday, after she had gone, we hurried off to do a bit of emergency shopping before the local supermarket closed, so that we could eat that day! Sometimes these differences between British shop hours and the French ones still catch us out!

The next day, after Geoff had sorted out Sylvie car and taken her for a quick spin (with her lid down of course) along the coast, we set about doing some serious shopping to try and restock the cupboards and fridge a bit. It is always a bit of a shock this first hypermarket visit, both for the cost and just how long it takes us to buy things! We are almost back to when we first lived in France when it comes to looking at whole aisles full of ham and cheeses galore! After an hour Geoff begins to glaze over! To make matters even worse this time we were thinking of buying a new fridge freezer this visit, as our old one was coming to the end of its days, and so I didn’t really want to buy too much stuff in case I had to empty it and had nowhere to put stuff. It all took a lot more thought than usual, this shopping trip…but oh boy, was it great to be back in the land of French cheese and food again!!

The next few days were mainly about Mimosa…after all, this was the main reason that we were making this early trip. I was delighted to find that indeed it does really grow everywhere around here. Even a walk round the block meant that we saw several trees dripping with yellow blossom …and oh, the scent was heavenly. We did go for a couple of drives to mimosa hotspots too, firstly to Mandelieu and also to Tanneron during the first week we were there and especially at Tanneron (one of THE places to go and see the mimosa locally) I was totally blown away by the sight and the scent. Some of the hillsides were literally bright yellow…it was fantastic! Later in the trip we drove down to Bormes les Mimosas which was a lovely village to revisit, but didn’t really live up to its name in my view as, although there are fabulous gardens there, there were not so many mimosa trees. However, on that day as we drove home via the Route de Mimosa along the coast, there were more beautiful trees laden with flowers to see. I have to say that I was almost (almost!) becoming immune to the mimosa trees by the time we set off home again, but I was absolutely thrilled to have had the opportunity to see it at its best. There were many Fetes de Mimosa and Corsos (parades) in the surrounding area but we decided not to bother with them as neither of us are that keen on big crowds these days. For the same reason, we decided not to go to Menton for the Fete de Citrons or Nice Carnival whilst we were here, both of which attract huge numbers of people and both of which have become very expensive, as you have to pay to sit in stands now to watch the parades. We were content to view the real stuff in the natural world 😊

As some of you who have read my blogs for many years will know, when we lived in France full time, I became a great fan of the French TV soap opera which is Plus Belle la vie. I learnt a lot of my spoken French from watching it for many years with French subtitles (for the deaf) so that I could easily follow the plots! I was distraught, along with many others, when the series was axed a couple of years ago. Now though, to my joy, it has been resurrected and is back on the screens again every evening. As always it took me a few episodes to re-acquaint myself with the old characters and discover who all the new faces were, but come on…it is a soap after all, so it wasn’t that hard to catch up with the storylines! Happiness returned to my evening viewing once again. Youpi!

We soon got back into French life once again and started going to the markets – which were very much smaller than we were used to, so they didn’t take long to get around much to Geoff’s delight! I was delighted to be hailed by my prune lady on the St Aygulf market, who almost had my bag of prunes weighed out before I got there! We also enjoyed the delights of the Thai lady’s cooking on a couple of occasions as I was trying hard not to fill up the freezer on this visit, and so we did less cooking in the flat. We also enjoyed walking around the coast line at the end of our street and collecting rocks for me to paint and for Geoff to put out on his morning dog walks sans dog! We did go down to the beach a few times for a walk along the shore and, yes, we did get our feet at least in the sea…but it was freezing so not much else went in this time! The weather was pretty nice, lots of blue skies and sunshine but the temperatures were not great and the sea was definitely just for looking at this trip!

We did have one bad weekend weatherwise, where it rained very heavily for two days. It was a bit strange for us to encounter this type of weather, as although we have had rain on occasions there, it is very rare for it to continue for so long. And unfortunately, it did result in us having a small “infiltration” of water from outside along the roof of our bathroom. Although it was nothing major, we were told we had to report it to the agency which manages our building (as it obviously is coming from outside) and also to our insurance company so we could have repairs done. As you can imagine, this being France, was not entirely straightforward and resulted in Geoff spending quite a bit of time talking to people on the phone and sending e mails back and forward. As the leak happened only days before we were due to leave, we have not yet discovered what the outcome of the proposed external inspection by the building agency has been, but we left it with both our insurance and theirs that we would pursue it all again when we next go back in April. What a palaver! And, yet again, it made us realise how lucky we are that Geoff a) has a French phone and b) speaks good French and can understand what people are saying, as they explain all the directions as to what to do next! How people who live in France and don’t learn the language, cope, we will never understand!    

We did have a few eating out experiences of course. Wednesday lunch times are designated “eat out” days in our world now wherever we are! We ate a lovely lunch at St Maxime on our first Wednesday, sitting on the terrace in the sunshine. We had an interesting conversation with an English couple who were at the next table that day. They live in Les Issambres and had led quite an interesting life as the guy (Gary) is the manager of several well-known music acts in the UK and beyond including The Stranglers (everyone knows Golden Brown don’t they??) and bizarrely The Wurzles who are still doing gigs, even though they are in their eighties! It was a good lunch that one as we listened to his stories! We celebrated Valentines Day at our favourite Bistro d’Entre Potes where we ate very well as always. This of course was after I’d received some beautiful Valentines flowers and a card 😊 We also managed to have lunch in Frejus Port with our friends Mandy & Carolyn, which we all enjoyed very much. It is lovely that we are all still in touch after all these years 😊 We also celebrated Geoff’s birthday, but our plans for a nice celebratory lunch out on the day were thwarted by the fact that the new fridge freezer we had bought could only be delivered to the flat on that day. However, he did have a good birthday meal chez nous eating oysters (a present from Ethan and Hadley), Pad Thai from the Thai lady on the market and a bit of pear tart which doubled up as a makeshift birthday cake complete with candle, all followed by some special chocolates (a present from the little one) So all in all he had a very nice day. He had already used his gift from the kids – with their permission (a new pickleball paddle) when he played pickle on the previous day.

Whilst we were in St Aygulf, we were very interested in seeing via Facebook that back in the commune where we used to live (St Etienne sur Usson) a battle was raging over the proposed closure of a class at the local school there. Again, those of you who have followed my ramblings for many years, will remember that this little school is the one which was used in the celebrated film Etre et Avoir, twenty years ago and so is quite famous. Because the numbers of pupils will drop to 19 in September, the powers that be had decreed that the school should lose one of the two teachers and return to being a Classe Unique establishment. This has been met with horror by all the locals and by the maire of course…not to mention the poor remaining maitresse who would then be lumbered with all the teaching, plus all the admin and attendance at meetings etc. So a campaign was launched, along with a petition and the parents made a very clever video which went viral on Youtube! They managed to get TV news coverage, radio coverage and all the local maires and dignitaries to take on the education establishment…and in the space of a week the decision was reversed! It was great for us to watch all this drama unfolding and to play spot the faces of friends amongst all the crowds in front of the school and at the various meetings. Well done them …we were so proud to have once been part of that community 😊

The visit to France this time went over very quickly and although we did enjoy it, we did not really do a lot. It was too cold to swim or sit on the beach but we did get to spend some time on our balcony as it is very sheltered and when the sun shone it did get warm enough there to sit for a while. I missed seeing all the boat traffic on the sea though…it was obviously not warm enough for the sailors either! I was really pleased to have seen the mimosa in flower though, but I don’t think we will do this early trip again. All too soon we found ourselves sorting out the flat ready for departure and after one last day of wandering around the port, and chatting to some of the locals we were ready to set off home again. We were amused, mind you, to see the looks of almost pity on the faces of those we spoke to, at the prospect of us returning to the UK…and of course the cold and rain they all associate with that place!! Our last night was spent in Nice as always, where we did get to see a bit of the installations for the carnival and where we ate at Port Olympia, after having watched the sunset from the Promenade Des Anglais. The restaurant we really like there was closed that night, so we ended up eating Vietnamese food in a strange little place. The food was delicious though 😊 Our flight back to Manchester went well the next morning and we got through the dreaded passport control queues without too much fuss really. Our train journey also went well…apart for the temperature drop which we noticed and the rain. Maybe those French friends had been right with their sad faces after all!

