It’s 8:15 am and I’m sitting on a very uncomfortable bench in St Pardoux while Will does his driving lesson. The teacher is going on holiday starting tomorrow so this was the only slot available this week. Some days, there are market traders who set up shop in the main parking lot; today it’s a couple of older ladies selling fresh fish and a woman of colour, notable for its rarity here, who appears to be selling sunglasses and other clothing. I’m wondering if they coordinate their advertising (“Fish and Sunglasses, every Thurs morning in St Pardoux”).
We had a couple of days after Mimi left before our next set of visitors turned up on Saturday. The only notable event was our trip to the big city on Friday to run some errands. Will had some questions for the Social Security office in Perigueux so we went there first, expecting a long wait. Surprisingly, we were in and out in under 15 minutes with all questions answered so my hat goes off to government efficiency. Next we had a look in a second-hand shop and found a pair of bedside tables which we’ve been needing since moving in. I had ordered a Weber bbq online and had it shipped to a garden centre and that was there waiting for us – another bonus. Then we hit the big Carrefour, mostly for booze and then headed home, depositing a cheque in Thiviers along the way. We did all this in under four hours (it takes 45 min to get to Perigueux) which must be some sort of record, especially since we accommplished everything we set out to do.
Our current visitors are Mary Carol, David and their daughter Alice. Mary Carol and I met at <kpe>, the web agency which was both of our first jobs in London. Her husband, David, is a quantity surveyor which involves project managing building construction and they were married a few years ago in the States. Alice will be three in a few months and is a very good natured and well behaved little girl. They will be joined in a couple of months by another daughter who is yet to be named so Mary Carol is currently in the big and uncomfortable stage right now. Her first pregnancy was a nightmare but thankfully, this one is going a lot better so she seems to be tolerating it well.
They live in Reading and departed from there on Friday morning, taking the Eurotunnel and then stopped the night in Orleans. They arrived at our place on Saturday afternoon and found our place with no difficulties, something many natives don’t manage the first time. We had confit de canard served with mac + bleu cheese as a welcome meal, followed of course by more cheese and walnut bread. The next day mostly was spent gardening. We don’t normally put our guests to work but David finds it more relaxing to be kept busy so was happy to mow the lawn in the back garden. He also rigged up a better drainage system for the front of the house, as well as doing a bit of weeding. I used our new hedge clippers to trim the places the mower can’t reach for the first time so the lawn looked even better than usual.
The weather was cool on Sat (high of 17C) but warmed up from there hitting 22 on Sunday and then 25/26 every day since then. So it was good to get most of the gardening done before it got too warm. We took the new Weber out for spin that night, making our Greek lamb and chicken kebabs. The charcoal here is smaller than in the States so much of it fell through the grate during cooking. We got there in the end by adding more charcoal so I’ll know to adjust accordingly next time. The guests and I went to St Pardoux on Monday to get more supplies at the newly-opened Simply Market, a medium sized supermarket that also sells petrol. This is quite possibly one of the biggest events of the year here and they’ve been talking about it since we arrived. It’s a decent store, although smaller than the Super U in Nontron but I’ve noticed that many items are less expensive so it’s likely to become my new usual.
Anyway, we did the shopping and as we were leaving, heard a woman screaming in pain. We can’t figure out how it happened but she was parked on the wrong side of the road with the bottom of her leg sticking out of the bottom of the closed car door. The side of the car was scraped and even though we didn’t see another damaged car, assume she was getting in/out when another car side-swiped her. We weren’t able to provide any assistance but one man called emergency and another got a tire iron from his car and was able to pry open the door. We got a look at her leg and it didn’t look too bad although I’m sure she probably felt otherwise.
Mary Carol made dinner that night, pasta with sausage in a white wine and lemon sauce. It was extra yummy and always nice to eat something new in your own house. Tuesday was David’s birthday so we celebrated by going out to lunch in St Jean de Cole. We first had a stroll through the village so our guests could appreciate its beauty and I think they were suitably impressed. Lunch was served on the terrace, a first for us and it was very busy there that day with a large group of older people seated at two long tables. We each had three courses, duck for Will, entrecote for the other adults and Alice had an omelette and chips. Their credit card machine stopped working after we paid for half the meal, so they told us we could come by whenever with the remainder – something that I can’t imagine being allowed in a city. We stopped by the boulangerie in Milhac on the way home to get some patisserie for that evening and we picked out a nice selection along with fig bread to have with cheese later that night.
Wednesday was exercise day. Will did his workout in the morning and David borrowed my bicycle and went on a 16k ride. We blew up the tyres when Gavin was over and I rode it around the block but otherwise, it hadn’t seen any action in a few years. Our place is at the top of a hill and the town of Milhac is at the bottom, 100m below. There is an old railway line that’s been converted to a trail and I would like to try it but am afraid of the ride back up the hill to our place. So David was the pioneer in that respect, riding down the hill, along the trail for a ways and then back again. He made it back without having to walk the bike so I was very impressed. We then had a quick lunch and then David, Will and I set off for various activities. We dropped off Will in St Pardoux for his driving theory lesson, then I left David in Nontron for him to get some supplies from the supermarket while I went swimming. It was the first time I’d been in a few weeks but managed to do my usual amount in less time than normal. I collected David and then we picked up Will and went home – very efficient. Mary Carol and I each made a pasta dish for dinner and then we watched a bit of Kath and Kim before retiring.
Our visitors leave us on Saturday morning and will spend a night in Amiens on their way back. Later that day, our next visitors arrive for the weekend which should give us enough time to wash the towels and bedding as long as the rain holds off. I’ll leave off here and save the rest for Will to blog about in his next entry.