YVONNE and the case of the wrong staff

Yvonne and Nick in pensive mood.

Yvonne has been with us for nearly three years.  She is 12½ years old.  Some of you may remember her story.  She had been dumped with someone who never really wanted a cat but who agreed to look after her for two weeks while her owner went away.  He never came back.  She had been kept in a barn for two whole months, with occasional walks outside on a lead.  With winter coming word went round that Yvonne needed a new home.  We had just lost Daisy so we adopted her.

The herb bed is one of Yvonne's favourite hiding places.

She emerges smelling sweetly of tarragon.

She is officially a tortoiseshell cat.

Waiting for us to join her at apéro time.

6pm sharp.

Dreamy time again.

Always on the lookout for a passing mouse.

Another favourite hiding place.

Always the explorer.

And an opportunist.

She was terrified of Hugo at first.  He was, of course, the perfect gentleman.

He gave her space and now they get along fine.

Another favourite hiding place.

When I was in the UK recently, our lovely neighbour Malcolm passed away.  He was 92 and I'm glad I was around to be on hand for his wife Janet to help with preparations for him to spend his last days at home, where they both wanted him to be.  They didn't want him to end his days in a hospice but at home.  

All the time I was in the UK, two whole weeks, Nick reported that Yvonne was hardly eating anything.  She would go through the usual routine, waking him up early to demand breakfast, nudging him for more treats, but after a couple of nibbles wouldn't eat any more.  He threw away more food than she ate - it didn't keep well once opened in the tremendous heatwave.  He wondered if her appetite was affected by the heat.

When I got back to France she made up for it, tucking into each bowlful with gusto and demanding more.  It seems it was nothing to do with the heat, just the wrong staff feeding her! 

This made us realise that leaving her unattended with someone calling each day to feed her wouldn't work for Yvonne.  She likes company and is clearly out of sorts unless we are both at home.  This is the main reason that we now travel back to the UK one at a time.  One of us stays in France with Hugo and Yvonne while the other visits the UK for a week or so.  (There is also a huge difference in cost.  We can make three trips by air for one person for the cost of one round trip en famille by car.)

I returned to France for just four days before we set off back to the UK for the funeral, this time in the car with Hugo.  When Daisy was with us we would bring her too but Yvonne is not a good traveller so we can only travel by car if there is room for her in the cattery.  We were in luck this time, the holiday season not really in full swing yet in France - had it been August there would be no chance at such short notice.

When we got there we were amazed to find it had gone through a huge transformation.  It was previously a rather scruffy place but we were always happy to leave Yvonne there (and previously, on many occasions, Daisy) because the staff were lovely and we knew she would be safe and well cared for.  Now it is definitely five star accommodation.

Each pen has its own cat adventure playground and we left her there wondering where she would climb up to and hide first.

"Can I go with you?"

Leaving Yvonne in the cattery is always bitter sweet.  We are glad she is safe, comfortable and well cared for but know that she will miss us.  She's not one of those cats that plays hard to get for a few days when they get home.  She always gets straight back to normal, a quick sweep of the property to make sure all is well, a dish full of her favourite food with treats and she's ready to sit with us for cuddles.

Whenever I go away I am always glad to get back home and make our family complete again.

COFFEE HEAVEN

Most days at breakfast we will have coffee from a filter jug machine then occasionally an espresso after lunch or dinner.  

In France we have an ancient Krups espresso machine which we have had for about twenty five years and uses ground coffee.  It is a bit of a faff, although it makes nice coffee but the packs of coffee definitely go off once opened and we inevitably end up throwing some away.  In the UK we have a neat little Lavazza machine which takes large capsules.  When we got it about ten years ago there was a good range of capsules readily available in most supermarkets.  They are now much more difficult to find and very limited in range, except online, and can be very expensive.  

Last autumn we were breezing through SuperU and spotted a L'Or Barista machine on special offer.  A browse of the coffee aisle in the supermarket told us that you can get a huge range of capsules to fit it.  In fact any "Nespresso compatible" capsule will fit.  So we took the plunge.

We were so thrilled with it that the old Krups was soon put out to grass (in the barn) and we bought a second one in the UK.  The Lavazza was then also put out to grass (in the garage).

