Hello all. It’s been a week, so time for another update. In summary, it has been hot. Really, really hot. It’s not been below 30 degrees for over a week, hitting a feisty high of 38 on Saturday. We’ve had the fan on full blast and the shutters closed and have not ventured outside until evening time. It’s a bit of a case of “careful what you wish for” for me: I love the heat and being able to go out and sunbathe, but going out to enjoy the sun has been out of the question recently. Well, not before 7pm anyway. It is actually due to let up somewhat next week, with a potential storm looming, followed by a return to temps more in the high 20s. We shall see…
The veggie plot is mostly surviving the onslaught, although our daily waterings are far from sufficient in this heat. The courgette and cucumber plants in particular look very sorry for themselves at the moment – although I am enjoying the resultant variety this has introduced to our courgette-based diet. In contrast, the tomato plants are extremely happy. We have more than you could shake a stick at, and many more still ripening quickly out there. Despite giving away 2 bags of the bloody things, we still have 2 bowls full in the kitchen at the moment. So if you want some tomatoes, you know where to find us!
Ok, on with l’histoire. On Friday last week there was a farmer’s market, or marché producteur, at St. Pardoux. We had arranged to go with a group of people from Matt’s old conversation class, so were invited over to Martine and Joelle’s house for apéritifs beforehand. They are a lovely couple who live a few mins down the road from us. She is very lively and speaks excellent english, whereas he is more reserved and only speaks a few words, but is still a great laugh. With us were an english couple Ian & Trish, a mapcap French lady called Mauricette, and John, who we see from time to time walking his alsatian past our house. Much to our amusement, we learned recently that John had asked Carol if she knew who that “strange, blonde cat” belonged to that he saw on his dog walks. He said it is the only cat he has ever known that is not afraid of his dog. In fact, on a few occasions, the pair of them have been made to walk around a disinterested Smoo who was lying in the middle road with no intention of moving out of their way. Fearless, our Smoo. Stupid, but fearless.
We had a few drinks there, the new faces getting to know one another and the familiar ones catching up. Afterwards, we headed down to see what was happening in town. It was a much calmer affair than Spardos, but still fairly crowded. There were stalls selling local produce, patisserie, wine, chips and various cooked meats. A number of large tables were set up in the main car park so we installed ourselves. Matt and I had an extremely tasty brochette de canard (duck kebab basically) as well as some chips. There was also some entertainment in the form of a Latin/salsa type band, playing a mix of covers including La Bamba, some Santana and some other lesser-known stuff. They got a few people up dancing but we all demurred. I think we left around 10ish and had ourselves a cocktail and a smoke at home before turning in.
Saturday was a quiet one for us, with our actions dictated by the intense heat. I made a shop run in the morning for a few bits n bobs, stopping off on my way back to call in and see my old driving instructor. Last year we managed to send loads of tommies and courgettes her way as I was seeing her every week anyway and she has no plot of her own, so we decided to palm some more off on her this year too. It was nice to catch up again (neither of us could believe it will be one year on the 30th since I passed my test) and she was well pleased with her veggie supplies. Beyond that, we took it easy and sheltered ourselves for the remainder of the day.
The next day was not quite as hot, but still over 30. We didnt get up to much in the morning, but in the afternoon we were invited over to Pete & Sally’s to help celebrate her birthday. We went last year too and were well impressed by their hosting skills, and this year was a worthy repeat. Sally was our second veggie victim, receiving a goodie bag by way of birthday gift. There were probably 15 or so people over, including Mike & Jean and Bob & Sue (the curry people). There were a few other familiar faces, as well as a few new ones for us. We met a couple there, Lisa & Dave, who live in Brantôme. They’re young (well, for these parts!) and both Brits, although she spent her childhood in Oz so has a noticeable accent. We took their number as we really hit it off, so will make an effort to see them again soon. There were copious amounts of BBQ meat and side dishes on offer, including some yummy offerings from Sue, and the booze flowed like water. We even had a very welcome dip in their pool at one point.
We’d gotten there at 4pm and didnt leave until after dark so it was a slightly shaky start the next morning. This was unfortunate for Matt, who was back to the office, and also for me as I had drunkenly promised to help out Sue & Bob the night before. They are seeking legal advice at the moment because a rival curry outfit launched a few weeks ago and is behaving quite sneakily. They’ve ripped off Sue & Bob’s entire business model, their advertising method, and their website to a very blatant degree and are essentially masquerading as them. They told me they were off to see a lawyer in Périgueux, so I offered to come along to translate if needed. This seemed fine at the time, but less so when I came to in the morning. As it turned out, the lawyer spoke good English, so my input was only occasionally needed. It seems they do have a case, so it’s just a question of whether they want to plunge in the bureaucratic nightmare that is the French legal system in order to pursue it.
In other news, and as bizarre as it seems when in the midst of a beast of a heatwave, we are preparing for the winter ahead. We’ve ordered a log burner, which will be delivered some time between now and then*, and also 2 separate stockpiles of wood. The first arrived yesterday and was 4 stères (square metres) worth. It took us an hour and a half to get it all stacked away in the log shed, so we’re not too much looking forward to the second order, which is twice as large. Should see us through the winter though.
Finally, it is Richard’s (of Lee & Richard) birthday today, so a v happy birthday to him. We are trying to organise something with them both soon as it’s been ages. They’ve a friend coming over to stay for a week who we’ve met a couple times before so maybe we’ll arrange something for when she’s over. More news in our next entry!
*the best you can hope for with online ordering in France