Bonjour all. An entry’s due and as Matt is busy working towards a deadline, I am afraid you’re getting a second one in a row from me. I actually have quite a bit to report, so bear with me and apologies for what is sure to be yet another rambler. All the action took place at the weekend, so I shall skim over the latter half of last week. The heatwave finally broke on Friday. Temps are now in the low to mid 20s instead of the high 30s, so it is actually possible to go outside during the day again.
Matt is nearing completion of his 2nd site at work – it’s due to go live at the end of this week – and he’s been told there’s another one just around the corner, so this reinforces our confidence that they will keep him on come the end of his initial contract in a week or two. For me, work’s unfortunately been quite slow, but I do have one regular client using our translation service. She is in a nightmare situation: she is renting a house from a French lady, but via an agency. Briefly, the agency’s rep has been telling whopping lies to both owner and tenant for some weeks, and has done everything in his power to stop the twain from ever meeting. It has been staggering reading the emails between the two parties now they are finally in contact – this agent is a really despicable character. The job’s keeping me semi-busy and is starting to turn into a reasonable amount of cash as well, which is pleasing. It’s also satisfying being able to help resolve a nasty problem.
The other thing to note about last week was that I had a phone call on Thursday from a French chap called Alain Grillot who had seen an advert we’d placed online for Mike & Jean’s property for sale. He was really keen to come and view it so I arranged that for the next day. The following afternoon, an extremely jubilant Mike rang up to say he was at the Notaire’s office and that the Grillot family had put in an offer straight away. Apparently, they didnt even look around that much, suggesting to us that they’d had their eye on the place for quite some time and were just waiting for the price to come down to something they could afford. Jean confirms they had definitely seen the website we made, so it’s gratifying to know that Sites for Homes has finally had a genuine success. We’re very pleased for Mike & Jean, although obviously it’s a shame to be losing them. They’re off up to Normandy to be closer to the UK and aim to be installed up there by December.
Ok, now on to the meat of this entry and to explain the title. “Fêtard” is a great word I just stumbled across, the best translation for which would be “party animal”. We have just had a whopper of a weekend, so it seemed to fit nicely. It kicked off on Friday when Nat & Jill joined us at Port 80 for dinner. We (well, mainly Matt) put together a delicious Mexican-themed meal of fajitas made with BBQ’d chicken and beef kebabs, refried beans, guacamole and salsa. It was a huge hit and we all sat up chatting, smoking, drinking and generally having a good time until they left us, around midnight.
The following day we took it easy and worked through our hangovers in preparation for our next event: a trip to Villebois to see the boys. Long-term readers may remember that this time last year, there was a huge, weekend-long fête there called La Fête de Saint Augustin, at which there were parades, a fair, fireworks and general merriment. The Comité des Fêtes in Villebois is apparently in a bit of a shambles this year and for a long time, it seemed as though the whole thing would be cancelled. As it turns it, it did go ahead, albeit in a slightly stripped down format. Accordingly, we were invited to stay over on Saturday night. With Lee & Richard were 2 friends of theirs’, Glenda and Brenda. The former we’d met a few times before, but the latter was a new face for us.
We got there around 6, equipped with vodka and mixers and sat out on their terrace putting them to good use. Richard then drove us in to Angoulême for a few drinks and a meal. Unsurprisingly for a Saturday in August, the town was heaving, so we didn’t make it to our first choice of restaurant, settling instead on an Italian place. After a very good meal followed by a couple beers, we made our way back to Villebois and hit the fair. We went on a couple rides, including a reckless and drunken go on the dodgems, and then went back to the boys’ place where we stayed up till around 5am, drinking until we passed out. There were some understandably sore heads the next morning, but Lee put together a fry-up and this helped blow out the worst of the cobwebs. The festivities were due to continue that day with a hog-roast in the town centre that evening, but we had already made other plans, so we left them to it and made our way home.
Our next commitment was apéritifs with Bryan & Carol later that afternoon, but this ended up being moved to the following evening, so we convalesced at home all afternoon instead. That evening we were invited over to Mike & Jean’s for dinner. They were of course in great spirits and Jean made us a lovely meal of turkey breasts served in a creamy sauce with roast potatoes, followed by a feisty dessert of ginger cookies soaked in brandy and topped with cream. They’ve both pledged to give us some cash as a reward for selling their house, which is really sweet of them. Despite having had a skinful the previous couple nights, we managed a cocktail a-piece and some wine, but by 10:30 or so we were flagging and ready for bed.
That was the end of the weekend, but not the end of our partying. After work on Monday, we made our way down to Bryan and Carol’s for our postponed apéritifs. They’ve had their 2 lively grandsons over for a while but Monday was their last day so the drinks were to say goodbye to them. We sat out on their patio and had a few voddies while the 2 boys, Evan and Finn, entertained us with some ‘cabaret’ acts they improvised for us. B&C both seemed somewhat worn out and it’s easy to see why: the boys are a real pair of live wires, but very amusing with it. Carol’s gone back with them and will stay in the UK for 10 days to help them all settle into their new home and get the boys off to school OK.
That was it for Monday, but the marathon wasn’t over yet: Tuesday saw us off to Lucien & Mauricette’s for another round of apéritifs. Experience has taught us that “apéritif” to them basically means a full meal, and this time was no exception. We started off with some fried cèpes and other bits of finger food and a couple voddies. After an hour or so, we were both starting to think that maybe we should head off, but the food just kept coming. We moved on to a dish of melon and parma ham, washed down with a lovely Côtes de Castillon, and this was followed by a yummy home-made pizza/pie type dish. As with the previous day, we had entertainment too. The Beaufils have 2 grandsons but only have one of them over at a time, as they say the 2 together is just too much. Despite this, we were both amazed at just how polite, quiet and mature the youngest, Florian, is. Over the course of the evening, he showed us his archery kit and played us a few songs on his keyboard, but he never once interrupted the adults, talked back, or insisted we pay attention to his playing if we were talking. He really is a sweet kid. The evening was rounded off with a superfluous chartreuse to see us on our way back home to the cats, who due to our Saturday night absence, have been quite a handful the last few nights.
Ok, that brings us up to date, I think. At the start of August, we looked at our calendar and thought “this is going to be a long, tedious month” – we had nothing planned and no visitors booked in. I am pleased to say that it metamorphosed into quite a bonanza of sociability. This is set to continue too: our friend David Cox from London is our next visitor, and arrives on the 31st (his birthday) for a long weekend. He will be picked up by Lee & Richard, whom he met last year. They’re bringing him here for a night of merriment, food and maybe the odd drink or two. Right, I am going to conclude my ramble here. A big storm’s about to break; our first one of the summer, I believe. The rain will be most welcome for the parched lawn and veggie plot – we’ve not had a drop in weeks.
Coda: we just found out that our lovely buddliea bush that has been flourishing recently has been destroyed by a deer. Apparently, they will only eat buddleia as a last resort, so that says something about just how parched the vegetation is out here that one went for it. It didn’t even eat anything, it just ripped all the branches out of the ground and spat them out. I am really gutted – buddleia is my favourite plant. I pray it recovers but its prospects look quite bleak. RIP, buddliea.