We have swiftly stepped back into our normal routines now that we are home again. I have suffered the eye clinic injections once again, have had a much-needed haircut, am back to my Op shop shifts, Geoff is back playing pickle and we were welcomed back to church on Sunday with open arms! Geoff has been on extended dog sitting duties over the last weekend as Hazel, Phil and the little one were away. The weather is depressing as always but it is nice to see all the spring flowers everywhere. Our local parks are full of crocus carpets and daffodils galore.

Oh, and btw…we lasted one day looking at the miserable weather and then booked our flights to return to St Aygulf in April! Time to start crossing off the days again then…

A bientot mes amis…  

31/01/2024 …the Calm before the Storms

January has been a pretty quiet month for us this year, giving us both a bit of time to catch our breath and relax a bit. We certainly needed it and it has done us both good to take things a little bit easier for a while. We started the year off quietly by just about managing to stay awake until midnight on New Years Eve and welcoming in the New Year with a glass of home-made ginger wine (we know how to live here!) before giving up on the TV and heading off to bed! On New Years Day, we headed off to Lowther Castle with Hazel, Phil the little one and Xena to have lunch there and a bit of a walk which was a good way to start the year we thought. One of the lovely things about being back in the UK is the opportunities it gives us for family time. We headed out for a post-Christmas lunch later that week too with our U3A French speaking group which was lovely too. We went to Laings at Harker…our usual place for these gatherings and enjoyed a nice relaxed meal with all our group plus a few extras as “other halves” and former members were also invited. It was a lovely time to catch up with everyone’s news…and for once we all spoke English for this session!

Our month seems to have been punctuated by meals out and very little else really. Very unusual for us, but as I have said above after that hectic pre-Christmas period both of us felt the need just to completely chill out for a while. We have continued to eat out most Wednesdays and the first week, as our car was in the garage for a service and MOT, we managed to walk up to The Gatehouse Café, near the cemetery entrance for lunch at long last. We had been meaning to go here for ages as lots of people have told us how good it is and I have to say we were not disappointed. We have also eaten at The Bridge Inn in Pooley Bridge (where we had the place to ourselves – that does not happen in summer!), and another of our favourite places, Crofton Hall where as usual we enjoyed a great meal. We also met up with Linda and Mike one Wednesday in Bassenthwaite which was good as we are struggling to do so very much together due to family commitments and trips away on both sides. That day was “fun” as the roads were very icy and Linda and Mike struggled to get out of the village where they live. I also had a bit of a disaster that day as I slipped on a patch of black ice just outside the pub and twisted my ankle. It is still in the process of healing…these things take so much longer now that we are older don’t they? I was glad to get home that day and get the ankle strapped up and a couple of painkillers into me! Things are improving now though and hopefully by the time we set off for France next week I’ll be back to walking properly instead of hobbling!

Our activities in Church have also calmed down lately thank goodness although we did do another Café Church session last Sunday which went well as usual…but as usual was also hard work! I opted out of a lot of the bacon butty preparations this time as my ankle was still sore, but even so we were glad to get home again afterwards. These sessions are definitely working and most of the church members are getting behind us. The next one will be when we are away next month so it remains to be seen if others can sort out all the buying of food and setting out the tables etc. I’m sure they will!!

I have had visits to both the eye clinic for injections (youpi!) and to the dentist for yet another review regarding my treatment after my fall last year. We don’t seem to be making any progress there and it is always a case of wait and see…something which pleases me in one way as I hate dental treatment of any kind but is also frustrating as I feel they are not really coming up with any plans.  My teeth are not giving me any trouble or pain but they still don’t feel right at all. It just seems that it costs me each time for very little activity on their part. Hey ho…I seem to be caught in a never-ending situation here ☹   

The weather here in the UK has been pretty dire this month. We have had some snow…even here in Carlisle which is very unusual. It was nice to see snow again…I really miss the snowfalls we used to get in the Auvergne…but the aftermath here was not clever at all with very icy roads and pavements for several days. Gritting here is concentrated on the main thoroughfares and does not happen at all on the smaller roads or pavements. Geoff had to be extremely careful where he walked Xena each morning to stay upright. The snow was followed by two very bad storms with very fierce winds and lots of rain. A lot of damage was done across the whole country and to be honest I think we got off fairly lightly here in Carlisle. The rivers did burst their banks but there was no serious flooding and there were lots of trees uprooted and tiles blown off rooves but all in all it would seem that no one was seriously injured. These storms do seem to becoming more violent and frequent though. We have consoled ourselves frequently this month by looking at blue skies and sunshine on the Cote d’Azur …and marking off the days until we get back there!

We finished off our travels for this month by a weekend trip down to Manchester to look after our grandchildren for the night, whilst their parents escaped for a night of luxury and fun in a swanky hotel in Manchester itself. Matthew had “won” the bid for this in a charity auction at an event he had attended last year. They thoroughly enjoyed it! We also enjoyed the chance to do things with Ethan and Hadley…once we persuaded them to leave their blasted screens alone for a bit! Geoff took them off for a walk…which he enjoyed…not so sure about the kids! He also took his pickleball kit down plus a couple of borrowed bats so that Ethan could have a try as he is being introduced to pickleball at Cubs this week for a sports badge, we think. He was quite good at hitting the ball which was great for both him and his Papi! We also got to see Hadley’s new Brownie uniform which we had bought (we have bought all their uniforms for them) … blimey what a price they are now…£52 for this one! Hadley is making her promise this week and so was very pleased to have all the right kit. We headed back home on the Sunday when Matthew and Susie returned from their break.

And so, we come to the end of January…never my favourite month really. It is all speed ahead now until we set off for France on Saturday. We are flying from Manchester this time as the direct flights to Nice from Edinburgh do not start until the end of March. I am already a bit stressed about this as I hate Manchester Airport with a passion. We are travelling by train on Saturday – we hope as, of course, there is a rail strike on that day – and staying overnight in one of the airport hotels as our flight is an early one on Sunday. We are really looking forward to this trip…a chance for me to see all the mimosa in flower at long last. We are also looking forward to seeing our friend Bernadette (one of Geoff’s old students) who is picking us up at the airport. A real treat that, as we usually get the bus along to St Aygulf. Anyway, that episode is all to be recounted in the next blog at the end of February, as always.

Until then

A bientot mes amis      

31/12/2023 Advent Adventures and on to a New Year

It is getting very difficult to think of new titles for these blog posts but I think this one that I have chosen fits the bill nicely! Advent starts on the 1^st of December after all as does this blog and although it is now over, we will look at the twixmas period too to bring it up to date fully.

