ANOTHER SUNSET

 

As the sun sets on another day in the middle of France we think about our future.

The SMS from the Préfecture inviting us to go and collect our cartes de séjour has still not arrived after almost six weeks.

We think it's unlikely that they are not ready, that they have not actually been manufactured yet.  Our 2024 cards were ready within two weeks but the message to collect them was sent to the wrong number.  We finally collected them after they had been sitting at the Préfecture for eleven months.  Our 2025 cards were ready within two weeks and we collected them promptly.  We think it's likely that this year's cards are ready but the text has not been sent to the right number, if at all, or the text has gone missing into the ether, as they sometimes do.

An SMS seems a very insecure and unreliable method to use for such an important thing as residence cards, even more so that there is no procedure to follow up uncollected cards.  With text messages there is no indication whether a message has been read.  So, we have sent an email to the Préfecture asking, very tactfully, in "would your dog like my breakfast" tones, if they are ready and if an SMS could be resent.   We are advised that when contacting the Préfecture it's important to imply that any fault is ours, not theirs!  Email is the only avenue of contact and you can't get into the Préfecture without showing the SMS on your phone to the security guard on the door.  We expect to get some kind of reply in a couple of weeks but are not hopeful that it will be helpful.

Lately, we have been thinking about our future in France.  The house we have here would be difficult to manage if there was just one of us, or if one of us needs help and care.  We have come to the conclusion that, like many of our friends, we will have to either downsize to something more manageable in our old age, or return to the UK, where we already have a small house perfect for an old couple or, importantly, an old person on their own.

Lately, several of our friends have put their French homes up for sale to return to the UK.  Mostly it's the need to be near to family as they get older.  For one it's the hassle of managing an old property by themselves as a widow.  

For us there is another dimension, a direct result of Brexit, that we do not have the right to live here and have to go through this palaver (and expense) of re-applying for residence cards every year.  After we have had five one-year residence cards we should get a ten-year card.  That would be in 2028.  Which means that by the time we would have to renew that we would be well into our eighties and that could easily be one thing too much to cope with.  

The health service in France is excellent, better than in the UK, but living out in the sticks if there was just one of us would be very hard.  Not to mention that sooner or later we would almost certainly not be able to drive.

The thought of giving up our place in France and returning full time to the UK has filled me with dread but we would have to do it while we are still physically and mentally capable of doing it.  We don't want to find ourselves in the position of being forced to do it at a time when we are unable to cope.  So, we have come up with an alternative plan.  We are going to sell this house and look for a small holiday home.  We would become UK residents again but having a small house in France, somewhere in the same general area, that we could use for holidays or a month or so at a time.  Back to where we started.  Once we felt unable to make the journey we could sell that, or leave it to family, or just walk away from it.

We love this place, love this house and the life here and don't want to give it up, but have to have a plan for the future while we still have options and can cope with a move.  We are conscious that we shouldn’t leave it until it’s too late. 

A DAY IN THE CITY

We went to Tours on the bus for a day out.  The main reason was to see an exhibition of sculpture by female artists at the Musée des Beaux Arts.  It was on the ground floor where there were several groups of teenage children presumably on a school visit to see them.  They seemed to be having a good time, judging by the level of noise!

On the upper floors there were a lot of biblical paintings depicting scenes of too much violence and misery for my taste.  Regardless of the skill of the artists I couldn’t bring myself to study them for long.  I've come to the conclusion that in most things I prefer lightweight to serious these days.  

The sculptures were fabulous but my favourite was not a bronze but one by a Canadian sculptor called Carolina Benedicks-Bruce, of herself and her husband.

In the courtyard of the museum is a huge cedar tree.  It’s a magnificent specimen and also one of the largest and acknowledged trees in France.  It reminded me of the lovely tree recognition ceremony that we attended at the château in our own village last year.

We got the bus home at teatime so that Hugo and Yvonne were not alone by themselves for too long.

It was a nice day out and we enjoyed our little glimpse of "city life".  Living out in the sticks and immersed in country life it’s fun to be surrounded by a little hustle and bustle amongst the smart shops and restaurants every so often. 

In the evening there was another gorgeous sunset.  We sat out in our hats and fleeces until the sun disappeared and the bats came out.

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.