We’re in the midst of a power-cut here in Mazeroux that means I am legitimately unable to do any work. So instead I am getting my blogging done. Our outage has occurred because we are – yet again – experiencing some very strong winds here. The big storm that hit us a few weeks ago, Tempete Liev, mainly hit the Gironde department, where they had gusts of up to 130km. Here in the Dordogne it wasnt as intense, but we still had winds up to 110km. Well, despite today’s storm not being deemed severe enough to have its own name, it’s blowing as strongly here today as it was last time, and the house sounds like it is being shaken to its foundations. I can’t believe there’s not been any major damage outside, although Lucien says he’s lost three pine trees already. It started to get bad yesterday, has peaked today and should calm overnight. In the meantime, we’re doing our best to placate our two shellshocked and unamused cats.
I don’t think there’s much to cover for my week when Matt was away. I had work to keep me occupied for the whole week and didnt do any socialising apart from seeing two sets of neighbours to resolve two unrelated PC issues. We had a beautifully warm and sunny Saturday that the cats, the houseplants and I all spent out in the garden, but every other day since then its been back to the flat dreary grey, with optional rain, hail or gales providing the only variation.
On Wednesday of last week, we had Manu & Mathilde over to celebrate my birthday and my newly obtained French nationality. We wanted to have them over at the weekend but discovered that Benoit & Virginie dont get on with them at all, which is real shame as we’re really close with both couples. Luckily, it was the school holidays so M&M were fine to do mid-week. They showed up with a bottle of champagne, a book on the history of France, and some very sweet drawings their youngest girls had made me. Matt put together his lemon turkey escalopes for the main course and a chocolate cherry cake for dessert and we had a lovely evening that lasted until gone 1am.
On Friday Matt went out for a swim that didnt seem to cause him any back trouble, and also shopped for supplies for my birthday celebration, part 2. Despite this being for 6 people instead of 4, it was a lot easier to prepare for as it was a curry night. As well as Benoit and Virigine , we were joined by Jenny and her friend Sam, who we’re beginning to suspect carries a bit of a torch for Jenny. This was the first time B&V had experienced the curry delivery and they seemed to enjoy it very much. They also showed up armed with all the ingredients to make margaritas and we broke a house rule by unwisely having several a-piece, making for a very boozy evening. We were invited to return to B&V’s to keep the festivities going, but it was already late (well, early) at this point so we wisely demurred and left them to it.
The only other bit of news to share is that I have a date for my citizenship ceremony: it’s taking place next monday afternoon. Now that my application has been processed, these final administrative bits are being dealt with by Périgueux and not Bordeaux. This is good as it means its not as far to go for the ceremony, but bad in that the lovely folk at Périgueux arent terribly efficient, bless them. The letter they sent me was dated 28th Feb, but arrived four days later as they managed to very badly misspell “Mazeroux”. It contained an RSVP slip for the ceremony that stated it had to be returned by the 28th of Feb. It also made reference to a separate enclosed document that I was supposed to sign and return with the RSVP – which was not enclosed. I managed to find that form online, so it’s all been sent back to them today, with a note explaining why it’s late. So, this time next week, I will be in possession of a welcome letter from President Hollande and a French birth certificate!
Right, I think that’s all the news. I shall end by saying a big thank to everyone for all my Amazon vouchers. Thanks to your generosity, we’ve just ordered ourselves a funky new sound system for the lounge, which should arrive this week. So merci beaucoup!