It’s not really accurate to call this a pandemic year, given the WHO declared in May that covid was no longer a global health emergency. So this is just a regular yearly recap that will – can you believe it – pretty much bring the Frog Blog up to date.
First, January, where the big news concerned work. As I said in the last round-up, while Matt continued to be very busy, my situation had become dire and something was going to have to change. And change it did. We got contacted out of the blue by a Belgian chap called Jan who lived in the Dordogne and works as a web developer. He is a contractor for a company called Explore Industries, who make fibreglass swimming pools. They have several different brands, each with its own website, as well as a global network of dealers, each of whom they manage websites for. In total, Explore have close on to 50 websites and to date, Jan had been running them all.
Their business went bananas during the covid years: with millions of people stuck at home, unable to travel and with money to burn, sales of home swimming pools went through the roof. So Jan needed help managing their websites and found us by googling something like “english speaking wordpress developers Dordogne”. We had a meeting at ours and a few weeks later, were hired to work for them on a part time basis (up to 90 hours a month). By the sound of it, it was more going to be work for me, and the pay – a little over twice our usual rate – was excellent. On the downside, the work was to be tedious, but you can’t have everything. We don’t know how long they will keep us on for, but it seems likely it will continue throughout 2024. Given that there’s not been much else on, they have been a real lifeline and have given Port 80 a record year in terms of income.
Mazerock regrouped in March and began rehearsals for the season ahead. We had been recently joined by Paul’s neighbour Fabienne and Natalie from La Grelière, both as backing singers. We also welcomed Jean-Michel into our ranks. A member of Paul & Matt’s choir, he is an exceptionally talented violin player. And so our three-piece became a sextet, albeit one still sorely lacking a drummer.
In April, we said goodbye to Paul’s partner Nat. She had bought a house on the Île d’Oléron where she intended to spend her summers, returning to the Dordogne for the rest of the year. Her parents are out there and are getting older so she wanted to be near them, and it’s a place she has always loved. She’d also realised that it would be a sound move work-wise. She is a very skilled leatherworker and there are far more tourists out there to sell to. As sad as it was to say goodbye, it did mean that her studio would be vacant and so we adopted it as Mazerock’s rehearsal space. This was most convenient as trying to get 6 of us in our pokey guest bedroom would not have been feasible.
Quite a bit happened in May so I shall take it chronologically. I suppose I should start with the coronation of King Charles III. My views on the monarchy have been well blogged and I am certainly no fan of the new king (and am far from alone in that) so I hope that his reign will prove to be a boon to the UK’s republican movement.
In mid-May, work began on our new front door. We’d never liked the original one which was ugly and didn’t close well. In fact, it had gotten so bad that it had become impossible to lock. We’d been talking about it with Benoît the previous year as he was going to project manage the job and had it all planned out. The problem was that the company that was to supply and fit the new door was busy and kept fobbing us off.
Finally, they made time for us and just a couple weeks later, it was done. It was a dry but cool and windy spring in Mazeroux so we had some very chilly days in between the old door being removed and the new one being properly fitted, but it was well worth it. We’d been a bit sceptical about Benoît’s idea of adding a low wall to the entrance, but as usual he was right and we love the end result. The cats too are most pleased with their new observation point, and with the sliding windows through which they can come and go.
It was around this time that we learned that unfortunately, Nat wouldn’t be coming back after all. Although that had been her original plan, it seems that the two of them had ultimately decided it wasn’t going to be practical to maintain a long-distance relationship and so they called it a day after 20 years together. We’re obviously good friends with Paul, but really like Nat too and miss her a lot.
I got a lovely surprise at the end of May when Blur, one of my all-time favourite bands, announced out of the blue that they were reforming to go on tour, culminating with a pair of concerts at Wembley Stadium. Even better: they had secretly been working on a new album due out that summer. I had the opportunity to buy tickets for Wembley in advance but I chickened out. Three years of covid social distancing made the idea of being in a crowd of 100,000 people too terrifying to contemplate.
On the 26th, Mazerock had our first gig as a sextet. This took place at La Grelière and luckily, given how iffy the weather had been, it was a sunny evening. We’d not really gotten in enough rehearsals by this point but still played ok all told.
The first half of June was cool and grey, as it often seems to be out here for some reason, but the weather got its act together for the second part. This was most welcome, although Matt ended up missing a chunk of it as he went back to Minnesota for a week of visiting the family while I manned things back at Port 80.
Paul and Fabienne seemed to be seeing a lot of each other since Nat left and none of us were that surprised when that June, they announced that they were a couple. We were however very much surprised when just a month later, they announced their engagement. They plan on marrying in early July 2024, at Parenthèses Imaginaires, where we had our ceremony. We are thrilled for them but it did mean that Paul & Nat’s formerly amicable separation soured somewhat. It’s always awkward when a couple splits up and you are good friends with both of them.
