Well, as you might imagine, our week has largely been taken up with car-related activities, as I shall get to shortly. The big news is that we have in short order found a replacement car and shall be collecting it on Friday. It’s another Toyota, a model called Auris. The car’s a 2010 but in excellent shape and has only done 86,000k, which for a Toyota is nothing. We’re both chuffed with it and looking forward to collecting it. My only small niggle is I can’t think what to call her! Lola for the Corolla worked perfectly, but “Auris”…? Suggestions on a postcard please.
We began the car hunting on Tuesday morning, visiting all the used car garages we could find in Périgueux. Amusingly enough, our first stop was at Antonne Autos, the place that sold us Lola 6 years ago. We had a stroll around and found only one car that fit the bill: a Toyota Corolla. But this was a more modern version of ours, with a few nice extras. We saw history repeating itself for a moment, but the car had quite a few clicks on the clock so we decided to give it a miss and pressed on.
We stopped at a little Italian place near the cathedral that we’d been to before for lunch and to belatedly mark our anniversary. Afterwards, back on the case we came across a Honda Civic and very nearly bought it, but decided we’d sleep on it first. We were also nearly talked into a Kia but it was beyond our budget.
That evening Matt talked for a while to Rich and it was a very useful call. We ended up rethinking our criteria and realised we had no need for a car as big or powerful as the ones we’d been checking out. When our search resumed a couple days later, we hit all the same places again but this time checked out some smaller models.
There’s a Toyota garage in Périgueux and they had the Auris that we plumped for. We had a go at haggling but they weren’t budging, but to be fair, it was fairly reasonably priced (well, for France anyway). The guys who sold it to us had a slightly strange accent that I couldnt work out and it turns out that it’s because he was Australian! He’d been here long enough to have no trace of his original accent, but he definitely didnt sound like a local. So, we get to go and collect our new on Friday and can then return Philippe’s to him, along with a nice bottle of whisky. He really saved our bacon this week, bless him.
The other big car-related story is about the insurance company. Before we switched to them we were with a huge online insurer and they were cheap, but crap. Our new company, Aviva, has a branch in Nontron staffed by two very lovely ladies: Helene who runs it, and Chantal, her assistant. As Matt said in his last entry, he had a long wait at the roadside for the tow-truck that, when it finally arrived, couldn’t even get to the car. The second company came and got it out later that evening, but they apparently needed a crane to do it. Anyway, this meant we were charged twice for towing, the second amount being quite painful. Well, Chantal fought our corner for us and managed to get what could have been a big bill knocked down to a mere 75€, bless her. Our premium will obviously go up as a result of the accident but luckily, due to the timing, this won’t happen for a full year. We’re well chuffed with our dynamic insurance duo and have already got the paperwork underway for the new car.
In another wee windfall, the insurance expert who assessed Lola came back to us with an offer of 2600€, which we thought was really reasonable. However, Rich advised us to contest anyway so we did, with the result that they upped this to 2800€. For a 12 year old car with 265,000 on the clock this aint too bad at all.
Ok, aside from cars, there’s unfortunately still a lot for me to get through! First off, we finally finished painting our bedroom. I’ve posted some before and after pics – see below. We’re really pleased with it and just need to get on and do the guest room now.
Friday was an eventful day. Matt went to Milhac Loisirs’ AGM and came back a couple hours later as their official Vice President. The previous VP was Jacqui, a good friend of Josiane’s. We’re hoping it was largely due to their closeness that the position bears the unofficial nickname of “Josiane’s Slave” but we shall have to see. It was a little crap of the other members to not volunteer themselves, seeing as Matt is the only one there who isn’t retired, but there you go. He’s already well-involved with the association, but might have to show up at a few more things from now on.
After that meeting, we had our regular Musique en Herbe practice. It seems like every week, it’s someone else’s turn to have a tantrum and sulk, but this week’s was particularly tempestuous. After a couple hours, one of the members, Ghislaine (with whom we’re fast becoming good friends) called a halt to proceedings and we instead sat down and started planning ahead for the next gig. This will be the Soirée Britannique in Milhac (our October gig having been cancelled) and it’s already causing us a headache.
When we told Josiane we wanted to perform with Musique en Herbe, she was a little reluctant simply because there’s rather a lot of them. In total there must be about 15 people who play there. With all the sound and lighting guys too (and parents for the kids) it soon becomes quite a horde. We agreed with her we’d just invite a core group along to keep numbers down. Unfortunately, when Alain was told this on Friday, he reacted fairly badly and basically just stormed off. He’s since rang us and asked to come over and discuss it all. In fact, he was due over this evening but seems to have forgotten. He’s very protective of the smaller group, Music’Friends, and as they’re not going to be playing, he’s got a downer on the whole thing. Ghislaine’s a little concerned he might pull out entirely, but we’re hoping he’s going to be reasonable. We’ll know more if and when he ever materialises…
Right, this is a tome and I havent even covered everything, so I’m going to stop here anyway. Today has been nominated harvest day for our special crop and apparently, it’s best to do this at or after sunset to ensure potency (don’t ask me why), so we’ll give that a go and let you know how it works out. Until next time.