Our Advent period was very busy…when is our life not busy these days?? We started it off by driving home from Cambridge where we had spent a lovely couple of nights. We had a great BandB in Fen Drayton which suited us down to the ground (Thorn House if any of you want to try it, we recommend it highly) as we were able to travel into Cambridge itself easily and then use the park and ride facility. We had a great visit to Geoff’s old college (Selwyn) where we saw the fabulous painting and enjoyed a nice lunch. Geoff was thrilled to be able to sit at the high table for the very first time although he said it felt very strange! After that visit we went into Cambridge itself and spent a nice afternoon visiting another exhibition we wanted to see and doing a bit of shopping. Geoff was very worried when I found the Cambridge Cheese Company shop and discovered St Nectaire cheese (always my favourite) and Prunes d’Agen (another delight) on sale as well as other French goodies! It was not a cheap shop…but delicious! All in all, we had a super couple of days, but I do wish Cambridge was not such a long drive from Carlisle!

We have done an extraordinary amount of churchy things during this advent season! We started it off with me reading a lesson at the advent service in Carlisle Cathedral where all the Christian denominations were invited to take part. I, of course, represented the Methodist Church of Carlisle. I found it very strange reading in there as we were in the choir nave part of the cathedral and the lectern actually faced the other wall so making it impossible to make eye contact with the congregation! All went well though and the service a nice…if a little too long for my liking. That cathedral is not a warm place to sit for over an hour! We have also done a vast amount of carol singing this year! Geoff and I have always tried to get people out carol singing wherever we have lived (with the exception of course of rural France) and so we organised two evenings of singing in the streets around our church. It was also a good opportunity to put leaflets through letterboxes telling folk of our upcoming services. This activity was a success…but it also gave me a lot of sympathy for poor posties as some of those letterboxes were flipping fierce! Everyone who came out to hear us were very pleased to see us (even if our singing was not wonderful) and the whole venture was deemed a success again. We completed yet another successful “café church” service during which we served mince pies, shortbread, coffee and tea to everyone whilst they were busy making figures out of plastic milk bottles which were then put into a nativity scene. This activity went much better than we had thought it would especially with the more elderly members of our congregation and everyone really enjoyed the whole thing. The resulting crib scene was really good too. We are winning with these café church services and we are getting more families to come, but they are really hard work! As well as all this Geoff and I have done lots of readings in church this month and I was persuaded to sing a duet with Hazel at the last service before Christmas. It has been a very long time since I did that!   

We have been out and about too as usual during the month. We had a lovely lunch at the Blacksmith’s Arms at Talkin as always one Wednesday, ate well at the Cathedral café after carol singing at a local sheltered housing complex on another occasion, and met up with Mike and Linda for a pre-Christmas lunch at The Trout in Cockermouth too. Linda had slipped and fallen off a low garden wall the week before this and so was still recovering from an operation to pin bones in her broken wrist, but was quite cheerful. We were not so convinced that Mike was so sanguine, as he was discovering how difficult it is to wash and style his wife’s hair not to mention how much work goes into Christmas preparations!  I also went over to Hexham for a lovely meet up with all my nursing pals one day where we all gossiped, shared photographs of various grandchildren and ate lunch! I was extremely touched by my friend Liz that morning, who had brought her Mum’s RVI nursing badge which she wanted me to have to replace mine which was stolen many years ago. Liz’s mother died last month and she told me she really wanted me to have this badge. I was very pleased to take it and had a few tears at her thoughtfulness. It is now back where it belongs on my old RVI staff nurses uniform ready for the next talk I give about our nurse training in the 70s. I went back across to Newcastle with Hazel and the little one, one Saturday where we viewed Fenwicks Christmas window (a longstanding family tradition) and then had lunch with two of my brothers and Matthew and Ethan who had travelled up from Manchester to go to Newcastle’s match that day. Matthew had won some tickets at work and Ethan was mega excited to be going to St James Park for the first time. The Magpies won too which really made his day!

Geoff has been revisiting his role of Father Christmas too this month following his successful appearance at the Christmas Fayre a few weeks ago! He was asked to go to a playgroup by a friend of Hazel’s and I accompanied him as his elf too! He loved every minute and even though some of the children were a bit too small to fully understand, he really got into his Ho-Ho-Hoing act with gusto! We have been doing a bit of babysitting too for Hazel and Phil as they went out with the Rotary Santa sleigh on a couple of occasions. They visited some “less well off” parts of Carlisle this time and came home suitably chastened by the way the people really appreciated them coming even if they couldn’t afford to put much money in their collecting tins. It turned out that once the jungle drums started beating in those areas, they had queues of 20 -30 minutes of children in their pjs waiting to talk to Santa. They were really pleased that Phil, in his capacity as president of his club this year, had decided to go into these estates which often get overlooked.

Something which has over-shadowed our month, has been the news of my nephew who had a massive heart attack a few weeks ago and who has had several complications since leading up to his heart more or less going into total heart failure at one point. He has spent several weeks now in The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, some of which were on life support in the ICU and at times it was not certain that he would survive. However, survive he did, and although things are still critical for him in the future (he may need to have a heart transplant) he did manage to spend Christmas Day with his boys and hopefully will get home soon…albeit with lots of restrictions in his lifestyle and with a lot of medication.

Just before Christmas we drove down to Manchester to take family presents to Matthew, Susie and the grandchildren and to take Ethan and Hadley to a pantomime. We had chosen a performance in a place near Rochdale (tickets for the big pantos in Manchester were ridiculous prices) and we all had a really good time (oh yes we did!) hissing and booing the wicked Queen and cheering and laughing at the other characters! I am not a great lover of panto but seeing the excitement on the faces of the kids, especially Hadley, was well worth the trip 😊

We all had a super Christmas day at Hazel and Phil’s as always. My brother Alan came across from the NE and we all enjoyed opening our presents, eating a delicious dinner and just being together again. The little one still doesn’t fully understand the Santa bit but she loved opening all her presents

 (lots of those!) and playing with her new toys. The dolly’s pram and dolly we had given her, went down very well so we were very pleased too. I do think H and P will need to build an extension soon though to house all these toys! On Boxing Day, we made lunch for them here and spent a nice afternoon playing games.

To round off the festive season, we drove over to The Plough at Lupton…a half way point for us …and met up with my cousin Ken and his wife Joy, who live near Skipton. To say the weather was not good would be an understatement but we made it there and back, although driving over Shap on the M6 was a bit hairy at times with very heavy rain and high winds. I did not envy the high sided lorries who were struggling at times and in the evening (long after we had gotten home) there was the inevitable crashes and closure of the road. It was lovely to see Ken and Joy again though and to catch up with all the family news. That awful stormy weather continued for a couple of days …although again we seem to have escaped the worst of it yet again in Carlisle. A lot of my ex-colleagues from when I taught in the VIth form college in Tameside and who live near Stalybridge experienced the wrath of a mini tornado which caused a lot of damage. We escaped with just a bit of damage in our garden with fence panels having to be replaced but nothing serious, thank goodness.

And so, as I pack away my trusty old advent calendar (it will be 50 years old next year) and we begin to put Christmas behind us once again and start looking forward to a new year, I’ll bid you farewell. Next year will no doubt bring a few challenges, a few changes (not least some new neighbours as our friends Pam and Michael move into their new house…I will miss them!) but hopefully a lot of happiness, good health and of course another trip to France in February! Hope you all have a great New Year my friends.

Meilleurs Voeux, Bonne Annee, et Bonne Sante mes amis et a bientôt…

30/11/2023 …Busy is not the word!!

I am starting to write this post a little earlier than usual …and indeed it might be posted not on the usual last day of the month…as we are so busy just now. Someone once told me that retirement was supposed to be relaxing…in our case, they lied! We really must learn to say “no” more, but it is very difficult. We have had several manic weeks lately and by the weekends I am totally shattered. But hey ho, most of it has been fun so I shouldn’t complain I suppose.

