Well it’s now T-minus 10 days before we get married at the mairie. Preparations are progressing well, but it’s starting to get a little stressful at times. The main thing that’s pissing me off is the weather. It’s been the worst summer we’ve ever had out here in France and still there’s no sign of a let-up. In previous years, we might have had a duff August here or there, but never has it been this bad for this long. All of July, August and September have been a disaster. If you’re coming to the wedding, we strongly advise you pack warm and bring a waterproof coat. The cats are in full winter mode already and are about as pleased about it all as I am. They’re both sleeping on the bed at night and any mice Louis catches he eats in our room as it’s been cold out.
Anyway, I shall try not to rant about things I cannot change and just get on with the recap. On Tuesday morning, we attended the funeral of Benoit’s dad at the church in Milhac. About 100 people showed up, most of whom we didn’t know. This is now the 3rd funeral we’ve attended in France so we’re getting the hang of the catholic way of doing things. It’s very over-the-top with their magic incense and holy water theatrics. There were some lovely readings, especially one from Eva, Benoit & Virginie’s daughter. She’s currently travelling in New Zealand and was pretty much the only family member who couldn’t be there so she wrote a lovely letter that Benoit read out. Afterwards, we were invited back to B&Vs for lunch and a few drinks.
Later that afternoon we called in to the Hotel de France to organise the menu for next Thursday’s meal. They’ve agreed a v reasonable price with us that includes wine and coffee, with a choice of two different mains, so we’re pleased about that.
The following evening, our friend Ute came over for a meal. She’s gotten over her initial shock at being asked to be our celebrant, and seems to be embracing the role. She’s translated the readings we’ve picked out into French and we’re going to make some programmes for everyone so that both anglo and franco-phones will be able to follow the proceedings. We had a nice evening with her, and had our first (of many no doubt) fig-based meal of the season : roast pork and figs in a creamy sauce. This was followed by brownies for dessert. This was all washed down with a superb 2008 Bordeaux from her cellar.
The next morning, I went to Mum & Dad’s barn along with Mathilde and her daughter Alais. The latter has just started university and wanted to see if there was any crockery going spare that she could use. She found a few bits n bobs she liked, and Mathilde also found a big wooden picture frame that she’s going to use to pin up the table seating plans. I also asked her if she would do the table centrepieces, so she’s hard at work on that too now. We owe her a big thanks for all her help!
In between all these other activities, we’ve both been working hard on our various projects, trying to get them all done before the wedding. I have put 3 sites live in the last week so am feeling a lot less pressured now. I have another 3 in the pipeline too, but I have told the clients that I can’t now start till October.
On Friday, we had our monthly curry delivery and we ate at M&M’s. In addition to us four and Philippe, we were due to be joined by Gael and Corinne but the latter was taken ill so Gael just called in for a quick drink before heading back to tend to her. We had a lovely evening with them as we always do, and even Philippe mostly behaved himself. We left around 1.30, and he was only just starting to get into his vexing drunken-political-rant phase.
On Saturday, I made a start on printing out the programmes for the wedding. I started with the front covers, of which I printed 70 copies on some nice textured paper, then carefully folded each one in half. As I finished the last one, I spotted a spelling mistake that I’d missed when proofreading, so all 70 are now consigned to the kindling pile and we’ve ordered some more paper. That irritating chore was followed by our annual chimney cleaning, which passed without incident. Bryan and Carol came over that evening to drop off our trousers that she has hemmed for us. They stayed for apéritifs and then we had a quiet night.
Yesterday I worked most of the day while Matt worked on our wedding music playlist. Later on, we brought in the rest of last year’s wood delivery in readiness for the imminent delivery of this years’ one. Jan arrives on Wednesday and from that point on we are officially on holiday until after the wedding. And that is about all I have to say so I shall end abruptly here.