Both machines will make a little espresso or a café alongée, which we prefer, there is a large range of coffees available at sensible prices to fit them, almost everywhere.  

My only reservation with these machines is what happens to the used capsules?  In France we can in theory put them in with the usual recycling but in fact we've been saving them up to drop off at the déchetterie when we take garden rubbish.  There is a huge skip gradually filling up with used capsules, goodness only knows what they will do with them when it's full.

When we got our UK machine it came with a plastic bag into which we can put the used capsules and take them to a recycling centre or post them.  The nearest centre is at a supermarket some miles away that we don't frequent so that was never going to happen. So I did a bit of internet research.

Enter stage right the Dualit EcoPress.  For a modest price this little gadget squeezes the coffee grounds out of the used capsule into a container.  You then rinse off the capsules, assemble them in a pile and squash them flat to go into the recycling.  The used coffee grounds can be put into garden compost or food recycling.   It's a solution that makes me feel comfortable about using capsules and we can have a lovely fresh coffee when we feel like one, although we still have our filter coffee when we want a jugful in the mornings.  Coffee heaven!

THE CATCHER AND THE EARRINGS

Well the tooth is gone.  Our UK dentist is marvellous.  His name is Michael and he's a very grounded, no nonsense kind of person and after a degree of fairly dramatic pushing, shoving and waggling, which seemed to last for ages but was probably only a few seconds, the tooth was out.

"Eee I am good" he exclaimed as he waved it in front of me.  I was pleased about that, as it meant that it had come out in one piece without the need for any digging, which had been my worry.  "Little bugger!" I said, looking at the bloody molar. (Literally.)

"You can faint now!" he said, with a cheeky grin.  He explained that many people get so worked up about having a tooth out that they faint once it's all over.  I can understand that, it's a pretty brutal business.  That's when it occurred to me why there were two dental nurses in the room instead of the usual one.  The taller one was probably there to act as catcher.  

Luckily I'm not the fainting type.  Anyway, I had to stay vertical in order to drive home.  I was back home only half an hour after leaving for the appointment.  Marvellous.

He gave me a leaflet about aftercare and some instructions saying that the socket would heal perfectly well.  "Things go wrong when people mess with it" he said.

However, I did feel a bit fragile and needed some paracetamol once the local anaesthetic had worn off.  Sitting outside in the shade at teatime I was glad for a visit from our robin who kept me company.

When we first moved to our second French house, when it was mainly a second home, I took my vast collection of beads there.  They rarely got used because we were there in summer when there were other things to do.  So we moved them back to the UK where I would happily tinker away with them over the dull winter months.

Now of course we spend the winters in France and my beads are still in the UK.  Having lugged them across the Channel twice, there and back again, and with the complexities of Brexit, I don't feel inclined to take them to France again but I do miss them.  Feeling rather battered and bruised yesterday afternoon I decided it was a good time to tackle one of the sorting jobs that's been on my mind for ages.  When we are only in the UK for a short time I often do little repair and alteration jobs and it inevitably involves rummaging through boxes without the time to tidy things up afterwards.  Hence a box full of random bits and pieces that needed sorting.  I tipped them all out onto the dining table and sorted them.  It was very satisfying in a mindless way that took my mind off the morning's drama.

And so I have been able to do some alterations to a friend's earrings.  She has three pairs that were a gift from someone and she loves them but the ear hooks make her ears sore.  She obviously has an allergy to nickel or whatever metal they are made of.  My idea was to change the gold coloured mounts for sterling silver ear hooks in such a way as to create the same length of drop or dangle.  That way she can still wear them without getting sore ears.  Playing with my beads again has been great fun.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy doing it.

AN EYE, A TOOTH AND A POP-UP

All over our part of France pop-up restaurants called "guinguettes" open for the summer months.

They are very popular often hosting musical evenings as well as serving food and drinks.  Our favourite is one calle "La Halle" at Boussay and a couple of weeks ago we went there to an excellent concert featuring the blues/rock singer Angie Palmer.

First the tooth story.  While Nick was in the UK at the end of April I started to feel a mild ache in one of my back teeth.  This tooth has been a problem for many years, three of its four cusps having been broken in the last ten years and the last repair was a big job.  My dentist in the UK said it might not last.