We began the month in Scotland, where we had 2 great nights away, staying in a very lovely hotel in Gatehouse of Fleet. The hotel was one of the really old-fashioned type, with beautiful calm areas to sit and our room was beautiful…very large and with a view over the adjacent golf course to the woods and a lake. It also had a spa where we were able to swim which pleased me very much. Geoff loved going for his usual dog walk (sans dog of course) every morning in the woods and I got up leisurely before we drove down to Gatehouse for great breakfasts in the wonderful café we found there. We tend not to do hotel breakfasts, as they are overpriced and we don’t eat much of what is on offer. During the day, we explored the area around Galloway, went to see the Gavin Maxwell Memorial – a beautiful statue of an otter staring out over the bay, looked at (well Geoff did anyway) yet more prehistoric stones, walked around Wigtown (famous for its bookshops) and I enjoyed looking around a few craft shops (trade off for the standing stone visits!) We also found the great Demijohn workshop, near Castle Douglas, which was one of the reasons for coming up to this area. We left there clutching quite a few goodies destined for Christmas presents!  On our way home we stopped for coffee and a good walk around Castle Douglas itself, which brought back lots of memories for me, of happy holidays spent there with my family when I was growing up. Apart from having acquired several more cafes and restaurants than I ever remembered, the little town has not changed much and I loved seeing it again.  All in all, it was a very relaxing little break and we enjoyed it very much.

The next week was fairly quiet and we just did usual things like Op shop shifts for me and pickleball sessions for Geoff. We did go to one of the local Methodist chapels near here, to help with the shoebox (Operation Christmas Child) appeal. We used to be very involved with this before we moved to France, and although we have no desire to get so involved again, we did enjoy making up some shoeboxes ourselves, taking a few others, which we had been given, to the chapel who were acting as a collection point, and that afternoon helping to assemble more shoeboxes and fill them with gifts which had been donated. It was fun and it is still a great thing to do. We had combined that afternoon with one of our usual Wednesday “lunch out” days …lunch having been eaten at the nearby Crown and Thistle in Rockcliffe. In the evening of that day, we went to the AGM of the mill complex where we live. That proved to be very lively as usual! We often compare the way things are managed by the committee here in our flat complex and the equivalent management committee for our flat in France. Completely different styles of management…and frankly we do prefer the French one!

The next week was one of the forementioned manic weeks! We drove, on the Monday morning, across to Newcastle to attend the funeral of one of my nursing friends’ mother. Pauline (as she was known to everyone – including her grandchildren) died on her 97^th birthday having managed to remain independent, up to the last few days of her life. We all knew her as one of the theatre sisters in the RVI when we trained as nurses. The ceremony was lovely and although a sad occasion, it was very good to meet up afterwards with lots of old friends and to see all of Liz’s family again…some of whom we have not seen since they were children. Afterwards, we took up the offer of hospitality from some other friends (Gill and Charles) and went to stay overnight with them in Whitley Bay. Again, it was lovely to see them, especially Charles who is recovering from a very gruelling, long operation. We had a very good catch up with good friends on both these occasions 😊

We didn’t do much on either of the British traditional November days this year. Carlisle always has a great bonfire and fireworks spectacle every year, but both Geoff and I both decided to give it a miss this time. It attracts about 35,000 people and we both now feel that we really don’t feel good in crowds like that. It usually passes off peacefully and is enjoyed by everyone, but the thought of standing for a long time in that crowd was not appealing. We did mark Remembrance Day on the 11^th November by joining the crowd in Carlisle city centre at 11 o’clock…and I wore my white peace poppy alongside the traditional red one, with pride. However, we gave the big open-air ceremony at the war memorial in Rickerby park on Remembrance Sunday a miss having marked the 2-minute silence in church that morning.

While we are on the subject of church, we have been very involved in activities there this month. As well as doing our usual stint serving coffee after the Sunday morning service, we organised another “café church” session last week too. These services are working and we are getting a lot more families coming to the parade services which is brilliant. However, they are really hard work! We, along with a little band of helpers, served bacon or sausage butties, orange juice, tea or coffee to over 70 people last week. I was shattered by the time we got home! We had also helped with the Christmas Fayre at church the day before, which was very successful…but again very tiring! Geoff was OK there, as he was ensconced in his little grotto (along with his very sweet elf…AKA Hazel) garbed in red and white and ho-ho-ho-ing all morning! I had made some sparkly knitted critters which all sold well, along with three dozen mince pies, which also disappeared very quickly. I had also taken along over 30 of my painted rocks…all painted with Christmas motifs of course. I explained the concept to all and sundry, of taking a rock and placing it somewhere in the neighbourhood or when out for a walk somewhere and letting others find it. I asked for donations for the stones and made a total of £34 pounds so I was very pleased. I only hope some of them get picked up by some children soon 😊 Overall the Fayre was very successful and raised over £1,300.

My visits to the dentist and eye clinic continue. I get very stressed indeed about them…especially the dentist. It was planned to do a big filling on one of my back teeth (problem picked up on x rays earlier) but after a long discussion with the very patient dentist lady, we all agreed that, as the options for this tooth were not great and it would probably end up being extracted and the options for what would happen afterwards were not appealing at all, and because it is not causing me any problems as it is at the moment, to leave it alone for the time being. Huge sigh of relief from me at that decision I can tell you! We went out for lunch after that to celebrate!  As for the damage to my front teeth, caused by the fall in August, it is still a wait and see scenario. Hey ho…next review in January then! Lunch that day, was eaten in The Last Zebra restaurant in Carlisle city centre…somewhere we have walked past several times but have not been inclined to go into. Carlisle that day was so busy, as it was graduation day and the centre was full of happy graduates in their caps and gowns accompanied by proud parents and families. It was lovely to see 😊 However, it also meant that finding somewhere with a table free was very difficult! Having said that we really enjoyed our lunch and will certainly add that establishment to our “go again” list!

Last weekend saw us driving down to Manchester to stay with Matthew for the night. It was nice to catch up with him and to spend some time with Ethan and Hadley…. although, frankly, Ethan’s well-meaning attempts to show me some of the computer games he loves, proved way beyond my comprehension! On the Sunday we took the kids to an indoor climbing place, near the Trafford Centre and really enjoyed watching them tackle all the different walls and obstacles there. Then after an interesting lunch watching all the skiing on the slopes of the Chill Factor (memories of Super Besse but with a bit more warmth and better views!), we met up with Susie (who had been away for the night) and went to watch Matthew take to the “skies” as he redeemed the I Fly voucher we had bought him for his 40th birthday. This is an indoor sky diving experience and although the wait for his session was a bit long, the actual flight was great and he really enjoyed it. I have a great video on my phone of his two “flights”. After that we hit the road back up to Carlisle.

And now to end off the month in style, we are off to Cambridge for a couple of nights. There is a painting by a lady called Zaria Forman, which has been loaned to Geoff’s old college, Selwyn, which he really wants to see. He has arranged via his alumni contacts for us to be taken to see it …and then treated to lunch in college too, so off we are going! I do like going to Cambridge but it is a flipping long way to drive! We are staying nearby in Fen Drayton and apart from the drive, we are both looking forward to seeing out November there and doing a bit of Christmas shopping in Cambridge itself.

