ROSES

We have had a visitor for a week, a friend of mine that I have known for almost forty years.  She has stayed with us in France before but not since we moved out of the village twelve years ago.

One of the many good things about having people to stay is that we have the reason to do "holiday stuff" ourselves; visiting places that we love and doing the touristy things.  

Every year we visit the village of Chédigny, not far from Loches, where they hold an annual rose festival.  We never tire of seeing the magnificent roses.  The colours seemed to be even brighter on a fairly dull day.

Many of the roses have little plaques which say what the variety is and when it was first planted.

 There are of course many other flowers as well as the roses.

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

February may well be the shortest month in the year but in many ways it often seems like the longest.  The weather this February has been just as bad, if not worse than last year and we are more than ready for some sunshine.

However, the entertainment machine doesn't stop just because the weather is awful and although February was not quite as busy as January we certainly had some fun.

On 14th February, St. Valentine's Day, we hosted a ladies night.

Finding somewhere to eat on Valentine's Day where you are not surrounded by tables for two with couples gazing dreamily into each other's eyes, subdued lighting so that you can't see what you're eating (never mind read the menu), flowers on the table that bring on your allergies and cringeworthy soppy music, can be tricky if not impossible.  Not to mention the silly prices.

So, we invited some of our single friends round for an evening of friendship, food and fun.  We did a retro 1970's  menu and a quiz (with prizes) on the subject of Valentine, love, hearts and roses.  It was great fun and could easily become an annual event.

Only a few days later we went to a Chinese New Year event.  It's the year of the horse and dressing up was (as usual) encouraged.

Nick dressed up as a jockey.  All we needed was a pair of long johns to complete the outfit.

I dressed up as a stable hand.  All props model's own (although Nick's best green wellies).

We are however, somewhat on tenterhooks.  This time last year we were fast becoming nervous wrecks as our applications to renew our cartes de séjour went pear shaped.  You can read all about that here.

We applied much earlier this time, fourteen weeks before expiry date in fact.  The very earliest you can apply is sixteen weeks before the cards expire - which is in two weeks from now.

Yesterday, twelve weeks after we applied, we received our "prolongations".  These are the documents that extend the period of the visas by three months - three months that the Prefecture gives itself to consider the application.  The good thing about the document is that it restores our right to live in France and, importantly, to return to France after a visit back home to England, for three months beyond the period of the visa.  (Something we never had to even think about when Britain was in the EU.)

You have to wonder why bother to apply almost four months before if nothing is going to be done until they have almost expired anyway!

The prolongations came with, as anticipated, some questions.  This time they were straightforward, easy to answer and carried no threat of refusal.  However, in the coming three months there's time for all that but we're trying to be positive.

To celebrate the step forward we went for lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, Le George in Loches.  The "menu du jour" there is always delicious, only a couple of euros more than the mediocre menus served at a number of other places, and the ambience and service are excellent.

We were conscious that this is where we were last year when the phone call came from the lady at France Services telling us we had to sort the problem out quickly or we could be deported.

This year, we do feel somehow more relaxed.  Fingers crossed that this time it goes smoothly, that we get our "décision favourable" and cards sooner, and that we don't have quite so many sleepless nights worrying about what we would do if the Prefecture said "non".

(They have no grounds on which to say "non" but the computer programme dealing with applications last year thought otherwise.  Let’s hope they have fixed that.)

WHAT DID WE DO IN JANUARY?

We were invited to spend New Year's Eve with friends who hosted a fondue party.

I took the dessert, a pumpkin and mincemeat cake.

Considering that January is one of the longer months and usually fairly dull, we had a very busy time!

We had some pretty cold weather and even some snow.

We stayed home during the coldest weather and did a jigsaw puzzle.

It turned out to be one of the hardest we have ever done, but Yvonne helped.

There was the invitation to the Mairie for the annual New Year greeting in the salle des fêtes in our letterbox.

It was well attended.

The speeches were short this year, the wine and servings of "galette des rois" generous.

Afterwards we went to a friend's house for a convivial evening of food and more wine.

She refers to the Maire's annual greeting as "the state of the nation address".

There was an exhibition of paintings by two local artists in Descartes.

Both artists were born in Descartes and the paintings are in the private collection of a local person.

The paintings were mostly of scenes around the area and lovely to see.

We felt very privileged to be able to view them.

There was a "Soirée Montagne" at the hotel bar in Abilly.

It was well attended and the food delicious.

Each person had their own pot of melted cheese and bits to dip into it.

I doubt that many people realised that January 13th was National Rubber Ducky Day.

