We have been in the house now for 3 weeks. When we moved in, the garden was in dire need of attention, the grass was a foot high which took me about 4 days to cut, using a petrol Flymo, not that I worked all the time on cutting the grass, much too hot for that!
The pictures above show a view of the front of the house, plus front and rear gardens.
Jan has put a lot of her pot plants around the patio area, plus we?ve planted a lot of small trees and bushes in the rest of the garden. It will be a long time before the garden is to her Ladyship?s high standards but there?s no rush (that?s my view anyway).
Have now got Broadband up and running, only 2 Meg but after suffering dial up off and on since we moved out here it?s brilliant. At least I will be able to update the Blog on a regular basis now.
We have seen quite a variety of wildlife in the garden, a snake, stick insect, praying mantis, lots of lizards, beetles of all sizes plus many species of birds. Out of all the wild creatures I?ve seen so far the only one I?m scared of is Jan!
Having observed French drivers for over 5 months now, I?ve realised there must be a few laws that I was not aware of:-
1. The white line down the middle of the road is to be used as a guide for aligning the centre of your car on the road. This allows you to scare the crap out of unwitting UK drivers coming in the opposite direction, giving a brief moment of panic as you try to decide which side of the road you should really be driving on.
2. If there are no white lines down the centre of the road, then the whole road is yours, you can cut corners, or even drive on the wrong side. This causes even more consternation to others than in 1. above.
3. On normal roads you MUST overtake the car in front but only when either a car (or preferably a lorry) is coming the other way or you are on a blind bend. If it is a long straight road with no approaching vehicles you must drive 3 metres off the back bumper of the car in front until it is not safe to overtake and then GO FOR IT!! Once you have overtaken the car in front, if there are no more cars to overtake you MUST then slow down to 1 or 2 mph less than the steady speed of the car you have just passed.
4. On a motorway or dual carriageway, the distance between 2 vehicles in the outside lane must be in inverse proportion to their speed. The generally accepted distances seem to be around 20 metres at 50 mph and about 1 metre at 90 mph
One other observation, there must be a lot of cars in France with drivers doors that won?t stay closed. Most men seem to drive with the window open and their left arm hanging down outside, presumably preventing the door from swinging open.
We went to a Vide Grenier (French equivalent of a car boot sale) in Maubourguet just over a week ago, lots of junk, a lot of it overpriced, about the most interesting part was the horse and cart taking the children (and the owner?s dog!) for a ride.
Poor old JJ, forgot to mention in previous updates that he had to have a tooth out while we were staying with Bruce and Polly. He had not shown any sign of pain but we found blood on one of his toys and then on the floor, eventually traced it to a very bad tooth! We took him to the vet and he gave him some antibiotics for a couple of days, then took the tooth out (under a general anaesthetic). He had 3 stitches but seemed right as rain afterwards.
Then, we missed doing his Frontline (anti flea etc treatment) by a few days and he got covered in fleas!! We quickly got rid of them but they had bitten him all over so now he has to wear his ?bonnet? to stop him scratching. He should be OK in a few days.
We have started the mammoth task of getting the house to our liking, the dodgy wallpaper in our bedroom has gone, so this week we shall be building in a wardrobe and re-decorating the whole room. The wardrobe will need to be quite (well, very) large to have room for all Jan?s clothes!
Now we are settled in we would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the following:-
Bruce and Polly (especially Polly!) for putting us up (well, putting up with us really!) at various times over the last few months. We appreciate their help more then they perhaps realise, they made us very welcome and even gave us their bedroom while we stayed there. Polly?s command of the French language came in useful more than once, I?ll have to manage on my own now we?re 80 miles away!
Bruce and Polly are renovating a farmhouse near to Aspet, they have a lot of work still to do but will eventually run activity holidays for mountain biking, kayaking, walking, skiing etc. They are also expecting their first child, well Polly is, Bruce?s involvement finished months ago! He needs to build his strength back up for the sleepless nights to come?
David and Pauline for allowing us to stay at their cottage in Normandie, even though I?m still not sure we got the best deal (rent free, but sort out the fallen wall)! Their offer came at a time when we needed some long term accommodation and we also needed something to do while we waited for the due process of French law on house buying to run its course. We had a good time there, made some new friends and got a lot fitter than we were!
Ray and Trish for letting us ?drop in and stay? whenever we needed a roof over our heads for a few days and for looking after a lot of Jan?s plants etc. Also for letting me clutter up their garage with a trailer load of my ?essential bits and pieces? (i.e. junk). One day we will have to ?drop in and stay? to collect everything?
Jan?s Dad for letting us use his place as a free hotel whenever we went back to the UK, can?t give you 5 stars Dad (no maid service!) but otherwise excellent. By the way, we?re back in October for a week, please keep our room free for then!
Charles Morris of Abafim, who helped us find our house after driving us a round for most of a day. Then liaising with the Notaire etc all the way down the long and winding road that is house purchase in France. If anyone is interested in buying a house in this region then the Abafim website is in English or French ( http://www.abafim.com/en/ )
Jane and Chris for taking a day out of their holiday in France to help us move some of our furniture in and provide lunch for us all. It was great to see them especially as they had about a 3 hour drive to get here.
David and Liz for storing some of our furniture while the mess that was our moving in date was resolved and David for helping us move a van load of furniture to the house.
Matthew and Marc for loading up all the furniture from storage, driving a lorry and van the length of France, unloading it all and then driving back again. Also Marc for organising our ?Bon Voyage? party for family and friends and sorting out the furniture storage and re-directing the post etc.
Kenny and Marion, whose house we rented in Montegut for our first 2 months in France, it was great to be able to move straight in to a place so we had a fixed base for our house hunting venture.
The good people of Credit Agricole (bank), EDF (electricity), France Telecom and Gծղale des Eaux (water) for suffering my poor French while opening the various accounts we needed. The bank and EDF people spoke limited English which helped!
PLUS all our family and friends who have supported us and encouraged us to go for a new life here in France.
Please note:
The above are not in any order of preference or favouritism, they were put in this order according to a complicated formula known only to me (I just wrote the names down as they came into my head!!).
If your name is not shown and you feel you deserve a mention, please write to me enclosing a cheque for ?500 and I?ll gladly cash it and spend the money.
We are hoping to have an addition to our family in the next month, it?s a furry friend for JJ, a Labrador puppy (bitch), only 4 weeks old at present. Will put photo on blog as soon as we can. Jan has already named it Fudge, I expect I?ll call it something beginning with ?F? when it pees all over the floor but it won?t be Fudge!!
Well, that’s enough rubbish for now, I’ll bore you all again sometime next week, we’re taking bookings for anyone who wants to come and stay, so get your names down asap!
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