Glancing at our calendar for next month, it looks like all this busyness is set to continue into December. We have lots of entries including commitments to carol singing, reading in church (or in my case Carlisle Cathedral for a special Advent service), lots of babysitting for Hazel and Phil as they go out with the Rotary Santa sleigh, a trip down to Manchester just before Christmas to take Ethan and Hadley to a pantomime….and not to forget Geoff has been asked to make another appearance in the red and white suit too!  Retirement?? Relaxing?? Don’t make me laugh!! As this is the last blog before Christmas all that remains now is to wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

Joyeux Noel et a bientôt mes amis

31/10/2023 From blue skies and sunshine to grey skies and rain

We are back in lovely Cumbria and as the title suggests the blue skies and sunshine are fast becoming a distant memory! Since we got back having left Nice where the temperature was 28C, and arriving in Edinburgh where the temperature was 10C, we have had almost continuous grey skies and a lot of wetness! We did however, escape the worst of what storm Babet threw at a lot of the UK so it wasn’t all bad I suppose. My heart went out to all those poor folk whose houses were flooded and businesses ruined. I can think of nothing worse.

Any way I am getting ahead of myself. I’ll return to the blue skies scenario for a while. Our last few days in St Aygulf passed all too quickly. We continued with our usual pastimes…swimming each evening, visiting the market to get some last-minute treats and doing a lot of balcony sitting! Eventually we closed up the flat, put the car to bed in its cosy garage for the winter and caught the bus along to Nice, where we spent our final night in France for this year. We chose to spend the evening, and to eat, in the old town of Nice for a change, and really enjoyed a very pleasant time. There are worse places to spend a lovely evening! As always, we spent the night in the Ibis hotel near the airport and the next day we walked over to the airport as usual where we were soon through security and eating breakfast. As I said above, leaving Nice and the lovely weather there was a wrench and alighting in Edinburgh in the cold and wet came as a big shock to our systems! My sandals looked extremely sick and my poor sun-kissed feet were soon very wet indeed. The rest of our journey home went well and it was lovely to see Hazel and the little one waiting for us at the station 😊.

Since then, we have been trying to get back into our normal routines…not to mention our winter clothes! The first full week back was pretty rough…not to mention expensive…as I had appointments at the eye clinic on the Monday, a hairdresser on the Tuesday and worst of all the dentist on the Wednesday ☹. The eye clinic session resulted in injections in both eyes and for the first time ever my normally fantastic nurse hit a blood vessel in my left eye which resulted in a very red eyeball and worse than that with red tears running down my cheek as I walked (oblivious to this) through all the poor folk waiting their turns in the waiting room, and which also frightened the life out of Geoff who was waiting for me in the foyer of the hospital! My eye looked a lot worse than it felt and true to form when I sent a photo to Matthew, he suggested I booked some Halloween gigs as it was suitably gory! Getting my hair cut was a bit of a relief as it needed doing but cutting my fringe meant that the bloodshot eye was even more on show for the next week! The dental appointment went fairly well…no further progress with the front teeth for now (review in 6 weeks), two small “top up” fillings on back teeth and a fairly brutal half hour session of cleaning and polishing which I did not like one little bit! It has been a long time since I submitted to that…and it will be a long time until it is repeated! I now have a decision to take regarding the big filling the dentist says I need done and the jury is still out on that!

We have done some more pleasant activities since we got home you will be glad to hear. The craft fair season is well into its swing here in Cumbria as the run up to Christmas seems to be with us. Hazel and I went to a fair at Wigton which we enjoyed and Geoff and I went to a great (if rather expensive and high class) one at the Garden at Eden one Friday. We got very tempted there and ended up spending a lot more cash than we had planned. One of the treats we bought was some non-alcoholic ginger wine which is the closest thing I have found to the stuff my mother used to make and so was very good indeed. My Mam never followed the instructions correctly and so it was always so strong it almost took your head off! We will be tracking some more of that down before Christmas I can tell you 😊.

We have also resumed our Wednesday date day lunches. The first one was with our friends Mike and Linda who managed to squeeze us in between their trip to Poland (they had a great time) and their up-coming trip to Australia to see their daughter. We had a splendid lunch at Upfront Gallery for that one. We went to The Wheatsheaf at Wetheral after the dental appointment which cheered me up as we like it there too. Last week saw us visiting another favourite place, the Kings Arms at Stainton where we enjoyed a great “OAPs lunch” as always! After that one we went to Rheged to see the Libby Edmunson exhibition there. It was wonderful…such vibrant colours…and we narrowly escaped without treating ourselves to a limited-edition print! As usual we couldn’t fully agree as to which one was our favourite!

We really enjoyed our visit to the Playhouse in Penrith one evening to see the Penrith players perform The Rivals. It was very well done and I was in awe of the cast learning all those complicated lines! Geoff also managed to get a ticket to a classical music concert at the Fratery one evening which he really enjoyed.

Our normal activities such as my Op shop shifts and Geoff’s pickleball playing and CYZ sessions have also resumed. Geoff did a session, planting crocus bulbs one morning, at Hammonds Pond to help out our son-in-law’s Rotary Club community strategy. And I, being horrified by the situation and bloodshed which is going on in Israel and Palestine, went with Hazel one evening to a peace vigil in the grounds of Carlisle Cathedral, which, although it was sparsely attended was no less moving for that. Standing in silence for a full five minutes was very moving and really made me think about all this awful suffering that is going on…on both sides of this dreadful conflict.

I have been busy doing some crafty things too this month. I still love doing my craft stuff! As well as painting some rocks (not quite the same doing those in Carlisle as it was on our balcony in St Aygulf!) I made an Autumn wreath for the door and I have been busy knitting …wait for it…pumpkins! Hazel requested one first and I knitted a full sized one, then I knitted two small ones for the wreath, and then Matthew also requested some too. Six pumpkins later….! I have now moved on to sparkly critters ready for the Christmas Fayre at church. So far, I have made two owls and a hedgehog and have more to do in the next week or so.  As well as all that, I have started prodding folk into action to make up shoeboxes for the annual appeal which Geoff and I will take to a local collection point in Carlisle next month, I hasten to add I am also in the process of making up two boxes myself in case you were wondering!

So, as you can see, we are keeping pretty busy! We are taking a couple of days off this next week though to go away for a break, to Gatehouse of Fleet which we are both looking forward to. And we have started to think about, and plan, our next trip to France in February maybe…we will be finding out about routes and possibilities for that in the next few days. For now, though I’ll bid you farewell and stay safe tonight. Watch out for all the witches and ghosts that might be around!.

A bientot mes amis…  

30/09/2023 Plus belle la vie

As you can probably tell from the title of this post (which incidentally I have hi-jacked from my favourite…and now unfortunately defunct…French soap opera) we are still living the good life in our little apartment in St Aygulf. We are having a great time as always and thoroughly enjoying being back in France. Somehow the moment we get off the plane in Nice we switch back into French living mode! This time we have had a mixed time…some days have been very busy and other days where we have done absolutely nothing apart from sitting in the sun on our balcony. But more of that later…let’s start where we left off last month.

If you remember, at the end of August I had that disastrous fall and did a lot of damage to my mouth, teeth and little finger. So, the days leading up to our departure for France were mostly filled with anxiety (were we going to be allowed to go?) and various nurse and dentist appointments. My finger was being dressed every 2 days and was improving slowly but was still quite painful if touched. Happily, on the last visit before leaving Carlisle, I was given a few dressings to take with me and signed off…with instructions to keep it clean and dry if possible. The final dental visit went fairly well, although it was made very plain to me that I had to get a dental appointment in France to have the splint taken off my front teeth the next week. That proved a bit more difficult than we had imagined but we did get an appointment sorted with a dentist at the end of the street where our flat is, as we left England, so we were relieved about that. More on that story later.