Guests were invited to dress up in rubber duck/bath time costumes.

Some were more inventive than others.

A "parmentier de confit de canard" was served which is a kind of duck shepherd's pie.

It was delicious.

More dressing up was required for a Burns Night supper at the home of more friends.

Thanks to Jim Craig for the photo.

It was an evening of music, songs, poetry and a quiz centred on the life of Robbie Burns.

For dinner we had cullen skink, a delicious haggis shepherd's pie, tatties and neeps followed by Scottish tart.  I haven't had genuine haggis for a while and had forgotten how good it is.

Much of January has been cold, grey and damp but there has been some sunshine.

 

I was in charge of dog walking on the day that we had a new window fitted.

(More about that later.)

It was a beautiful morning to enjoy a walk around the park at Paulmy.

We sit out in the late afternoons whenever the weather is half decent.

Wrapped up in hats, gloves and blankets we have been treated to some fabulous sunsets.

And now we are into February, one week almost gone.

Although it is the shortest month it often feels like the longest.

Not much happens in February but the winter is nearly over.

1st March is spring in my book and we look forward to more sunshine and some warmth, at last.

A TABLE EXTENSION

Two tables end to end to seat ten people.

When we bought our first house in France it was a tiny place but perfect as a second home or "holiday home".  We struggled to find furniture for it in France and soon realised that we could end up spending much of our actual holidays trying to furnish it. 

Over our first winter of owning the little house we collected furniture for it in the UK, sofas from Ikea, flatpack bedroom furniture and a lovely oak dining set in the January sales including a four seat table that would extend to six.  We hired a van and transported the lot across the channel at Easter 2008, picking up extra beds for the second bedroom and cramming them into the van on the way through France.

After a few years we downsized in the UK in order to upsize in France. The new UK house was much smaller and very little of our existing furniture would physically fit into it so we brought it all to France.  This included our dining table, sideboard and four chairs, meaning that we now have two dining sets in France.  

"Casual dining" in the kitchen.

The old UK table works well in the kitchen where Nick refers to it as "casual dining" and the oak set from the little house lives in the dining end of our living room where it serves as "formal dining" and comfortably seats six.  It’s a solution that has worked well for years and we really like it.  

As our circle of friends has grown we have been entertained by people who have the ability to throw large dinner parties or lunches where they could seat eight, ten or even more people.  We're not talking posh château dining, but people who have the room to fit in a big old table, or multiple small tables, and a random collection of chairs.  

After a while I began to wonder if we could do larger gatherings ourselves.  Our dining table seats six comfortably and we found that by putting the kitchen table at the end of it we could seat ten.  The only problem was that to get the kitchen table into the dining room we had to heave it out of the house through the kitchen door and back in through the middle door as it would not physically fit through the door between the two rooms!

It was heavy work, adding a lot of time to the hosting of any dinner party and in fact we missed having the kitchen table into the kitchen for food prep so we had to come up with another solution.  

One extension to seat an extra two people.

When we bought this house the large bedroom was also being used as an office.  There was a desk made from a couple of lengths of fairly sturdy kitchen worktop which we saved when we dismantled the office.  Having a huge barn enables us to save a mountain of stuff that might come in handy later!

Two extensions to seat an extra four people.

Nick created two extensions, one for each end of our oak table, using sections of the old office worktop, each supported by three tubular legs from Ikea.  They fit onto the table using clamps which can't be seen when the extensions are not in use.  With one extension the table seats eight with ample elbow room.  With two extensions we can seat ten.  If only the room itself was bigger we could add a third and seat another two!  

The worktop is not pretty and obviously I need a long tablecloth to hide all the joins but it works really well.  Luckily we already had enough chairs!  

Sets of matching or at least reasonably similar dinnerware are often on sale at local brocantes or vide greniers and we have accumulated a fair stash of it over the years.  The original set of six plates we bought from Ikea in 2008 has been boosted by acquiring extras from brocantes and fortunately we also have plenty of room in the barn to store it all!  We rarely pay more than two or three euros for a set of plates, bowls or whatever, the bonus being that we now have enough to afford to break a few!  Luckily mismatched crockery and glassware are still very much "in vogue".

The table in the foreground (there is a step down into the "dining room") is a side table that normally lives at the far end of the room and we bring it forward when we have a big dinner party.  It's perfect for serving dishes and plates.  It was a UK charity shop purchase a few years ago (pre Brexit when it we could bring such things freely).  I remember thinking it would probably come in handy at some point and with a coat of paint and a lick of varnish it's just the job!