It’s been bedlam at Port 80 this week, both on the work and social front, culminating with the annual Spardos festival at St Pardoux last night. Our crazy week kicked off on the Tuesday when we met with Clare and William, our new jeweller clients. They have a truly staggering home about 20kms from us that I would happy kill for. It is in a very wooded and remote spot, right on the river, with around 13 hectares of (mainly wooded) land. The house itself is immense, as is the barn that has become their jewellery workshop.
The meeting went very well and we came away with a clear idea of what needs doing on the site – which is quite a bit. It’s going to work out to be a nice amount of cash when it’s all over, which is very welcome. They’re really keen to go live as soon as possible though, so the pressure’s on for us on that front. We came home to find we’d lost our internet connection, which given our current workload, is a disaster scenario. We called up Orange and the guy got it remotely re-booted there and then but told us an engineer would come out at the end of the week because something on the physical line needed replacing. In the interim, I used the time to complete my translation work for Vortex and got that live, ticking one thing off the work list.
We’d had a soirée booked in the calendar for that night for some time – dinner round Josianne and Cammi’s – but due to a mix-up, we thought it had been cancelled, so were settling in for a quiet evening. This lasted until around 9 when we got a message from their daughter Laetitia asking where we were. We jumped in the car and hurried over to find they’d invited a crowd of a dozen or so people who were all tucking into apéritifs while they waited for us. We soon caught up and ended up having a very late and very messy night with much pastis, wine, and rum consumed. This was all chased down by numerous “canards” – a sugar cube laced with a generous splash of eau de vie, ignited and then swallowed. We were shocked to discover that it was suddenly 3.30 am so left to grab what sleep we could.
At 8.30 the next morning, we had a knock at our door, which forced us out of bed far earlier than we would have liked. It was the Orange engineer, uncharacteristically early and none too welcome for it. That said he did whatever he had to do and since then our connection has been fine – in fact, it’s been faster than ever. We were not at our best but with our workload, had no choice but to try and get as much work done as we could that day. On that note, it has been raining work here. In addition to the jewellery site, the lawyer site and a few others on the horizon, we have just been approached to build an e-bay style auction site, which too will be a very large project. We had to tell the client we cant even meet him, let alone start, for a few weeks. Matt also heard from Alan, a semi-regular UK client who needed some bits doing, so that’s been added to the ever-growing list too.
That evening, we were invited over to Lee & Richard’s for the first time in months and months for dinner. We got to see all the progress they’ve made on the house and were most impressed. As well as a nearly finished kitchen, they’ve cleared out and re-roofed their garage, which will become a workshop, they’ve finished their main bedroom, and have tidied up their garden. It all looks very lovely. We were joined for dinner by 2 friends of theirs, Trish and Dave, a retired couple who have lived out in France for many years. To borrow a phrase from Richard, they like a drink, so we all hit it off very well. The boys served us up a lovely meal which went on until around 1am, when Trish and Dave left us. Despite having had a heavy one the night before, we had a good second wind and spent several hours drinking and playing cards out on their terrace until we heard the sound of a cock crowing and took that as a cue to go to bed, sometime around 6.
We came to sometime around 11.30 and, after a fry-up Lee made for us, said goodbye and made our way home via a supermarket to get some supplies. We weren’t really in any fit state to do much when we got home, but out of necessity, we both did as much as we could to keep our various projects moving. That night, we made our way to bed good and early to recover from our marathon. Louis, however, had other plans…
Like in the UK, the weather here has just started to become a little stormy and unsettled after nearly a full, glorious month of 30 degree days and sun. That night, we had a mother of a storm, which confounded the cats who have become fully nocturnal, sleeping all day and hunting all night. The lightning and lashing rain that night did not impact the hunt at all (au contraire it seems), but it did mean they weren’t keen on eating their prey outside. The first time Louis woke us up, it was somewhere around 3am. He had a shrew and brought in to the bedroom to show us, so was quickly expelled, only to come in again and be thrown out again. This happened again about an hour or so later, this time with a mouse, and then again sometime later with yet another mouse. We eventually gave up on trying to get a lie in and got up around 8.30, to find 3 small bloody carcasses in the hallway. Half an hour later, Louis came tearing in to the house with a dead bird in his mouth. The night of 25 July 2013 will become legend amongst the small furry creatures of Mazeroux for decades to come: the night of the Feline Apocalypse.
On that note, 2 nights after the awful rabbit-in-bedroom incident, we had a carbon copy: Louis caught a second rabbit and brought it in to show us before being expelled. This hapless bunny provided 2 full days’ worth of food for the pair of them (and a lot of blood to wash off the floor for me).
Feeling totally unrecovered and extremely unimpressed, we had to hit the ground running the moment we got up. We’d invited Lucien and Mauricette (plus grandson Yannick) and the new neighbours, Danielle and Odile over for a BBQ lunch. Matt got to preparing the food whilst I gave the house a tidy. They all arrived promptly at noon but as we were a bit behind schedule, we didnt eat till close to 2. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we’re pleased to report that our good karma continues as far as neighbours go. Once they’d left, we both returned to getting a bit more work done followed by a welcome early – and blessedly uninterrupted – sleep.
You’d think that after such a full-on week, we’d have us a quiet weekend, but we couldn’t possibly resist the allure of Spardos. This in case you don’t remember is our annual night market/festival in St Pardoux at which they serve the eponymous and crazily strong drink. We started off with cocktails at Bryan and Carol’s place, joined by our mutual friends Ute and John, then headed on to St Pardoux, arriving around 9. As with the previous year, it was definitely not as busy as the first few times, but still the streets were thronged, the food was good and the ubiquitous spardos flowed. We met up with Jill (Nat being away up north) and her son Rupert, plus his girlfriend Nic and ended up spending most of the evening with them sat on benches and enjoying the music and atmosphere. To our left was a young group of three: 1 French woman and 2 Dutch guys. We soon ended up striking up a good conversation and were most amused when the Dutch guys produced some of Amsterdam’s finest and passed it around.
Unusually for a Spardos, we didnt go too crazy all-told. We left around 1am, relived to have yet again successfully avoided any police related unpleasantness en route home, and hit the hay right away. There’s been no rest for the wicked today either. We have my brother and his girlfriend Amy coming to stay for a few days from tomorrow lunch time, so I have spent the day cleaning the house while Matt mowed the lawn. We’re really looking forward to their visit, and (so far!) it looks like they’ve chosen a perfect slot: its due to be hot and warm right up until they leave, when it forecast to become unsettled and stormy again. Right, that’s it from me. Writing This blog entry was my last task at the end of manic week of work and play. Now I am off to have me a cocktail and play some guitar. Au revoir.