The only other things we did before leaving were to help out at a stall in Morton to promote our church’s outreach activities and to meet up with Matthew, Susie and the grandchildren at Carnforth for lunch and a bit of playing in the sea, on the Sunday before we left. We all had a great day there and it stopped me getting too worked up regarding the next day’s travelling! 😊 

The journey out to France all went very smoothly. The train ride to Edinburgh, followed by a tram ride to the airport was good and after a couple of hours waiting in the airport (which we filled mostly by trying to find something I could actually eat with my poorly mouth) we were soon off to Nice, where we arrived to the usual blanket of warmth as we stepped off the plane. We spent the night in our usual airport hotel and the next morning took the bus along to Frejus and then treat ourselves to an Uber ride to St Aygulf. The flat was soon up and running and after a quick visit to the supermarket we had our first (of many it turned out!) lunch on the balcony looking at cloudless blue sky and amazingly blue sea. Bliss!

Our first week here seemed to be taken up with not venturing far from the flat but sorting out lots of things. We did our usual “big shop” to stock up the fridge and freezer a bit – and once again reacted with horror at how much it cost! I’m afraid we have got used to Aldi prices at home now…and these were not Aldi prices! Geoff did a splendid job of firming up the dental appointments, and organising a vet appointment for Xena before she goes back home with hazel later in the month. He also took Sylvie car (who incidentally was running like the little dream car that she is!) for her CT (French equivalent of the MOT) which she passed with flying colours 😊. He also decided to treat himself to a new guitar as the one he bought here on our last visit has turned out to have been a duff buy really. He was very happy to find one locally at the right price in Cultura at Frejus so he was a very happy boy! That makes four guitars now…two here & two in England…mmmm! I meanwhile was very content to stay close to the flat, paint several rocks and distribute them in and around St Aygulf, go for an evening swim each day, have a bit of a walk by the coast and soak up the sunshine on our balcony 😊.

We got a little more animated during week two! We took a drive through the hills to St Maxime one afternoon and went for lunch one day to one of our favourite bistros (Bistro d`Antre Potes) at Les Issambres on the Wednesday which was fantastic as always. I had my first dental visit…which did not go according to plan as the young dentist was not keen at that point to take off the splint as she felt the bone had not healed enough…arggh! Another appointment was made for the following week…double arghh!! We did the first of our U3A Zoom meetups with our French conversation group back in Carlisle…who were a bit envious of our weather to say the least!  Best of all that week was the fun of the annual Fete de l`Omelette Giant (yes you  translate that rightly!) in St Aygulf at the weekend. It was great fun! We went to the dance on the Saturday night….outdoors of course, with live music and really enjoyed having a bit of a bop even if we can’t dance anyway as well as most of the French guys of our age…and above in some cases! On the Sunday we joined the crowds to watch as the giant omelette was prepared by a great number of chefs (all wearing their toques, white jackets and gongs – small gold omelette pans – plus several dignitaries. They cracked and whisked over 2,000 eggs before cooking the said delicacy in a huge pan over a big fire in the centre of the square. When it was cooked to the chefs’ satisfaction it was divided up and distributed to the eagerly awaiting crowd …including us…with the option of buying some chips to go with it from the hard working volunteers stall alongside the main arena! As it was very hot by now and we had been stood in the sunshine for most of the morning, we elected to take our portions home and devoured them in the shade on our balcony! It was though a great spectacle…and one that we normally miss as we usually arrive a week later. 

The second week of our stay got a lot more busy. At the beginning of the week much remained the same…lots of relaxing in and around the flat whilst following our daughter’s progress as they drove through France to come here for a long-awaited holiday. I went to the dentist for the dreaded RdV…only to discover that Geoff had misheard the time of the appointment and we had missed it. This was not good for my stress levels which were already sky high. However, the lovely ladies at the surgery were so nice and I got another appointment sorted for the next day, the lovely young dentist said she was not prepared to take the splint off as she didn’t think the bone had had enough time to heal. I had to come back in a week to review the progress…arghh!  Hazel, Phil, Xena and the little one got here safely on the Thursday afternoon and when they had settled into their hotel, we went down to the beach where the little one had her first real taste of warm sand and warm sea! She loved it and was not fazed by the gentle waves at all. We all ate together at the flat afterwards and again it was great to be able to let them all see the flat at long last. They loved it as much as we do thank goodness and now they know why we like spending so much time here. On the Friday morning we gave Phil his first taste of a real French market and the little one also discovered our local playground in the lovely park nearby. After lunch they went off to the villa which they were staying in with their friends which was near Cabris…up in the hills above Grasse.  The next day was our 45^th wedding anniversary and we drove up to Cabris, where we had a lovely celebratory lunch, before finding the villa for ourselves where we spent the afternoon and evening looking after the little one while Hazel, Phil and their friends went off to the rugby world cup match in Nice. All went fairly well except that we didn’t really find the villa very child friendly so finding things to do with L was a bit difficult. She was very tired though so she went to bed without a murmur and we then just sat on their balcony until the others got home and then we drove back to the flat….in the dark! We are seriously not used to that now at all…and didn’t really like it…lots of narrow roads and very bright car headlights coming towards us was not really fun! Hazel and co came back over to see us the next week and again we enjoyed some really great beach time with L. It was lovely to see her totally relaxed playing in the shallows with a little friend who spoke no English…but they got on very well! We went back to the villa on the Wednesday, after my second dental appointment where I did get the splint taken off at last, to do a repeat baby-sitting stint for the second rugby match for the group. We had sent a post card to our friends Marc and Michelle (Hazel’s original exchange “parents”, who hosted her 30 years ago) saying that Hazel was here, and much to our surprise, they decided to drive over from Bordeaux to meet up with us all on the Thursday. They really wanted to see L I think! So we spent a very busy day on the Thursday meeting up with them, taking Xena to the vet here in St Aygulf (to get her stuff done ready for travelling back to the UK) and having a lovely lunch all together at our favourite bistro once again. It was a lovely day all round and Marc and Michelle were so pleased to have spent some time with them all again. Hazel set off the next day to drive back home after having had a lovely holiday I think 😊. 

We have played at being tourists ourselves a little bit this visit but not as much as we normally do. Last Wednesday we went out for the day and explored the area west of Draguignan…just dipping our toe into Provence. We really enjoyed looking around some of the lovely little villages there, had a great lunch in the main square of one of them (Tourtour) and I even hiked to see a cascade (waterfall) at Sillans-la -Cascade. Yes, this is still me writing this…I don’t normally do things like that! The walk (and all the ups and down steps) did turn out to be worth it in the end, as the waterfall was beautiful. On Friday this week we also took a boat trip from St Raphael to the Lerins islands just off the coast off Cannes. We really enjoyed every minute of that. It was a bit expensive but well worth it to see the coastline of the Esterel from the sea and to actually be on a boat again! I sometimes miss our cruises! The Island itself when we got there was lovely too and all in all we had a great afternoon, which we might repeat another time when we are here.

Our socialising continued at the weekend when we drove through the hills to Theoule sur Mer to meet up with our “cruise buddy” friends Mandy and Carolyn, who are lucky to live here, for a reunion lunch! We ate in a fabulous beach side restaurant and really enjoyed yet another great catch up of all our adventures. We drove home via the fabulous Corniche de l’Esterel, which we love, and stopped off in St Raphael where we enjoyed a bit of people watching and a drink at a café, and enquired into the possibility of taking a boat trip out to the Lerin Islands next week. We had another social meet up with our friend Gisele on Monday evening when we went for dinner at her flat. She has recently become a “mamie poule” (doting grandmother) and so we loved sharing her joy – and lots of photos – of our respective grandchildren! I had knitted a little cardigan for le petit Martin and that was very well received 😊. We had another social engagement on Wednesday evening when we spent a very enjoyable evening in the company of a lovely couple who have a flat directly under ours. They had invited us to have an apero with them and is often the case here in France, that was more like a mini meal! They had bought some fantastic little dishes from one of the traiteurs in St Aygulf and they were absolutely delicious. We really enjoyed the evening and I hope we will be able to reciprocate the invitation when we are here next…although I suspect my culinary efforts will not be as good!