Something I missed off from 2022 was that Mum & Dad have adopted a stray cat – or more accurately, a stray cat has adopted them. His name is Thomas (pronounced “Tomma” like the French name) and is a very handsome beast. He started out living in their barn and accepted food from them but refused to be touched. Over time he moved into their house, becoming more and more accepting of human contact – as long as it’s either Mum or Dad. Hopefully he’ll learn to trust us too one of these days.
Even if Thomas hadn’t decided to move in to their house, he would have had to vacate the barn at some point as this has been the site of a great deal of work over the course of the year. Now that both the house and garden are finished (and both look lovely), the barn is Mum & Dad’s next project, with the aim of making it their main home. At the time of writing, it has been insulated, new flooring has gone in upstairs, walls are plasterboarded and painted and it’s really taking shape.
Ok, back to the recap: on 01 July, Mazerock played our 2nd gig, once again for Milhac’s Fête des Voisins. We mostly played well, but didn’t get the sound levels very even – not that many people were paying attention to us in any case.
One week later, we played a second gig at La Grelière, a more polished affair than the first one and a fun evening. It was a fairly lousy summer weather-wise. There were pockets of nice days here and there (including the day of this gig) but overall it was grey and not terribly warm. It was also notably dry. We’d had virtually no rain all year so far.
The following week we were off on our first trip of the year. This was a long weekend to Arcachon with the parents, where we were to meet up with Dave, Amy and the kids. Dave had found a lovely and spacious villa in Lège-Cap-Ferret, complete with swimming pool and a short drive from the beach. He chose Arcachon as we used to go camping their when we were small kids and I think he wanted his two to share the experience. We got to spend a very enjoyable few days either by the pool or at the beach and always being entertained by Elvie and Charlie. An extra couple degrees and some more sun and it would have been perfect.
On to August where we played a gig at Milhac’s marché on the 7th. It was for once a hot and sunny day and the main square was absolutely packed. We weren’t the main event but it was still nerve-wracking to play in front of so many people. Despite the nerves, it probably our most polished performance to date.
The big event for August was also our fifth gig of the year. This was at Mum & Dad’s and was unofficially for Dad’s big birthday. We originally planned to do it in September, near to the day itself, but were worried it would be too cold by the evening, so we moved it up a month. Mum & Dad invited all their neighbours and we asked along our friends and there was quite a crowd. We also got very lucky with the weather which deigned to treat us to a hot one. As it was for Dad’s birthday (not that we were allowed to tell the invitees that), we added a few songs to the list with him in mind. I had a go at Samba Pa Ti and we did One by U2.
The following weekend, we played our final gig of the year. This was at a restaurant in Champs Romain, owned by a guy who had heard us play at Milhac. The restaurant itself is quite small but there’s an outdoor terrace area that he suggested for us. Unfortunately, storms and rain were forecast, so we helped him erect a marquee for the diners, and installed ourselves under the restaurant’s awning. We managed to get through most of our set (and played quite well) but then the heavens opened spectacularly and the awning we were stood under gave way. Drenched, we quickly unplugged and packed away our equipment and called it quits.
After a depressingly grey August, the weather decided to apologise in September and treated us to a welcome unbroken 6 weeks of unseasonal warmth and sunshine. Pretty much the entire of France was experiencing a severe drought by this point, but the apology was more than welcome all the same.
Dad’s big birthday fell on a Tuesday, so we made plans to go the Hostellerie St Jacques on the Saturday before to celebrate. Unbeknownst to Dad, Dave had booked to come over for a surprise visit which helped make the weekend special. We got Dad a fire pit and some garden chairs for his birthday.
A few days later, we went off on our final holiday of the year. This was to the Island of Corsica, which we’d both long wanted to see. We arranged the trip with Françoise who, along with a friend of hers called Christine, joined us for the week. We first drove down to Marseille, a new city for both of us, where we celebrated our anniversary with a stay at a posh hotel overlooking the port. We enjoyed the city, but in hindsight should have done a little more advance planning as we discovered on arrival that the city was hosting the rugby tournament, so was awash with drunken supporters. It was also hosting both President Macron and the Pope that weekend, so was overrun with police as well.
The next day we drove on to Toulon where we caught an overnight ferry to Bastia on the northern tip of Corsica. We met up with the ladies on the boat and got caught up over several drinks before calling it a night. We slept surprisingly well on the ferry (far better than we had in Marseille) and feeling recharged, we disembarked and drove down the length of the island to our rented villa in a small village outside of Palombaggia, near Porto Veccio. There we proceeded to have a week of sunshine, swimming pools, perfect temperatures, beaches, sightseeing, nature hikes and many a Quarantini of an evening. It was blissful.
