ART ON SUNDAY

 

At the salle des fêtes in Descartes this weekend there was a wonderful exhibition of art by local artists.  There were paintings in every kind of medium, sculptures, woodcraft and quilts.  The exhibition will run until 6th April and these pictures are just a sample of the brilliant work on display.

We hadn't been inside the SDF of Descartes before and it's an excellent venue, beautifully appointed.  How lucky we are to have all of this for free almost on our doorstep.

This was my favourite painting, a watercolour entitled "sous le vent".

A WEEK OF VILLAGE CELEBRATIONS

 

On St Patrick's Day, 17th March, there was a celebration in the village bar, the PreHisto.

The PreHisto gets its name from the château in the village, which is the French National Museum of pre-history.

The local musicians were there to play Irish music and everyone had a good time.

On the Thursday of that week I went on a girls' shopping trip to Tours.

We went on the bus, which takes an hour and costs 3.40€ each way.

(Less than the cost of the petrol and car parking for the same trip.)

I bought a set of lovely coffee spoons, small enough to be used with the daintiest of espresso cups.

I celebrated my purchase with a nice cup of coffee when I got home.

On Friday 20th we were invited to a cocktail party in the local garage.

This was a first for us.

It was to celebrate the end of the first year of trading for the new garage in the village.

As one of their earliest customers we received an invitation.

It was a very nice thing to do and very convivial.

After the cocktails we repaired to the PreHisto again to continue the celebrations.

Ayo, the bar owner's cat was there to greet us.

He was an abandoned stray kitten, adopted by the proprietor more than ten years ago.

He's turned into a beautiful cat, very friendly with the customers.

While we were in the bar the newly elected Maire arrived with her team.

In France you vote for the whole team and for the first time (I think) the village now has a lady Mayor.

There was a good deal more celebrating still going on when we slid away and headed home.

In "other news" we still have no idea what was going on at the neighbour's house a week ago.  He turned up as usual on Friday teatime, with a friend.  A camper van with two more people arrived soon afterwards.  They stayed the whole weekend then left as normal.  There was no sign of the Mayor or gendarmes this time.  

In more "other news" we are still waiting for the SMS summoning us to collect our cartes de séjour from the Préfecture.  It's more than three weeks since we were told our application had been approved.  My mum used to say "don't count your chickens before they hatch" so we're not celebrating just yet. 

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

The weather is perking up again after a few cold days.  Our daffodils have more or less finished but the tulips are in full bloom.  I'm sure we used to have more tulips than we do now but presumably some of the bulbs have either rotted away or been eaten.  The aubretia is fabulous as always and lives up to expectations.

The bathroom is almost finished.  "Finishing off" always takes much longer than you expect and especially so when none of the walls are either straight or level.  Putting up shelves is a complicated task, cutting them to fit and fixing them to wonky walls!  The expectation is that it will be finished by the end of this week.

The clematis that was a gift from a friend four months ago is still flowering and looking gorgeous on the kitchen windowsill.  We struggle with indoor plants as the rooms downstairs are all fairly dark due to the small windows yet the only two windowsills we have can get too hot in the warmer months.  This plant has survived well beyond our expectations.

At the weekend we went to an "Irish evening" where we were not quite sure what to expect.  French onion soup followed by fish and chips with a slightly Irish twist was a first for us but very good all the same! The proprietor said she was nervous about serving fish and chips to a table of English people and hoped they would meet expectations.  They did!  We were the only non French people there but the fish in batter, although not as good as you would get from the local British chippy, were the best we’ve had so far in France.  I find it odd that the French clearly love fish and chips (around here anyway) but they don't really know how to cook them!

After that we went back to the village to watch the France versus England rugby match in the bar.  You would be surprised to hear that I have an interest in rugby and you would not be wrong!  However, Nick wanted to see the second half of the match so I was happy to indulge him.  Watching a France versus England match in a bar in France where supporters from both nations are present is a full on experience!  Nick didn't expect England to win the match but even I could see that it was an exciting finish and to lose by just one point seems tragic.  There were shouts of "we was robbed" from the English!

 We have had a bit of excitement chez nous.  A new neighbour moved into the house behind us last autumn and we didn't quite know what to expect.  When we went to say hello and introduce ourselves he seemed nice enough.  Mostly he is only there at the weekends with his dog who is called "Ganja".  

Early yesterday morning a van and a car turned up, followed quickly by the Maire and then two gendarmes.  The neighbour wasn't there so they soon left.  We have a number of theories about what was going on.

Last but not least, we are on tenterhooks again as we are expecting the imminent arrival of the SMS message summoning us to attend the Préfecture to collect our residence cards.  The interval between the email and the message last time was nine working days.  Today is the ninth day.

A BUSY WEEK.

The gorgeous weather of my first week back was bound not to last, but it was great while it lasted!  I got loads and loads of washing done and dry on the line outdoors, including bedding, curtains and dog beds.  