Our month long stay here in our little bit of Paradise is coming to an end (although we still have a few more days to go before we fly home). We have really enjoyed every minute. We have loved being back in France again. I have loved mooching around the markets and a great brocante one Sunday, where I bought a lovely linen dress for 2 euros and a nice pink shirt for Geoff too. I have not loved all the mozzie bites we have collected between us…and I still have to see those lovely little critters! We have both loved all the time we have spent sitting on our balcony watching all the boats and yachts go by…although as always because we tend to come here as the summer season either is just beginning or is just finishing, we have not always appreciated all the bricolage (DIY) noise in neighbouring properties! For the first time we have not had to do anything in our own flat, which has been a relief! We have had some stunning weather…most days the temperatures have been in the mid to high 20s so we have swum (or in my case bobbed about!) in the warm sea most days and we look healthily tanned! Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and so we have begun the preparations for returning home on Thursday. However…there are still a few more days to enjoy the sunshine and the sea before we get back to the cold and rain of Cumbria.

A bientot mes amis….

31/08/2023 … A month of very mixed fortunes!

Well, August you really gave us a very up and down ride! We had some lovely times…and some very unlovely times especially towards the end of the month. All will be revealed as we go through this month’s post. Let us start with the lovely things!

We started the month off with a great evening at Talkin Tarn watching the fantastic Pantaloons – a touring theatre company who mostly perform outdoors…in all weathers. They did a very amusing production of The Comedy of Errors…a feat within itself as there is always only four of them. It was very good and we managed to stay dry even if it did get mighty chilly as the evening wore on. We returned to Talkin Tarn for a second show by the Pantaloons later in the month…this time Alice in Wonderland and once again despite getting really cold by the end of the evening, we really enjoyed all the fun of this production too. If ever this group perform near you, I strongly recommend going to see them. They are very good.

Following this we went down to Runcorn for the weekend to be part of our granddaughter’s christening. The actual christening was in Phil’s family church and was conducted by their well-loved parish priest and went very well. It was really nice for a lot of Phil’s family (including his Nan) to be present at this service and the celebration afterwards. The little one (and all the guests) had a lovely day. The hotel we stayed in left a lot to be desired though the night before as we and some of Phil’s family had a very bad experience trying to get some food. Instead of saying to us that they couldn’t cope with providing food that night (they had a big wedding reception going on), they let us order and then kept us waiting for 2+ hours for food…and in fact some never arrived at all!  Not the best really! That apart though, everyone seemed to have had a good time and the family were very pleased that the little one is now officially baptised! We are hoping to have another service of some sort in our church in Carlisle in the future, so that a lot of Hazel and Phil’s Carlisle friends and family can be there too. This little one will be well and truly blessed by the time that is finished!

We have been out and about as usual during the month too. We decided one Wednesday, our date day remember, to go to Kielder, a place I used to go to with my parents and somewhere I’ve not been to for a very long time. It wasn’t the best of days really weatherwise, but the worst part was choosing to drive along the forest toll road (which cost us £3 too) and which was entirely the wrong thing to do as it turned out! It was a terrible road, maybe OK if you have a big 4×4 car, but not really suitable for our little car. Eventually, we made it to the end … miles away from where we had wanted to be and very relieved to be back on tarmac again! We did salvage something out of the day by eating a great lunch at the Redesdale Arms, before driving back alongside the reservoir on the road we should have been on in the first place! Needless to say, it will be a long time before we repeat that experience! Our other days out have been a lot more sedate and we have enjoyed meeting up with Linda and Mike for lunch at The Sun in at Bassenthwaite and again yesterday at Upfront Gallery, two of our favourite places. We really enjoyed our trip to Allonby too one Wednesday, where we ate at Jack’s Surf Bar and then sat on the beach there in the sunshine (a real novelty for this August) for the afternoon. Geoff was very brave and went for a dip in the sea but I declined and spent my time collecting rocks to paint and sea glass instead. I’m saving myself for the Med next month…at least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

We had a really nice afternoon at the country show at nearby Dalston too. We really enjoy going to these shows and this one is just the right size and has quite a lot of things going on that we really like. I love wandering around the craft and competition tents and seeing all the entries for flower arrangements, produce and craft classes. I always say that I should enter some of my stuff as I have done a lot of knitting and rock painting recently, not to mention some real watercolour paintings that I still have, and I still make the occasional flower arrangements and door wreaths, but I never really get round to it! It is always nice though to admire other people’s work. We also enjoyed a little visit to a lovely “Open House” event which was providing lunches and teas to raise money for a village hall project in a nearby village. We shared a table with two very interesting elderly ladies (aged 93 and 90) who kept us very entertained with their stories of what it had been like to live in the village when they were younger. It was a lovely lunch spent in great company!  

The last really nice thing we have done this month was to go away for the weekend with Hazel and Phil and of course, the little one, to a caravan park near Hexham, where we stayed in a very nice lodge for the weekend to enable us to go to the wedding of one of Hazel’s university friends. The wedding itself was lovely and Helen looked stunning and very happy. We went to the church to see her married and then spent a great afternoon looking around Corbridge and Blanchland, two of my parents’ favourite places again, and which are full of memories for me. We were on standby to pick up the little one from the wedding reception when she got tired and this we did and then put her to bed without too much bother. However, the next day was the start of the not so nice things! Whilst taking the little one to the on-site playground to allow her mummy and daddy to finish packing up ready for departure, I managed to trip over her, lost my balance completely and hit the deck very badly indeed…face first. I had managed to damage my mouth very badly (after an x-ray later I discovered I’d broken the bone across the top of my mouth) broke one front tooth and loosened two or three more too. I also managed to rip the finger nail completely off the little finger of my right hand. Really great, eh?? I don’t do things by half do I?  A call to 111 saw me attending the urgent injury unit at Hexham Hospital soon afterwards where my finger was cleaned up and dressed, but the teeth had to wait until another call to 111 got me an appointment at the dental unit at Cumberland Infirmary when we got home, After X rays and a lot of consultations with consultants, it was decided to put a temporary splint on my front teeth in the hope that when the fracture heals they can be saved (although none of this is certain) and after telling me off soundly for not having registered with a dentist since we came back to the UK ( I am a total denta-phobe by the way), I was told to get a dentist the next day as I would need a lot of treatment in the weeks to come. Oh, Bliss Oh, Joy! Now, actually getting a dentist here in Carlisle is not that easy these days but we managed eventually to register with one and so the next morning resulted in another 2 hour session being assessed, having the broken tooth filled to make it more presentable and having more x-rays done. This is the stuff of nightmares for me, you understand! So, this last week has been a succession of trips to see our practice nurse to have my finger re-dressed (it is now bearable to be touched but is not very pretty) and I have an appointment at the dentist again today, where no doubt they will outline the plan for the future…and give us the go ahead to disappear for a month to France, we hope, all of which is not ideal timing you understand. I will add the conclusion to that when I get home before I post this.

