CHANGES, THOUGHTS, PLANS AND A HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

It was with a heavy heart that we left our house in France at the end of October but there was a good reason for it – two birthdays – Dad’s and Nick’s in mid November and on consecutive days.  Dad turned 90 and we had a small family celebration with a cake – a fruit cake at his request.

He’s doing remarkably well, still totally independent and still driving.  Regularly visiting his lady friend Sybil who lives 80 miles away, doing his own shopping, cooking and washing.  He is amazing for his age.

A week after the birthday celebrations we were on our way back to France for just a few days and for the last time this year.  We had spent just three weeks in the UK but there was unfinished work to do in the garden and the house before we could leave it over the winter.

What a change there was in our surroundings.  The leaves now lay in glorious golden carpets around the trees and there was no denying that autumn was in full swing.

For our first day in France we enjoyed beautiful sunshine, perfect for getting the garden work done. 

It was a completely different story when we awoke the next morning.  Almost as if someone had decided that it was time for winter and flipped a switch.  There was a deep frost and a beautiful sunrise.  Our garden was bathed in still, grey and tranquil colours.

It would take more than a little chilly weather to stop us from sitting out and enjoying our last few days, making the most of any warmth in the sun.  In true north of England fashion we donned our hats, scarves and warm jumpers and had our apéros outside.  (Much to the amusement of passing neighbours who are now convinced that we are totally mad!  Several cars slowed down for a second look just to be sure – yes, it’s the English, sitting out in the freezing cold again!)

It was worth getting chilly for the view.  This view was to have to last us for several months, over the winter, imprinted in our memories, until we return next spring.

After all the months we have spent in France this year, it was in these few days that we made our decision and formulated a plan for our future in France.

I can’t deny that the idea of Brexit (that awful word) fills us with dread.  Already we are financially much worse off since June 2016 when the value of the pound against the euro took a nosedive.  All our French shopping and household running expenses cost 20% more than they did then and that takes some finding.  We have had to make savings elsewhere to be able to keep the house and this will only get worse.  Once the UK leaves the EU it’s likely that there will be more paperwork and expense in order to spend possibly less time in France than we do now and we have had to think carefully if we really want to carry on like this. In fact if we can afford to carry on, keeping a house in France at all.

Undistracted by pets, visitors, shopping trips or anything else we hunkered down and just immersed ourselves in our little corner of France for three days and four nights.  We had spent only three weeks back in the UK but we were already worn down by the noise and mayhem of UK life.  To have our little haven of peace and tranquillity in France means so much to us and the few days we spent there in November convinced us that for now – we are not leaving.  It will take more than some extra paperwork and expense to make us give it up.  We will have to make sacrifices elsewhere but it will be worth it.

And so we are back in the UK for the winter.  For the first time in years we have had the time to make a proper job of getting ready for Christmas.  The cake is made and iced in good time, the decorations are up, the presents are wrapped and we’re looking forward to a day or two with the family.  Then we’ll be looking forward to our return to France in the Spring.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL !!

AND SO THE NEVER ENDING SUMMER INEVITABLY CAME TO AN END.

By the middle of September all our visitors had gone and we settled into what turned out to be our own little summer holiday.

The glorious weather just went on and on and on, well into October.  The days were warm although there were the tell-tale signs that autumn was just around the corner.  For us, coming from a cooler part of the UK, where the weather gets cool and wet in September and doesn’t cheer up until May at the earliest, this seemed to be like an endless summer.

We dusted off the Harleys and took days out for road trips.  The weather was perfect, warm enough to enjoy the ride along the beautiful, almost deserted roads, yet not hot enough to feel overheated.  I had almost forgotten how much I loved riding my motorcycle and in fact could hardly remember the last time I rode it.  We made up for lost time in September.

The only disappointment was to see the garden suffering so badly.  With the last of the rainwater in our cube we brought the pots back to life and restored flowers and colour to the garden – but there was nothing we could do for the grass.  It was however a small price to pay for having our extended summer.  We were having a wonderful time, exactly how we hoped life would be when we first moved in four years ago.

Most evenings we would take a stroll to the nearest hamlet, where the two goats rushed to greet us, ready for their treat of leftover baguette.  Hugo was fascinated by them.

We ate outdoors every day, always at lunchtime, but it was the evenings that were really special.  We would eat under the shelter, light the candles, and sit for a couple of hours, until well after dark.  Once the bats had finished their aerial display we would listen to the crickets, the owls, the foxes and the deer calling.  Magical times.

