AN OPTICAL ILLUSION ?

 Spotted from the window of the bus, near the Mirabeau stop, in Tours city centre.

A deliberate choice or a design misunderstanding?

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.)

SOAP a re-post from the "old blog"

These are some of my favourite English and French soaps.

My OH recently explained why he prefers a bar of soap to liquid soap.  Having been together for over thirty years I previously never knew the reason.  I assumed it was because he thought it was more manly!  He said he couldn’t get on with liquid soap because as soon as you run the tap the soap gets washed off.  

"Does it?" I thought.  

In our French house we have four sinks, or handwashing stations.  One each in the kitchen, utility room, ensuite shower room and the family bathroom.  Each sink has a bottle of liquid soap next to it and three of them also have a bar of soap. Two of them have two bars of soap, his and hers.

So why this obsession with soap and what about the thorny topic of soap dishes? 

I feel compelled to expand and explain.

Personally I'm a fan of liquid soap.  No more slimy bars of soap sitting in nasty puddles of gloop on the side of the sink, the stuff of nightmares from my childhood.  The worst you might have to deal with is a grubby thumb print on the plunger!

Don’t even mention the wall mounted soap on a stick I first encountered in French restaurant toilets.  Thankfully I haven’t seen one for a long while although it seems you can still buy them.  I used to shudder at the sight of one that was three quarters used, full of deep ugly cracks, and where you really had to wash the soap first before you could wash your hands. Ugh.

These are some of my favourite English and French liquid soaps.  

Now for the enormous variety of soap dishes available.  It has taken me years to find one that actually works; that keeps your soap dry and out of a puddle of slimy gloop. Consequently I have quite a collection of them.

This is the least effective kind.  The little bobbles in the bottom barely lift the soap above the water that runs off it and it soon goes soggy.  Yuk.  They do however make good trinket trays for your earrings!

I found the one on the right in a local French DIY shop several years ago.  It’s brilliant at keeping the soap dry but you obviously have to wipe up the drips on the surface underneath it and give it a wash occasionally.  It's made from plastic coated metal with rubber tips on the feet that stop it from skidding around.   It’s by the sink in the utility room where Nick prefers his own knobbly soap bar.  

The knobbly soap is an artisan kind of soap, very hard, full of bits of seeds to tackle hardworking gardener's hands and I have only found it on market stalls.  

Next to the gardening soap I keep a bar of girly soap on a different kind of soap dish.  The slots in the tray keep your soap more or less dry and the drips collect in the dish underneath, out of  sight.  The top separates from the bottom easily for cleaning of the dish.

This one was a much recommended internet purchase but I soon abandoned it to the box of spare soap dishes under the kitchen sink.  It works well enough, just about, in keeping your soap dry and out of the puddle, doesn't skid around, but soon produces a slimy residue on the side of the sink.

The same goes for these two, found in French supermarkets.  They keep the soap dryish and don't skid about on the side of the sink but a glurp of slime soon builds up in the dish and underneath.  They're very cheap so as a budget solution not too bad.

Remember these?  Yes, you can still buy them, mostly in old fashioned ironmongers or cut price homeware shops. The only good thing about them is that they are good for sticking your bar of soap to a sloping surface, but the soap is kept barely dry and the holder becomes disgusting rapidly.  Yuk.

These are my current favourites.  The rack is nice and deep and keeps the soap well out of the puddle and perfectly dry.  The puddle can be poured out of the dish until you're ready to clean it.  The rack clicks in and out so you can give it all a good scrub and the base has little rubber feet to keep it from skidding around.  They are made by a company called Joseph Joseph and I got mine in Sainsbury's.

Last but not least, I finally succumbed and invested in two glass refillable liquid soap dispensers.  Some of these can be very decorative (and pricey) but fiddly to use.  Mine came from Ikea, are very functional and not expensive but wouldn’t work on anything other than a very flat worktop surface.  They hold about twice as much liquid soap as a regular plastic bottle and are ideal for use with the cheaper bags of soap refills.

Now back to the original question.  If the liquid soaps run straight off under the tap how do I find them so easy to use?  I had to think about it and analyse how I perform a task that I do many times a day automatically.  I put a good dollop of soap on one hand, turn on the tap to wet the other hand then rub my hands together to lather up before putting them both under the tap.  Works every time.  Simple!