The toothache became more persistent so I popped into our dentist in Ligueil to ask for an appointment.  Even though I said I was in pain the earliest one they could give me was four weeks away, at the end of May.  Finding a dentist in France is not easy and we were relieved to become registered with one locally, thinking that if ever we were in trouble we had somewhere to go.  It seems we were mistaken.  What's the point of being registered with a dentist if they can't see you when you really need them?

The toothache became severe and our French GP prescribed strong antibiotics which settled it fairly quickly but I then developed an allergy to the tablets; a horrible rash and other symptoms.  It seems it is not uncommon to become allergic to penicillin later in life having never had a problem with it before.

Two days before my dental appointment was due the surgery phoned to cancel it and put it back another three weeks.  I was not best pleased and would have told them to stuff it if I had known how to say that in French.  I phoned my old dentist in the UK and they could fit me in much quicker than that.

A few days before I was due to fly back to the UK to see my old dentist Yvonne went missing one evening.  She is usually around us and not far away all the time so this was unusual.  When we went to bed we found her hiding in a corner with one eye clamped firmly shut.  She would not let me examine her but I could see blood on her face and she was clearly in pain.

We had a difficult night with her and in the morning took her to the vet.  She is not easy to examine and the lady vet who normally manages her (we call her the cat whisperer) was off duty so we had to leave her behind to be sedated and looked at later in the day.

I was worried that she might have been in a fight with the most recent visiting cat and that the eye was permanently damaged.  That would result in hard decisions having to be made.  Our previous cat Daisy had to have a number of serious operations for a tumour on her face and looking back we vowed never to put a cat (or dog) or us through all of that again.

When we collected her the vet showed us something like this that he had removed from her eye, an arrowhead grass seed.  No wonder she was in pain.  He gave us some antibiotic ointment to put into her eye twice a day, which was rather a challenge but within a couple of days the eye was fully open and her behaviour was perfectly normal.

The day before I flew back to the UK we went to La Halle hoping for a late lunch but the kitchen was by then closed.  Instead we had a delicious selection of local cheese and wine.

There was hardly anybody else there and the place was calm and peaceful.  We shall go more often.

Once back in the UK I was please to find the garden looking tidy and positively delightful.  How lucky we were when the previous neighbours (an odd couple) moved out and a young woman who is a gardener moved in.  She is doing a great job.

The day after I landed I saw my dentist who said the abscess is still present and prescribed a different kind of antibiotic to be taken for one week with an appointment to then have the tooth removed.  He said I won't miss it and I shall surely be glad to get rid.  I don't ever want to go through all of that again.

And so, with the cat now better and a plan in place to get my tooth dealt with I have been able to relax in our lovely little UK garden in fine summer weather - although feeling a little guilty that poor Nick is sweltering in France in the current heatwave.

A visit to the local charity shops has been fruitful.  These two cookbooks seem brand new and at £1.50 each real bargains.

A set of ten of these small glass dishes will come in very handy the next time I make lemon syllabub for a lunch or dinner party.  

A JOYOUS EVENING, A SAD GOODBYE.

Only a few years ago, the bar that was originally called the Jean Bart became Brody's, a popular bar and restaurant serving delicious pizzas, lasagne, burgers, salads and desserts.  It was also a great place to meet friends and have a coffee mid morning or apéros in the evening.  Many is the time we came for coffee or an apéro and decided to stay for lunch or dinner!

Brody's is due to change hands under new owners and this is their last weekend of serving their food.  From the very first opening night it was clear that this restaurant was exactly what the village needed, great food at affordable prices.  In the summer it would be buzzing with visitors, delighted to be able to feed the family and enjoy the ambience and hospitality of a thriving restaurant.  In winter it was always open to offer warmth and tasty food in the cosy indoor dining room.  Many times it has hosted musical events, indoors and outdoors, to an enthusiastic crowd.

We will miss Doug's cooking, Charlotte's cheery welcome and Debbie's efficient serving.  We wish them all the best and look forward to the place re-opening under new owners and presumably a new name.  It sounds like the menu will carry on in similar vein and the restaurant will continue to be popular with locals and visitors all year round.

We were glad to be able to dine there with friends for their swansong weekend.

 

A NEW CAT FLAP

We have very few near neighbours.  The nearest is the house behind us where the recently new owner has only a dog.  However, over the years we have had a few visiting cats that must have travelled a fair distance to arrive chez nous.