Another thing that has upset both of us this month has been the news of the deaths of two of our friends. Our friendship with Ann has gone back many years to when we were first married and living in Seaton Sluice. She and her husband David were fellow members of Blyth Rotaract and we did lots of things together. They were also the very first people to visit us in our new home in France…in fact they helped us move in, by moving things from the house to the gite and making up dismantled furniture. Ann was a big fell walker and was never happier than when she was walking in the Cheviots and her sudden death came as a great shock. She was also our age…and a lot fitter than us ☹. The second death was of one of my Twitter friends, Kath. Although we never met in person, she has been my friend for a long time and I always loved hearing about her beautiful doggies which won many rosettes in very prestigious dog shows. I also loved receiving my surprise parcels of fantastic Irish Black bacon which she very kindly used to send to a few of us, her Twitter friends. I also know her daughter Dawn, and I have been following her problems trying to sort out end of life care from France (Kath lived in Northern Ireland) which has been a nightmare for her. That situation has made us realise just how right we were to sell up in France when we did and move back to the UK. Everything becomes so much more difficult to manage for families at such a distance. We send our love to both families and although we will be unable to attend either funeral in person, we will be there in spirit.

We are continuing though with our preparations to get away on Monday with our fingers firmly crossed that we can. We are both so looking forward to being back in France again and to having some decent weather. We understand that the canicule (heat wave) seems to be over now and the temperatures are still nice but not unbearable. Whether or not I will be able to swim in the sea will depend on my finger healing but again I am hopeful especially after the first week anyway. Hazel, Phil and the little one are also coming out to see us this time and to go to a couple of the rugby world cup matches…and yes we will be on baby sitting duty again for those! Let us just hope there will no repeat of spectacular falls when that happens this time!

Quick update on the above…I am now back from the dentist and so long as I go to a French dentist while we are away, to have the splint which is on my teeth removed next week, they are OK for us to go…youpi! We are now trying to sort out a dentist in St Aygulf who will be happy to do this, but there are several to choose from so we should be OK…I think!  So now it is all systems go for Monday…France here we come! Bring on the sunshine 😊

A bientot mes amis…

31/07/2023…a more relaxing month

This year is really flying by, isn’t it? I am a little shocked to realise that July has been and gone already. It doesn’t seem two minutes since I was writing my last blog post, let alone a whole month! July has been a far more relaxing month than of late, but we have still managed to keep fairly busy. As well as all the usual routine stuff…Op shop shifts, eye clinic appointments and my diabetic review check…which resulted in us both having to do BP monitoring for a week to prove that my BP goes sky high when in the close vicinity of medical folk (point proved btw!) and Geoff’s pickleball sessions, we have done some other stuff too.

We started the month off by meeting up with our “Cruise Buddy” friends from Scotland, Ewan and Jean, who were having a break in their caravan in Northumberland. We met at The Blacksmiths Arms at Talkin where we enjoyed a lovely meal and catch-up chat as always. It is great that this friendship continues…and long may it do so!  As usual, we have been out and about during the month and have visited some new haunts, as well as a few old favourites too. We have continued with our “date day” Wednesday lunches out and have enjoyed eating at the Upfront Gallery, The Bridge End at Dalston and the Rose and Crown at Rockcliffe – all well tried and tested lunch eateries! The Dalston day was before we went for a tour of Rose Castle which was organised by the Cumbria branch of the Cambridge Alumni Association… of which Geoff is a member. It was a fantastic afternoon, which included a tour of the gardens as well as a tour of the wonderfully restored Rose Castle itself. Rose Castle was the historic residence of the Bishop of Carlisle for many years before being sold to Sarah and John and has now been transformed into a luxury venue for weddings and corporate events. But it is also the centre for the Rose Castle Foundation and Sarah gave us a very inspiring talk about the ethos and work of this foundation, which both of us found immensely interesting. If you have not heard about it before, I recommend you look it up. I was very impressed by the work they do to bring about reconciliation across boundaries all over the world. Sarah told a great story about how, at one of the conferences and retreats they do at Rose Castle, they purposely sat a young Palestinian man and a young Israeli man at the same table for dinner, forcing them to talk to one another and how the Palestinian had said afterwards, it was the first time he had ever seen an Israeli smile…as usually they were confronted by grim faced soldiers at checkpoints and didn’t really see them as people just like them. That story has really stuck in my mind…

We had a busy day too one Saturday when I went to help Hazel with an Amnesty International coffee morning. It was a good event and we managed to raise a bit of money for the Carlisle branch (which Hazel runs) and also to raise awareness of several campaigns which Amnesty are supporting just now. Afterwards, I drove out to Lanercost to meet up with my friends Rose and Robin, who were attending a classic car event with Robin’s beautiful MG sports car. Hazel, Geoff and the little one joined us later in the afternoon and I must say that the little one was very taken with the car!! I have told her Daddy that he needs to get her one for Christmas! Another little outing that Hazel and I did with the little one, was to the annual fun day at the Oak Tree Animal sanctuary which, although we arrived fairly late in the day, was a nice visit.

We also treated ourselves to a two-night trip away this month. Geoff has always loved the paintings of John James Audubon and had discovered that there was an exhibition being held at the Compton Verney gallery near Warwick so off we went to see that. We stayed in a fantastic little airbandb flat nearby and really enjoyed our visit very much. We loved the Audubon exhibition and I also loved the Quentin Blake one too, which was on at the same time. It was like going from the sublime (Audubon birds) to the ridiculous (Quentin Blake cockatoos!) but such fun! Compton Verney turned out to be so much more than just a gallery and we adored the fabulous grounds with their fantastic trees (and yes, he did hug one or two!) and I absolutely loved the wild flower meadows which were abundant in butterflies, dragon and damsel flies as well as bees of every type and colour. We spent a lot longer there than we had planned, but we also had enough time to do a little tour of the pretty Cotswold villages such as Stowe on the Wold, Broadway and Chipping Camden, places we have not been to for many years. We called in to see Matthew and Susie on our way back home the next day and dropped off some of our “required by law” car equipment ready for their fast-approaching family holiday to France. So, all in all it was a very nice little break and, despite the long drive there and back (most of which was on the dreaded M6!) we were really glad we had done it.

As the weather here continues to be far from the summer weather we would like to see (cold, damp & thoroughly dismal at times!) we have spent a lot of this month watching daytime TV. Wimbledon was its usual “must watch” draw

for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the men’s tournament…especially that epic final, where I was very pleased to see young Carlos win. I am slowly getting back into watching women’s tennis again, although I have to admit still not really knowing many of the new “star” names! The whole event was great though…I really missed Wimbers for all those years we lived in France.  Geoff, of course was glued (when I allowed him access!) to the Tour de France as always and enjoyed that too. I have to admit I lost a lot of interest in that when poor old Cav crashed and went out. I struggled a bit to get on board with all the new guys…none of them very charismatic, I thought! It was great though to see Issoire, Clermont Ferrand and its surroundings featured this year…bringing back lots of memories of going to watch the tour when we lived there. Geoff has now removed his tour map from the living room door and is struggling to find things to do in the afternoons just now! Jusqu’à l’année prochaine mes amis!

This dismal weather is continuing here, so we can only imagine the heat that some of our friends in France and Spain have been enduring. My shorts, having made a brief appearance in June are now firmly back in the wardrobe…although Geoff has continued with his, for his walks with Xena, stating that legs are easier to dry than jeans! I am at the stage where I am now crossing off the days until we get back to France in September. Only the month of August to get through now…and that should be nice as we have a certain little girl’s christening to attend as well as another of Hazel’s friend’s wedding. Both of those events require a weekend away so that will be nice too. I shall report on both next time 😊

A bientot mes amis…