Ok, here’s the weekly round-up from Mazeroux city. As Matt said in his last post, it has indeed been somewhat busier here compared to last week. We took the car back to the garage on Monday to get a quote for the bodywork and have got her booked in at the end of September. It’s going to cost about €2k, but the insurance will cover all but €400 or so of that so it could have been worse.
It was a largely quiet and uneventful week and Matt spent all of it working during the day whilst I amused myself as best I could. The first item of note was Thursday when we were invited over for a BBQ by a client of mine. We’ve mentioned Noel before: he’s a kiwi who has bought a summer home out here in France with his wife, Marg. I’ve been helping them buy a car and caravan as they don’t speak any French, and they wanted to thank us for getting them sorted.
In addition to the hosts, there were 4 other kiwis – friends of theirs over visiting – and their English neighbours who run a gite. It was pleasant out, so we spent the evening in their garden chatting and eating. Noel cooked up some lamb chops which we had with fried potatoes and salad, and there was apple crumble for dessert, courtesy of their guests. Noel himself doesn’t say too much, but his wife Marg makes up for it. She’s a lovely and funny lady with a good repertoire of anecdotes. The other kiwis were mostly good company too, except for the chap I got stuck with to my left. He had a unique skill of being able to extract the least interesting possible titbit from any given conversation and turn it into a monologue of tedious facts and non sequiteurs. I was glad the wine was flowing as it was heavy going. The english were also a let-down, the husband in particular. He was the kind of guy who is proud of his chauvinism and wears it on his sleeve, and both of them have willfully failed to learn a single word of French in all their time here. They are the exact type of expat we’ve spent 4 years studiously avoiding.
Friday was house cleaning day for me to get ready for the arrival of our guests on Sunday. The evening’s social activity was the monthly curry delivery. We hosted again, and invited over Philippe and his brother Pierre who was in town visiting, and also Sabine and Alain, a couple we met through Francoise and Philippe. The latter were freshly back from a long weekend in London which they thoroughly enjoyed. Luckily, they didn’t have any curry while they were over, so were eager to give it a go. Even keener was Pierre, who has lived in England for many years and, for a Frenchman, has an unusual passion for spicy food. It was a huge amount of food but between us we dealt with most of it, not to mention a fair quantity of wine and vodka too. Unusually for our curry soirées it didn’t turn in to too much of a late night, as we all had plans for the following evening. The guests left around 1 am and we weren’t long to bed.
Saturday was another work day for Matt, combined with making a Mexican bean salad for the evening’s event. Meanwhile, I went to Ridgit’s house in Champagnac for my second round of housecleaning in as many days. They’ve managed to rent it out a couple times this summer and needed someone local to change sheets and clean, and asked me if I’d do it for a small fee. It ended up taking a while as all the beds had been used and their wachine machine is quite slow, so I did as much as I could then came home to get ready for the evening.
Philippe and the other counsellors had organised a big BBQ for all the residents of the “plateau” – which is a term the locals use to refers to all the little villages and hamlets that are up on our hilltop. In all there were around 40 people there, including pretty much everyone we know in the area. Philippe hosted the event, so it was only down the road for us. Bryan & Carol were there as well, along with their daughter Jenni and her 2 boys who are over for on holiday.
It was a great fun night but we both ended up drinking a lot so weren’t firing on all cylinders the following day. Nonetheless, Matt found the energy to make some cookies, and I struggled back to Champagnac to finish making beds. Our guests from the UK, Mary Carol and David, with their 2 daughters Alice (5) and Maeve (3) arrived around six pm, having stopped over at a campsite up north on their way down. We made a cassoulet for dinner that went down very well and had a few drinks apiece. We were tired from our weekend and the guests from their drive, so it was not a late night.
Today we’ve mainly been chilling at the house. The weather is so-so but far from what it should be at the time of year: the forecast is for 20 degrees, cloud and showers as far as the eye can see. Still, this hasn’t stopped the girls from having a good run around in the garden. Matt and Mary Carol went shopping this morning as we’re throwing a BBQ tonight. Bryan & Carol et al are going to join us and as long as it doesn’t rain, it should be a good evening.
I shall end with a little note about what I received in the post today. It was a letter from the tax office. Not normally a pleasant thing, but on this occasion it most certainly was. The gist of the letter was, “based on your declared income, you seem to be having a tough year so here’s a cheque – hope it helps”. I am continually amazed at how this country functions – and baffled that it didn’t go bankrupt years ago. Best of all, the cheque is for 415€. So that’s the car paid for then. Thank you, Mother France!