The latest is a black cat who came into the house via the cat flap and cleared Yvonne’s food bowl at least twice.  So we decided to get a microchip operated cat flap.  

We already have one in our UK house which we installed for Daisy and it worked really well. The  house there is in a residential area where there are numerous other cats, several of which made their way into the house at one time or another until we got the new cat flap.  That stopped them from coming in completely.

The new cat flap is battery operated and works by somehow recognising Yvonne’s microchip.  It was easy to install and set up.  You set it to programme mode and push the cat into the tunnel on the outside just once and that’s all.  It can be programmed to recognise several different cats as long as they are microchipped.  There is a slight delay of about a second before the lock releases to allow the cat to push the flap open and Yvonne got the hang of it straight away.

We had Yvonne microchipped in the hope that one day we would be able to take her to the UK with us but that is very unlikely to ever happen as she doesn’t cope with car journeys at all well.  I suppose that's because she was already an old cat at nine years old (the vet’s word) when we got her and she was clearly not used to travelling in a car.  Each trip is traumatic for her and us.  The vet supplied some tablets to give her which might help but even that in itself is a trauma.  In fact we haven’t even been brave enough to try it.  How do you give a tablet to a struggling, fighting, hissing, biting and scratching  cat?  So the furthest she goes is to the vet or the cattery, a journey of thirty or forty minutes respectively, each one a miserable experience.

However, it was worth the trouble of getting her chipped so that we could keep her safe in her own home and keep other unwelcome cats out.  The new cat flap has four settings;  completely locked, fully open, in only and out only.  We keep it on fully open so that Yvonne can come and go as she pleases but we're sure there will be times when the other functions could come in handy.

You do have to remember to change the batteries occasionally - otherwise the cat can be left out in the cold unable to get inside (or vice versa).

SUBLIME TO RIDICULOUS!

Exactly one week ago we were sweltering in temperatures in the mid 30's.  The weather broke last Sunday and it has become cooler every day.  This is definitely the cause of mixed feelings!
 

At the very start of the heatwave - although I am not sure what the true definition of a heatwave is - we had invited some friends round for a bbq.  It was a truly sublime evening.  Sitting outdoors until after dark enjoying the company of good friends and good food, a perfect summer activity and it was still only the third week in May!

After that the temperatures climbed higher and higher with every day.  We were having to get up early to water our pots of plants outdoors before it became too hot to do it.  The pansies finally went over and have been replaced by geraniums.

Hugo spent the day lazing around wherever he could find a cool spot.

Yvonne went into high summer mode.

She didn't come into the house unless the air conditioning was on in the bedroom.

A friend used to say (and it was not his original idea) that there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.  This applied to Derbyshire weather as a coping strategy for wrapping up against the cold and wet.  We can do the same here but when it comes to sweltering heat there isn't much you can do about it except to give in, to stay indoors in the coolest place possible.  We have come to the conclusion that we have made the same mistake as other people who think they can beat the weather and carry on as normal.

On the very last day of the current heatwave we gave in, gave up on cooking and went out to lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, the Auberge de la Roche in La Roche Posay.  It was lovely and cool in their air conditioned dining room.

There were only two other tables taken.  It was the day before the French Mother's Day - Fête des Mères - and the restauranteur said the place was "complet" the next day.  In fact she could have filled the tables three times over.  She said that Fête des Mères and Paques (Easter Sunday) are the two days that get booked up well in advance.  While we were there she answered the phone many times and turned away disappointed people calling to see if there was a cancellation.  

From our table there was a view of one of the two huge hotels in La Roche Posay.  The town was one of the places where people could be sent to stay for a period of rest and recuperation.  This has not been available on prescription for a few years and as a result both of these fine old hotels have closed.  A sad sign of the times.

Our lunch taken from the "menu du weekend" was delicious.  The weekday "menu du jour" is not available on Saturday or Sunday but is always just as good.

A crab starter.

A fish main course.

A rhubarb and strawberry meringue dessert.

The next day, the Fête des Mères, the weather broke.  It was ten degrees cooler and much more "agréable".  Since then it has got cooler every day and we have had quite a bit of very welcome rain.  Now we want summer to come back, we are now after all into June!