By the beginning of October the hunting season was in full swing.  We would hear the guns going off from early morning and had to think more carefully about where we took Hugo for a walk, to make sure we didn’t come across hunters in the forest.

We returned to our old haunts more often, the walk around the château being one of our favourites, with the added bonus of picking up walnuts from the ground along the way.

Pumpkins began to appear as decorations on windowsills in the village.  Autumn was definitely here in name but for us it was still summer.

In late October work began again in the fields, the tractors making clouds of dust as they worked the earth, baked dry by months without rain.  This seemed to us a sure sign that rain was expected and the endless summer would, inevitably come to an end.

They worked until long after sunset. 

With the shortening of the days in October we began to feel the weight of our return to the UK looming.  With a combination of sadness and joy we made the most of every minute, eating and working outdoors in the still beautiful weather.  I was dreading our return to the land of bad weather, bad manners, bad traffic, noise and litter.  Leaving behind the clean grass verges, the easy driving and the peace and quiet.  Once the job of tidying up the garden for winter was started, putting away the chairs and tables, we realised that we had spent so much time just enjoying being in our lovely house in this beautiful part of France, that we had almost run out of time to finish the work.

So we hatched a plan………..

A DAY OUT IN CHAUVIGNY

Because we have had a lot of visitors this year, we have done a lot more sight seeing than usual.  Consequently we have been to lots of places we have been before, some only fairly recently – twice in one year in fact.  Not that that’s any hardship, far from it.  This part of France is bursting at the seams with wonderful places to visit and once is never enough to take everything in.

With the last of our visitors now long gone we scratched our heads and thought about where we would like to go just by ourselves.  Last weekend, on a glorious warm (if rather breezy) October day, we decided to go to Chauvigny.

Chauvigny is a town of two halves, or rather, two levels.  The old medieval town stands high on a hill and overlooks the newer buildings below.

We have been twice before, the first time being probably at least twenty years ago.  The second was probably as recently as ten years ago.  On both occasions it was summer and the place was heaving with tourists.

On this bright October day there were just a few visitors strolling around and with that came the advantage that not only could we see everything clearly instead of just getting glimpses through a mass of people, but often we had a whole street to ourselves to properly explore.

You can go into the château itself for free but there’s not much to see, just a few quirky displays and newish furniture arranged to give the ambience of a medieval château.

Another good thing about there not being many people around is that it gives me the opportunity to indulge my fascination for doors and windows.  Of course typically there is often a car parked right outside the one I really want a picture of, as above.  

The waitress looked tired and jaded, bringing us our coffees with a smile that said she had had enough of tourists this summer.  Luckily she brought the bill for them at the same time so we left our money on the table without having to wait and went across the road to explore the château.  Within moments new people were at our table and the little tray containing our bill and money had been moved to the side along with the used cups.  When we came out of the château only a few minutes later, the café was deserted and the waitress was sweeping up.  Time was up and hapless visitors had been turned away.  Our money was still on the  table.

We meandered through the narrow streets, taking pictures and admiring the view, gradually making our way back to the car park.  At one point we heard a car and had to step swiftly aside so as to avoid being knocked down by the very car in the picture above, driven by the waitress from the café.

Here are some of my favourite door and window pictures from Chauvigny:

There were quite a lot of “ghost doorways” – blocked up doors and windows which I find possibly even more intriguing than normal ones.

Years ago, when we were first thinking about buying a holiday home in France, I always envisaged having one in a place like Chauvigny.  I thought it would be fun to have a little cottage somewhere that was buzzing with people all summer, with lots of things going on and so many different places to stroll along to for a meal in the evening or a drink in the afternoon.

In reality I’m not sure I would have enjoyed living in a place which is thronged with tourists all summer and deserted for six months of the year.  We saw lots of little cottages in Chauvigny that looked like holiday homes or gîtes, nicely painted, neat and tidy and in lovely little courtyards or corners of the town, now looking empty and sad.  I imagine that even getting luggage or a bag of shopping to a cottage in the height of summer could be difficult and that privacy might be impossible.  There would be no wandering out to water the geraniums in my pyjamas in the cool of the evening if I was to end up in someone else’s selfie!

It was lovely to visit for the afternoon but I am glad that we decided to live somewhere normal, or rather - in the middle of a field!

PICARDIE

Picardie is the name of a French tumbler.  This glass has been around for decades and is the classic design that we are all familiar with, found everywhere in France.  You might get your orange juice served in one in smart hotel breakfast rooms, water alongside your menu du jour in the local café or your rosé wine at the village brocante.  They are now made by Duralex in the Loire region.

