TWELVE MONTHS IN TWELVE DAYS

 AUGUST

Another heat wave.

The blistering heat of summer continued.

It was also windy.  The desiccating breeze spelled disaster for the garden plants but was good for drying the washing.

We bought a gas barbecue.  Not quite the cave man style that we were used to but excellent for predictable entertaining and fewer crozzled sausages!

For the last few months we had been preoccupied with problems on the other side of the channel but we were making up for lost time.  Eating out, entertaining and enjoying ourselves, in spite of the tremedous heat.

At the Paulmy brocante (the second in the year) we didn't linger but stayed long enough to buy this set of little bowls and a plate.  All for 2€.

On the day we had arranged to have a lovely lunch at Le Cerafus in Saint Savin the temperature was nearing 40°C.  

It was nice and cool inside but we decided to postpone our visit to the Abbey until another time when it might be cooler and more comfortable for sight seeing.

There was entertainment in the village square on warm evenings.

Our tomato plants managed to produce a few fruits in spite of the heat waves and drought.

With our visas due to expire on a date in early September we had to be out of the country on that day.  Our plan was to leave France in the third week of August and return in mid September, using the rest of our 180 days with the Schengen rules.  Brexit had made life very complicated.

We also planned that my brother would join us in September for his first holiday in three years.  September is a lovely month to be chez nous.  In the middle of August he was having symptoms that suggested he might have Covid.  It turned out to be a pulmonary embolism instead and he was admitted to hospital.

After a truly horrendous journey back to the UK on 21st August, taking nineteen hours, we arrived home at 6.30am.  Two hours later we had a phone call from a doctor at the hospital to say that my brother was now in intensive care.