Françoise is doing mostly ok, but earlier in the year she had a strange episode of vertigo so went to get herself checked out. She was diagnosed with a rare inner ear disorder that in addition to vertigo, causes hyper-sensitivity to loud noises. There’s no cure so its something she is going to have to learn to live with. She has ear plugs she wears out in public and an app on her phone that tracks decibel levels. She was fine on our holiday, but it has made city living unbearable. So, she is in the process of relocating to the Gard to be near her sister Nadine.
We had just a few days back at Port 80 to prepare before Jan’s annual visit. After her usual stay in Paris, she arrived on the 4th and stayed with us for a little over two weeks. She could not have timed it better with the weather. Her trip coincided with Trace & Frank’s annual visit so we ate at Mum & Dad’s one night to spend an evening with them, with apéros out in the garden.
October also saw the start of the horrific Israel-Hamas war that, like the Ukraine-Russia war, looks set to be bloody and protracted. To quote David Bowie, “What a disappointing 21st century this has been so far”.
On the 13th, we ate out at a new (for us anyway) restaurant in Thiviers for Matt’s birthday. The restaurant is called l’Escapade des Sens and is excellent, coming close to Hostelliere St Jacques in terms of quality of the food. It was the last mild evening and we ate out on their terrace. The fine weather came to an inevitable end, very abruptly, the following day. We went from 28 to 18 degrees overnight and it began to rain. And then it just kept raining, on and on every day for an entire month. And even after that record-breaking run, it continued to rain as often as not for the rest of the year. It may have sorted out the drought problem, but it was a bloody miserable experience.
Jan capped off her stay with a weekend in Barcelona, accompanied by Matt. There they met up with Gerald and had a sunny weekend of seeing all the sights, including a day-long tour. I stayed at home with the cats because I had an imminent trip of my own booked.
I had been due to go to the UK in March to see Nan for her birthday and to spend time with Elvie & Charlie. I had my trains all booked and tickets printed and 24 hours before I was due to leave, my train to Lille was cancelled due to strikes. Ah, France. So I rebooked for late October. I spent three days with the kids, with a night in London either side. While I was over we all took Nan out for her delayed birthday lunch. The day before I set off for the UK, Matt announced he had a cold. In fact it turned out he had caught covid on his travels. Luckily no-one else came down with it but it did take some time to shake off.
The other health scare of the month concerned Smeagol. He seemed to be drinking way more water than normal, which can be a really bad sign, especially for older cats. We took him to the vet, fearing the worst. He was thoroughly examined and had a full blood test. To our surprise and relief, the results showed that he was in pretty much excellent heath. He still drinks a lot, but otherwise is his usual smeagly self – and apparently will be for some years to come.
The following month my folks made the same UK trip as me only by car, and as they always seem to do, they came back ill. Well, Dad did anyway. Sometimes it’s a cold, once it was the flu, but this time it was covid and it knocked him out for a good couple weeks. This meant that they missed Thanksgiving at Port 80, which we celebrated with Guillaume & Emily, their son, and Virginie. Benoît missed out too has he was back in Martinique on another big project. He has several more lined up for the year ahead, and the three of them are all talking about a permanent move over there. We’d be gutted to lose them but gaining a new holiday destination would be a small compensation.
Ok, this is getting ridiculously long. On to Christmas which we spent at Port 80 with Mum and Dad. We ate copiously and drank even more, ending up quite thoroughly inebriated by the end of the evening. We were invited to Sophie & Dom’s the next day for a lunchtime fondue. It was a rough start but it turned out that white wine, bread and strong cheese were exactly what we needed and we soon rallied.
New Year’s Eve was, for a change at Paul’s place. Well, I should say Paul & Fabienne’s seeing as they moved in together just that morning, having been staying at hers while Paul did some work on the place. Manu & Mathilde joined us for a copious meal and a few cocktails. More of a dinner than a party, it was one of our tamer NYEs but we still managed to do quite a bit of damage.
And that’s pretty much the story of 2023. It’s now early January 2024 and we are gradually easing back into the routine and contemplating the year ahead. The idea of a whole other year of working for Explore Industries fills me with dread but you have to make hay while the suns shines I suppose. I sincerely hope that this will be the year that 14 years of chaos comes to an end and the UK finally elects a Labour government again, but if the previous few years have taught me anything its that you shouldn’t ever get your hopes up. And across the Atlantic, things are looking even grimmer, with the shadow of Trump 2.0 looming over us all. Ugh – doesn’t bear thinking about it. Well, que sera sera…
2023 summed up in one David Bowie song: “Move On”
This 1979 song is about wanderlust, transition and running into the future without knowing where you are headed. All somewhat relevant ideas, but it was more about the title and the sense of a line being drawn under one period and another one starting .