The glasses on the right are the ones we bought when staying in a couple of different gîtes where there was nothing sensible to drink a glass of water or juice from.  You can get them in most supermarkets quite cheaply.  The one on the left is from a “set” of twelve shot glasses to the same design that we got at a brocante earlier this year for 2€ the lot.

You can get the same kind of design in stemmed glasses and we got all of these for next to nothing at different times at various local brocantes.  The ones in the front are perfect for sipping a glass of sweet wine.  The flutes make an ordinary glass of fizz seem really special and the larger ones are apparently for “cocktails” – according to the lady who sold me all eight of them at the brocante in Neuilly earlier this year, for the princely sum of 5€.

These are our regular daily wine glasses that we bought when staying in yet another gîte where the ones supplied were enormous and very fragile and we were afraid to use them – let alone put them in the dishwasher.  Picardie glasses are very strong and user friendly, eminently dishwasher proof and cheap to replace if you happen to break one.

You can now get the tumblers in a fine array of colours.  These were on special offer in the supermarket and I couldn’t resist them to cheer up the dinner table.

These are a bit different.  They have the same ribs as the traditional Picardie glasses but according to the lady who sold me a set of six at a recent brocante, they date back to the 1940’s, making them vintage glasses in my book.  They are perfect for a small measure of digestif (Southern Comfort being my current favourite).  She sold me a set of six but I spotted that one of them was chipped so that made them a set of five – and she knocked a whole euro off the price, making it 3€ for all of them.  I’m on the lookout for another one to replace it and make the set back up to six.

IT’S STILL SUMMER HERE

August disappeared in a blur.  We returned to the UK in order to get our back garden “fixed”.  It was a mess of worn out patio tiles, hugely overgrown shrubs, little paths, low crumbling walls and a leaking pond.  We came to the conclusion that it would take us months of work if we tried to sort it out ourselves and in fact hardly any of it was worth saving.  What we needed was help to turn it into a very low maintenance garden so that we could spend our summers in France not worrying about it.  We hired a firm of landscape gardeners and after two weeks of intense building work followed by two weeks of watering, planting and tidying, it is now the garden that we wanted. At last the place feels like home.  All the major work both outside and inside is done and what’s left is down to us – some decorating and a bit of DIY.

On 2nd September we returned to France, our August mission successfully completed.

We have had a lot of visitors this year.  Our last visitor was our niece Joanna, who usually comes with her dad (my brother) but was by herself this time.  She travelled to France with us – quite a car full with Joanna, the dog and cat - and the trailer full of all our luggage.

We had a great time showing her round some of our favourite places – above at the château at Rivau.

We also took her to the châteaux at Islette, Bouges and Loches, and to many other places.  She was very lucky with the weather which was fantastic for her whole stay, which always makes anybody’s holiday so much more enjoyable.

Now our last visitor, like the swallows, has flown.  We did a little calculation and worked out that if you add one day to both sides of the stay of each set of visitors for the getting ready and clearing up afterwards, it comes to seventy days this year.  If you add to that the time that both of us have spent in the UK by ourselves that comes to ninety days.  Which means that since we arrived here at the end of March we have had very little time here together, just the two of us.

Luckily, it is still summer here. We still have warm, sunny days but with cooler evenings and nights, the perfect combination and the reason that September is probably my favourite month of the year.  It rarely disappoints it’s lovely to have some time and the house to ourselves.

The garden suffered badly in spite of occasional watering during August but a couple of weeks of TLC have brought it back to life and restored a bit of colour.  The grass is still brown, the only green patches being weeds or where Hugo has “watered” it.

We have eaten outdoors as often as we could, making good use of our picnic shelter which always provides shade at any time of day.  There’s nothing quite like a long, lazy lunch in the sunshine to make you feel completely relaxed.

Lazing around is something we have had little time for so far this year so now we’re making the most of it, using all the sitting areas that we have placed around the house.  We can sit in the shade somewhere at all times of day.

Daisy settled in straight away after her month back in the UK, jumping out of the car as soon as we opened the door and making a quick check of the premises and the wildlife.  Hugo loves it here, having so much more space to run around in and play.

And this week we took the motorcycles out for a lovely long run in the sunshine, stopping for lunch at the little restaurant in St. Flovier, something we have not been able to do for a long while.  We have been too busy to ride them and the restaurant has been full the last three times even though we arrived there just after 12.00pm, holiday makers filling up the tables not taken by the usual clientele.  This time there were just a dozen or so workers taking their lunch break and us.

Life in France is back to normal !!