As Matt foretold, here is part 2 of the saga, following hot on the heels of part 1. Matt is writing at his usual place in the kitchen and I am working on part 2 of the story from the sofa, which has been enhanced by the recent acquisition of 3 new cushions, courtesy of Ikea, as I shall get to. All being well, Matt’s entry will finish on Tuesday of last week, so I shall begin there. This was deadline day for getting the 2 Mad-UK sites completed and made live for Anna’s company, so Matt was working frantically on the second of the 2 sites for most of the day. Unlike with the first one, I was able to help somewhat with this one, but still the lion’s share of the work fell to Matt. While he worked away, I gave the house a bit of a clean in readiness for Anna’s arrival that evening. At around 4, we broke off for a much-needed haircut, and then I hit the road to collect our visitor from Angoulême. She got in at 6.30, so we were home a bit before 8. I wasnt sure if we’d find a relieved and relaxed Matt who’d got the last site finished, or a stressed one still frantically beavering away, but fortunately, it was the former.
After a tour of Port 80 and the grounds, we had a meal of confit de canard with cauliflower cheese followed by several cocktails over games of cards before all retiring for the night. The next day was La Fête du Travail, a massive public holiday in France for which pretty much everything closes. Despite this, we managed a full day of activities. On our way home from the station, Anna saw a sign for la Grotte de Villars, our local cave, and immediately expressed interest, so this was the first thing on the itinerary. We left Matt at home as he was expecting a work call and headed off at around 10:30. We timed it perfectly: a tour was just starting as we bought our tickets, so there was no wait. We joined a group of 20 or so French tourists who, we are convinced, had decided to celebrate the bank holiday in style by getting an early start on the drink. They were all retirement age, but Anna and I were the only well-behaved ones in the group: they kept heckling, giggling, talking amongst themselves and generally proving a handful for our exasperated guide. There was definitely a faint whiff of pastis in the cave that morning.
After our tour, we came back home to collect Matt and headed out again to one of our fave local spots, St. Jean de Côle. The weather, which had been largely very pleasant, went a bit iffy just before Anna arrived: temps in the low teens and lots of cloud. Fortunately for us though, we managed to hit a decent bit of sun that day, so had the obligatory walk through the village before calling in to the local restaurant for lunch. This was rammed, as expected seeing as it was a holiday, but this had no effect on the food or service, both of which were excellent as always. Anna and I opted for duck for the second time in a row, though their preparation of the confit is quite unique: it is cooked with onions and wrapped in a sort of pastry to make a kind of confit samosa. Matt went for a steak and was equally pleased with his meal.
Several courses and glasses of wine later, we came home to digest and spent the afternoon playing more cards with a few cocktails. We taught Anna how to play Cribbage, and she beat us both soundly the very first game, which I’d like to say was beginner’s luck, but as it turned out, that wasn’t the case. Bryan and Carol got back from the UK that afternoon to find their lawn had gotten knee-high in the 2 weeks they were away. We’d borrowed Bryan’s petrol can so they asked if I could drop it down so he could get mowing first thing the next day. I spent a while catching up with them sat out in the sun on their patio then came back home to resume getting beaten at Cribbage.
The next morning we set off for Carcassonne to rejoin Anna’s family. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Geoff and Vida, her parents, have rented a large holiday home for most of May and the whole Peters clan is staying there for as long as their schedules permit. It was the only time that worked for all of them, although they’d have preferred to do come later in the year for some guaranteed sun. Staying along with G&V were Anna’s 2 sisters, Gemma and Alexis, and their respective husbands, Matt (hereafter Matt S) and Stuart. Both couples have a baby boy, born within a month of each other and both a little under 1. They are Kier (G&M’s boy) and Asa (A&S’s boy).
We left the Dordogne around 11 and, as most of the journey was auto route, we made very good time. We stopped off for lunch at a service station near Toulouse, picking up a sandwich apiece. We also nearly picked up a backpacker who was at the service station. He was young, blond and beautiful so caught our eyes immediately. When he saw me pop out for a rollie, he came over and asked for a paper and then got chatting. Apparently he’d been hitching down gradually from Holland and was trying to get to Toulon down on the south coast. He asked if we could take him to Carcassonne but I was forced to tell him that with 3 of us in the car, there just wasn’t room. Turns out his Dad lives not far from Nontron so who knows, maybe we’ll see him out here again some day…
The place the Peters family has rented is in a small village called Orsans, about 30km outside of Carcassonne itself and was very easy to find, so the rest of our journey was uneventful. We found the family all out enjoying the afternoon sun in the garden and after being shown our rooms, joined them. Our arrival swelled the group to a party of 9 adults: a logistical nightmare for mealtimes. This is compounded by the fact that half of the group is vegetarian and Gemma is a coeliac. The Peters had set up a rota for cooking duties and that night was Geoff and Vida’s turn. We had a lovely meal of veggie lasagne and stuffed artichokes and then retired to the lounge for a team game of Cribbage – Anna and Gems versus Matt and I. Guess who won…
The weather there was about the same as the Dordogne: rain spells and fairly low temperatures, so no-one was impressed to hear that the UK was that weekend experiencing a mini-heatwave while we were stuck inside looking at a swimming pool too cold to be used. Luckily though, the next day wasn’t too bad so we nominated it sight-seeing day and headed off to Carcassonne with Anna, Alexis, Stuart and Asa, leaving Gems and Matt S to chill at home. First stop was the police station for Alexis, who unfortunately had had 2 purses stolen from her bag when out shopping a few days earlier. This went fine and Alexis has a signed statement so should at least be able to claim on the insurance.
Chores done, we meandered over to the fortified part of the town and took in the sights. It’s a very impressive city as you can see from the photos, and once the sun came out after lunch, it looked better still. We split up after Carcassonne, with Anna and us doing a supermarket run as we’d offered to do that night’s dinner, settling on Mexican (fajitas). Geoff and Vida went out for a meal, so we only had to cater for 7 – or 6 as it turned out as poor Gemma couldn’t get Kier to sleep that evening, so missed dinner. Everyone was tired after a full day so it wasn’t a late night.
Mid-morning the next day we said our goodbyes to the Peters family and began our return journey, thanking them for letting us gatecrash their reunion. We’d found out there is an Ikea near Toulouse, so made a small detour to swing by. I am in no way a fan of the store, but there have been several things on the for-the-house list since we moved in and this was a perfect chance to tick them off. Despite the fact that it was fairly crowded and also not that well-stocked, we did manage to get pretty much everything: 3 new cushions for the sofa, a coat hook, new glasses and 5 lampshades. No more naked lightbulbs at Port 80! After a bland lunch at the Ikea restaurant, we were on the road again and had an uneventful journey all the way home to Mazeroux, which we reached at about 5.30.
We got back to an elated Smeagol, a knee high lawn and a perfect warm & sunny evening. Serendipitously, there was just the right amount of tequila, triple sec and lime juice left in the house to make 2 margaritas, so we enjoyed these outside before a light meal of salad, paté and cheese. The one stop-off we had talked about but didn’t do was to call in to Castillon and replenish our supply of vin rouge. The only reason we didnt is that we remembered that this weekend is the annual Spring fair in Brantôme and our favourite vineyard always has a stall there, so hopefully, the wine has come to us instead. The one bit of sadness is that I have to report the tragic demise of our dishwasher. It was acting up the night before we left and we were praying that a few nights off might sort it out but alas, it remains knackered so we are in the market for a new one. Right, this entry’s far too long and we have lawns to mow, coat hooks to put up and wine to purchase, so I will bid you a bientôt.