I find there’s something therapeutically old fashioned about drying washing on the line in the fresh air.  The whole process gives me huge satisfaction - unless of course there’s an unexpected shower!  Having to fetch it all back indoors in a hurry is fundamentally disheartening but then I just put it all on the airer in the dining room where it’s out of the way and the warmth from the log burner at the other end of the room finishes it off.

This is all completely baffling to a friend who doesn’t possess a washing line and dries everything in a tumble dryer.  When I explained that I've always dried washing outdoors whenever possible and that now it feels more important as it saves me money, saves on electricity and in turn goes some way towards saving the planet she thought it was pointless.  "Someone else will have to do that for me" she said.  There’s no wonder that the planet is gradually burning to a crisp.

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" and we took time off from chores and DIY quite a lot last week.  On Saturday we went to a wonderful concert in a nearby village hall.  It was a performance of swing jazz by an amateur orchestra of local musicians and it was fabulous.  There’s a lot going on in rural France if you know where to look!

On Sunday it was a glorious 20°C so went to the first brocante of the year and later in the afternoon dusted off the old Harleys and went for a run.  I hadn’t ridden mine at all last year but it seems you never do forget…..

The bathroom project stalled a bit and not much progress was made.  Not for lack of effort though, but because of niggling problems.  The drawer unit under the sink was a flat pack item that simply wouldn’t go together properly.  Yet another visit to several DIY shops were required to source bits that would help to align the components correctly.  More visits were required to get different plumbing bits to solve small leaks on the sink and toilet and then several more to find somewhere that had tiles that we liked in stock.

This week though, the work is steaming ahead and Nick is getting on with tiling, woodwork, painting and finishing off.  And of course, today it’s going to rain all day!

SPRING IS SPRUNG AND GOOD NEWS

During my busy week in the UK where the weather was cold, grey and wet, Spring arrived chez nous in France.  Whilst I was dodging heavy rain showers to do various errands, Nick was beavering away with the bathroom modifications and taking his breaks outside in 20°C sunshine.  Winter just suddenly ended.

Once back in France I was able to enjoy it all myself, eating lunch outdoors and sitting out in the evenings until the bats had come out to play and to hear the owls, foxes and other nightlife.

The bathroom is coming along.  Demolition of the previous wall, rebuilding of the new wall and the new floor have been completed.  The plumbing was held up by having to do a tour of numerous DIY shops to find the right bits.  Only once the old sink and loo were removed was it clear exactly what bits were needed.  The old loo had been glued to the floor and not screwed down, an interesting DIY approach but not entirely unexpected in this house!  The plumbing part is now done, leaving tiling, woodwork, finishing off and decorating to be done.  

One of the challenges of life in rural France is that although there are plenty of DIY shops around, they are all at least a half hour drive away and they close for two hours minimum at lunchtime.  Hence timing is everything.  The compensation is that it can usually involve lunch somewhere, waiting for the shop to open or on the way home!  

It took us a whole day to find the few tiles that we needed for a splash back for the sink.  A tour of all the local shops ended in disappointment, as none of them actually had anything we liked in stock.  Eventually we went to the posh tile shop in Tours and after a rummage through their "fin de serie carrelage" (discontinued tiles) came away with a box of the perfect tiles at a bargain price.

 

Since my return I've been on dog walking, cooking and housework duty.  The walking has been a joy in the gorgeous spring weather.

In "other news" we were thrilled and relieved to hear from the Préfecture two days ago that our applications to renew our cartes de séjour have been approved.  It seems that this year everything has gone through pretty seamlessly and more or less on time.  With the email came our "decision favourable", the document we can print off and use for travel until we get the actual cards.  (This is the document we used to travel for a whole year in 2024 because we didn’t get the text message summoning us to collect the actual cards.)  This year we should have them only a couple of weeks after the current ones expire, which is today!

We expect to get the text in a week or so, to make the trip to the Tours, queue up at the Préfecture, pay our 450€ and then, with the precious cards safely in our wallets, enjoy a celebratory lunch somewhere.

READY FOR SOME SUNSHINE and a new bathroom

The subject in watercolour class last week was "trees".  The sun was shining (briefly) and this palm tree seemed like the right thing to paint.

This week I am back in the UK for some errands.  Mixed weather is expected but I feel as though we have turned the corner and winter is on its way out.

Meanwhile, Nick is tackling a job we've been meaning to do for years.  Refreshing the en-suite bathroom.  It’s tired and dismal but the biggest challenge has been in deciding how far to go with the changes.  A bathroom is a Big Job and can be very expensive so we compromised.  

Nick is doing it while I'm away so that I can’t grumble about the mess and disruption - which is another major challenge!  He’s completed the demolition phase.  Now all he has to do is fit the new items.  Fingers crossed it will be finished by the time I get back!

A FALSE ALARM!

In an unexpected turn of events we seemed to have received a text from the Prefecture to say our cartes de séjours are available to collect.  This was even before the current ones expire!

On looking more closely, the text was from last year………we had been looking it up to check the date we received it in an attempt to second guess what might happen this year!  On hearing an alert for another completely different sender we got all excited and got it wrong…..

So, it’s back to the waiting game………